Independence Day and Freedom

Article on Freedom

This nation is unique in world history.  The world has had dominant world powers in the past.  However, they have only been over areas of the world, such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.  Today, America is the only recognized superpower in the world.  With that power comes a great responsibility.

The words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence still sound sweet to our freedom-loving ears. 

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among us, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

 

Signed on the evening of July 4, 1776, that powerful dream is still frightening tyrants around the world and giving hope to the people.

A movie about the Scottish fight for independence from the English, "Braveheart," is the story about Sir William Wallace.  At the end of the movie, as he is about to be executed, he is offered the chance to pledge his allegiance to the English king.  After being beaten and tortured, he struggles to shout out one word: "Freedom!"  Freedom.  I have to admit that the word still sounds good to this American.  The movie “Amistad,” which is about slavery in America, has the same theme.  When the African learned his first few words in English, they were, “Give me freedom.” 

The order in our constitution of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” may seem obvious. Yet, if we switch order, putting liberty or happiness before life, we run the risk of moral poverty. John Adams put it this way:

 

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

 

            Augustine defined the freedom to choose as a minor freedom.  The primary freedom is to choose rightly and virtuously, to be whom God created us to be.

We human beings have a tendency to abuse our freedom and independence. Among the most important ways the church can be a healing influence in American society is to help people use their freedom well.