Freedom

Today we celebrate a free country.  Today we thank God for the liberty to worship Him openly, to question our government, and to cast our vote concerning laws and leaders.  Independence day.  The anniversary of the day that a few men of noble and firm character voiced their right to freedom.

Today, among conservative circles, the word "freedom" is tossed around like a banner, a symbol all recognize but few can explain.  When we say "freedom" we usually mean the absence of tyranny.  In the back of our minds is the faint idea of an oppressive regime that took our money and tried to dictate our lifestyle and beliefs, and we are exceedingly glad to be rid of it.

Further reflection might cause us to stop and wonder why it is that our money is still confiscated every April...how it could be that our lifestyle and beliefs are increasingly criminalized...whether our opinion was considered when thousands of our hard-earned dollars were wastefully spent on exit-ramp-beautification...how it is that a teenager was jailed in response to "violent" facebook posts, and university professors are fired when they incorporate an overview of potentially offensive perspectives in their curriculae...

But we are quick to bury these questions under the smug explanation "Well, that's democracy for you!" and the next round of fireworks is likely to jar these thoughts from our minds.

I read this morning in 2 Corinthians "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."  What does this have to say for those places, physical and mental, where the Spirit of the Lord has been denied, suppressed, hated and blasphemed?  Can a nation truly know freedom apart from the working of the Spirit of the Lord?    

Paul says in Galatians, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."  Slavery to what?  The resounding answer is clear:  The tyrant is none other than myself.  Under the completed sacrifice of Jesus Christ I am now free from the cruelest regime of all--my own.   

Christ has offered a freedom which the founding fathers could not have hoped to promise to the colonies, but it is a freedom which they were nonetheless dependent on.  The frustrating realities of our current American society which I detailed above are indeed products of democracy, proof that democracy is a gamble, and our founding fathers knew that they might one day lose the wager.  Given the choice between freedom and slavery, we have finally chosen slavery.  The fathers of our country knew of this risk, but they still chose to put their money on the hope that our freedom from self would hold out--the freedom only Christ gives, the freedom to deny myself and quite simply do the right thing, no matter the personal cost.  

Benjamin Franklin said that "only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  Gouverneur Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrote that "for avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments."

In case you were wondering, "despotism" means tyranny.  That's ok, I had to look it up too.

I don't mind saying that conservative Christians have made a grievous error.  We complain that our government is corrupt, that our traditional ideals are being crammed into the closet that the homosexual community is coming out of, and that--horror of horrors--school administrators no longer lead students in daily prayer!  And we are right--mostly.  

What we have forgotten is that freedom is dangerous.  It's worth standing for, worth falling for in a bloody battlefield.  But freedom given into immoral hands is nothing but slavery and tyranny.  Democracy, the purest and freest form of government known to man, is transformed into a monster without the guiding force of individual and personal morality.  Without the Spirit of the Lord, the basis and one true Standard of right and wrong, freedom does not exist.  

Although it is the people who have corrupted the government which represents them, we as Christians have shockingly asked the government to cleanse the people.  We clamor for our monuments to the 10 Commandments on public property, we clamor for exclusively traditional marriage licenses, we clamor for "In God We Trust" to remain on our inflated currency.  Do we think that we are somehow helping God by forcing a society which mocks Him to behave as if they belonged to Him?  Is God grateful for these empty and purely ritual shows of devotion from a people who have long ceased to honor Him?  Is the Gospel made more powerful when we rob society of its freedom to openly deny it?

The enemy of American society is not our government.  The true enemy is the everyday, average citizen who would choose to cast their vote toward comfort, tolerance, safety, and apathy at the expense of their own freedom.  The antidote, Christian, is not to deprive this citizen of more of their freedom so that you and I can be comfortable, tolerated, safe and apathetic.  The antidote is to defend and live out our rightful freedom:  Be passionate parents who raise upright children.  Be willing to winsomely question the professor who spreads unfounded allegations.  Expose everyday tyranny for what it is--whether in the government or in the workplace.  Be persuasive as you stand on your convictions, and learn to articulate them intelligently and respectfully.  Run for public office.  Vote.  

Today, let's celebrate the freedoms which we still have, and renew our commitment to protect them.  True freedom is found only in Christ Jesus, and as long as we still retain the liberty to say these words, let's be about promoting God's Kingdom, that eternal domain of real freedom from self, the Kingdom our founding fathers clung to as a guiding beacon and the freedom they depended on to build a democracy.  Instead of asking our government to forcibly legislate Biblical morality, instead of depending on our government to purify society, let's live Biblical morality and be the people our founding fathers hoped would define and drive their fledgling, free America.