So they could enslave the masses with the idea that excessive humility, obedience, submission to hardship, pain and suffering are good things.
XiHippe,
Pain and suffering were here long before the Christian era. Asceticism is a heretical idea unknown to Christians. Christian Freedom is the opposite of what you describe.
I know that we have all been subjected to some of the most profound ignorance and petty allegiances ever devised on planet earth. But the depravity of our previous (Wt) idol has little to do with the real thing.
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient [good for you]: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. - 1 Cor. 10: 23
In Christ, the love for God and love for neighbor is written on hearts. Most of the rules are just gone. Some things may turn out to be worthless that we pursue, but they are not illegal and do not threaten salvation like the Wt taught.
I am a proponent of the Christian faith, the real one. Not the one passed down in my family by my great grandmother and then on to her many daughters who in turn oppressed their husbands and children with WT idolatry for generations.
Secularists today want the stability that Christianity has brought to the West with precepts such as :
1. Loving your neighbor as yourself.
2. Turning the other cheek when possible
3. Loving (having empathy) for your enemies
3. Giving consideration for the least among us (the poor)
4. Honesty
I've noticed that secularists like these things because they create a more stable society conducive to health and wealth. But, they want the Tree without the root system. They are like a man who sees a tree in a forest of ideas and wishes to transplant it to his own property. He proceeds to remove only the portion he can see, cutting it at ground level. He is gravely disappointed when it withers and dies.
The root of Western Freedom is Christ himself....who gave us freedom from unnecessary rules and freedom from death itself.