Freedom that destroys

States such as New York are rapidly loosening their abortion laws making it possible for even more women to terminate their pregnancies while people in the senate chambers applaud. Bookstores openly display books containing  vulgar language in their titles. Many television stations no longer bleep out vulgar language in the movies they show. Christian owned businesses are forced out of business for refusing to sacrifice their personal beliefs.What used to be hidden in the backrooms of society now marches down Main Street proud and legal. This is what freedom now looks like in America.

As a nation we have been on this downward path for some time, but it seems that we are now in a full gallop towards our own destruction. Like the Roman empire of old, we are self-destructing from within. While Congress is locked into looking at possible Russian influences, while these "leaders" are bent on taxing the wealthy to pay for their extravagant spending, while people appear to wake up looking for what might offend them today, while our national media is trying to find ways to shape the news to fit their desired ends, a blind eye is given to the internal destruction that is occurring. This destruction is caused by a false understanding of what freedom is.

In his excellent book, Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom Has Become Its Greatest Threat, Os Guinness writes  "Much of the way Americans now think of freedom is unrealistic and unsustainable. And worse, certain movements launched in the name of freedom represent a political and cultural counterrevolution that openly breaks with freedom as the American republic has known it. They claim they are righting wrongs and expanding freedom to ever-new levels, but in the eyes of their critics their 'total' or 'absolute freedom' is nothing less that 'the destruction of freedom in the name of freedom.'"

The demand for absolute freedom in our entitlement-driven society cheapens life and devalues all of humanity. It leads to chaos and violence. If everyone is free to do whatever they want then no one is free, and when these "freedoms" bump against each other chaos and violence is certain to erupt.

Guinness reminds us that our craving for absolute freedom has made us less free than ever before. We are a nation that is dying through our addictions and compulsions. In 2015 more people died of drug overdose that by guns or car crashes combined. Our compulsions have led us to extreme levels of personal indebtedness. No one controlled by their addictions and compulsions can claim to be free.

The Bible teaches us that when we sow to the wind we will reap the whirlwind, and the whirlwind is what we now have. We have sought unlimited freedom only to become less free than ever before.

In John 8 Jesus tells His listeners, and us, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free..Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." In other words, true freedom doesn't come from the stroke of a governor's pen or the latest pronouncement from some courthouse. It comes from a much higher power than either of these.

True freedom comes when we place ourselves under God and His teachings. It comes when we seek to live according to His standards and not according to the changing dictates of whomever happens to be elected to office at the time. America will never again know what freedom is until it rediscovers God. It is the task of the church to keep preaching the salvation and freedom that is found in a relationship with God through Christ. May we strive to proclaim this message of hope.