Funny how freedom cannot be spoken of freely. It carries with it certain connotations and presuppositions. Freedom is the rallying cry of America. Freedom is the cry of those who arise against the light of Bible. Freedom is the cry of those who overturn traditional morality. The cry of freedom turns the defender into the persecutor. To utter the word is to silence an argument. Yet, Christians desire freedom more and understand it better than the world. Why does a word synonymous with the faith we promote, silence us? Freedom, I fear, has been abused and misunderstood. It is now unrecognizable from its previous incarnation.
Freedom today lives to give individuals a pass where it once lived to give a right. It gives a pass to would be men to forsake their children and wives. It gives a pass to women to take what does not belong to them, the life of another. It gives a pass to break the covenant of marriage for a night of pleasure. It gives a pass to trample human sexuality, treating that which is sacred without reverence. When freedom acts as a pass nothing can defend freedom. We have stripped freedom of its coat, made it destitute by removing responsibility. Now those children fortunate enough to gain life, live apart from a parent, severed by divorce, immaturity, or sexual preference. We have divorced freedom from responsibility.
Christians continue to attempt to fix morality from the top down forsaking the Biblical principle of discipleship. Freedom has been separated from responsibility because the Church has forsaken its duty. We must make disciples of all men. Freedom does not come from the government. It resides with the individual. It flows from the individual to the family, from the family to the Church, and from the Church to the State. When the Church once again breeds discipleship, freedom will once again be married to responsibility.
