Recently, bodily autonomy has come under attack. The debate over whether individuals have the right to make decisions when it comes to their own bodies has been raging at the dinner table, online, and in the workplace. Government mandates requiring social distancing, masking, and vaccinations have caused deep divisions in society, forcing millions of people to understand and explain how these mandates violate their inalienable rights. Since the beginning of recorded history, two great pillars of every thriving society have been bodily autonomy and the ability to own property. Revering human life and private property as sacred blessings of divine origin, ancient societies arranged their systems of governance for their protection. As our minds and souls inhabit our physical bodies, the ancients believed that our bodies were intended to inhabit physical territory enabling security, prosperity, and virtue. With the assurance of these immovable pillars which would eventually become known as natural rights, individuals would be incentivized to make public contributions of increasing value through land ownership. However, the failure of governments to protect either of these rights has always been accompanied by the loss of both. This book will equip readers with the Moral, Religious, and Constitutional origins of bodily autonomy by exploring how inalienable rights have related to religious and government authority throughout history from the earliest civilizations to the present day, through the lens of property ownership. This book will also explain how to apply the principles of Protestant Resistance Theory in the 21st century with the understanding that our bodies are not property of governments, kings, or human institutions, but of the Living God.
