TRUE LIBERTY

"Give me liberty or give me death!" This was the passion our county was founded on. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Today, most use of the word liberty is discussing a loss of our civil liberties by the U. S. government to improve security so perhaps a definition will show the wisdom of true liberty.

Freedom from arbitrary control, captivity, or slavery; the sum of rights possessed in common by a people; freedom from interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions or right of doing, thinking, or speaking according to choice. That definition is a combination from Webster's and Random House dictionaries and shows how closely linked freedom and liberty are. The first definition of freedom is the state of being free or at liberty. In a nutshell liberty and freedom can both be described as the power to determine an action without external restraint. As mentioned last month in the blog on relationships, God made us with freewill so naturally we want to exercise it. Think of it, no restraints of any kind, no external control, just a focus on what I want, when I want it, in the way I want it.

As children and teenagers find out growing up there are internal forces (note that parents as the external force are to teach about this) that provide a balance to unrestrained liberty. When I was three years old I exercised the liberty of taking another child's toy which made me feel good, because I wanted that toy. My personal liberty took a thumping on the posterior by my Mother who seemed to have a concern for the liberty of the child who previously possessed (and owned) the toy. The kind of system that I grew up in gave liberty to all people, meaning I was required to set limits on my liberty for others to have theirs. Please note I still had the liberty to take the toy back, there was just this addition of punishment for exercising that liberty that had to be considered. By age five I even had the responsibility of considering the feelings of other people when exercising the liberty I was born with. My internal responsibility of considering others was learned, not something I was born with. Agreed upon rules for living together is what makes up a society, so laws are imposed just like the 10 commandments were given in the Bible.

The various forms of government from monarchies to communism, from dictators to democracy, all add controls on our liberties for the purpose of social order. From the perspective of considering others, these may be quite good. The old argument that you can't cause a stampede in a crowded theatre by yelling "FIRE" and explain it away as free speech is true. Wars have been fought over principles like taxation without representation, and government massacre of it's own people. On the other hand, government controls on religion, speech, and protest can cause indignation and social change. Social liberties come as a result of compromise that not all will agree with. Being frisked at the airport does not make me safer, but because others think it does we all stand in lines and go through a screening. I believe it will eventually be this focus on public safety achieved by restricting liberties that will bring down our government. Note the wording in the initial paragraph. Securing the blessings of liberty followed the common defense and general welfare in the constitution as a goal of the representative government system we have in the United States. It is also why voting is so crucial and public service should be a desirable vocation.

I mentioned freewill earlier as how our Creator created us, but he also allowed us to willingly submit to him and others. Romans 3:23 and 24 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus". Romans 8: 20-21 says "For the creation was subject to futility, not it's own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from it's slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God". Christians have true liberty, meaning they can willingly follow Christ or they can willingly focus on self each moment. Galatians 5 says it this way " It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery ...for you were called to freedom, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." The liberty in Christianity has another warning found in 1st Corinthians 6:12 "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything". In other words there are things that should not be done by a wise person despite the liberty that allows it to be considered.

In 1945 Reverend Martin Nimoller, a Lutheran pastor in Germany wrote the following to explain how the atrocities of Nazi Germany came about:
First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.

The version inscribed at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. reads:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

In the lesson I had to learn in preschool years, our liberty must have limits for others to have liberty. 1st Corinthians 8:9 says "But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow becomes a stumbling block to the weak". Many churches today seem to wrestle with what can best be described as exercising their liberty individually and as a group. Many cultural inroads into the church has been made by the lifestyle of believers, both nonsensical traditions as well as outright sin. Precepts are directions given as a rule of conduct and the Bible is full of them. Philippians 2: 3-5 says " Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus". Contrast that to the "interest groups" pushing their lifestyle, their beliefs, their comfort, their desires, their focus. I've found most people are convinced what they think is the "right" way and therefore others are "wrong". Persuading others through civil discourse is what we are called to do even if what they do and say is outrageous. If I am able to impose my "right" way on others it is only for the social good, isn't it? But, how is liberty affected? If I get these things enacted into law is it a reduction of the liberties of other civilians where I live?

Recently the American Family Association, a group committed to what I would term moral family living, launched a boycott of a retailer in Florida. The desire was to stop the distribution of magazines such as Playboy that were available under the front counter at those stores. Unlike an introduction to Jesus, that changes lives from the inside out, this well meaning organization chose to impose restrictions on how they desired others to behave. As a result of the boycott, not only do the Florida stores still carry these magazines but other states across the country that previously did not carry them, added distribution, quadrupling the number of stores nationally selling what the association was trying to control. It's just another example of a Christian organization thinking their power to control the action of others is more powerful than God's, and having it backfire. After all, God is in control of everything and He allows freewill without forcing behavior. As a Christian I'm to follow Jesus and tell others the good news that accepting him not only provides eternal security but also comes with true liberty here on earth. Our founding fathers called them unalienable rights.

In John 14:6 Jesus said "I AM the way, the TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. My blog in January of this year made the point that there must be a single definition of truth. In the Sermon on the Mount he clarified many traditions and perceptions of the day as written in Matthew chapters 5,6, and 7 with THE TRUTH. Avoid imposing what seems to be logical, moral, acceptable, cultural, relevant, traditional, patriotic, fulfilling, comfortable, or right unless it is an absolute truth that can be found in the WORD OF GOD, either with specific words or a precept. True liberty comes from the rights that our Declaration of Independence identified as coming from our Creator. As we imagine the next attack on us by foreign terrorists, internal extremist groups on the left or right or even activist judiciary, please take a moment to consider this: YOUR LIBERTY COMES FROM ENSURING THAT OTHERS HAVE THEIRS. This Macromedia on-line flash site, although providing a secular and more radical view than mine may help make the point:http://sedm.org/LibertyU/PhilosophyOfLiberty.htm Thanks for reading this month and considering how these thoughts might apply to you. The link below will allow you to make comments and read previous blog entries.