Politics

---

THE FREEDOM TRAIL


As I sit in my office, Martin Luther King’s address “I have a dream” again comes to mind. Perhaps since as I mentioned in a previous article, I share his dream, but also because it has taken on additional meaning with the effort to force Christians to embrace that which violates a collective conscience.
There was a time when Christians lived in a more congenial environ. As in the village culture in which I was raised. We were not a church-going family, but had friends who were. These seemed for the most part nice people, recalling C. S. Lewis admonition that we pray that nice people become Christians, and Christians become nice.
I left for military duty the day after my eighteenth birthday during World War II. When deployed overseas, my mother had a premonition that I would not return. I did not know this at the time, but assuredly realized that there was risk involved. Nevertheless, it was the intent to preserve our freedom that I engaged in this endeavor.
Now the threat seems to be more immediate from within than from without. When the owners of Hobby Lobby take issue with government policy, they are maligned as depreciating women. If critical of the homosexual lifestyle, then persons are demeaned as homophobic. And so on.
All of this is reminiscent of the situation reported concerning Communist rule in Romania. My wife and I resided there shortly after the collapse of the former regime, and the populace readily shared their recollections. For instance, we went caroling with a group, who were reminded how that under Communism the security dispersed them. So that they fled in disarray. Why? Because it was thought that their Christian faith should be strictly a private matter.
This control extended to monitoring the clergy, to make certain that they did not deviate from public policy. Otherwise, they might be removed, deported, imprisoned, or perhaps executed. In this regard, it was learned that action was to be taken against a certain pastor. Consequently, parishioners turned out to protect him. This incited the security to fire on the crowd, injuring and killing certain of them. Whereupon, other members of the community came to their support.
Eventually, the revolt spread. Members of the military joined in the protest. The ruler and his wife fled to escape the wrath of the populace, but they were caught and summarily executed. “Of course, we do not approve of random killing,” one person allowed. “But unless its head is cut off, the snake will live,” he added by way of a Romanian proverb.
Granted, we have not reached the extent of this impasse, but the trend seems unmistakable. Not uncommonly sponsored by persons who themselves claim to be Christians. Sometimes by way of promoting a lesser good, which more often than not proves more threatening to the greater good than a flagrant evil. Since it is more readily accepted and subsequently promoted.
What is the greater good? In creedal terms, to glorify God and enjoy his blessing. That which substitutes for this amounts to idolatry. Whether explicit or implied. Whether well intentioned or otherwise.
“So if the Son sets your free,” Jesus allowed, “you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Free to serve God, free to serve others, free indeed. Where much that is promoted as freedom cultivates some intolerant agenda.
Incidently, Martin Luther King and I received our doctoral degrees at the same commencement. As such, we shared in a common educational endeavor. He would go on to prominence in the civil rights movement, while my role was minimal— although one text concerning race relationships was dedicated to an Afro-American activist and myself.
Now I feel increasingly oppressed as a Christian, in some respects like certain Afro-Americans. On the one hand, I am free in Christ. On the other, I am demeaned and repressed. So that I enthusiastically embrace the refrain: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE