THE DISCIPLINES OF FREEDOM

We know the spirit of freedom when we see it. We struggle to find the exhilaration it gives, the sense of wholeness it imparts, the feeling of transcendence over the common place and the tawdry. The downhill skier in the Colrado mountains knows it. The sailor in a fresh breeze on an azure sea knows it. And we are told sky-divers experience it as they jump from the plane to glide to the earth far below. However, as Henny Youngman says, "If at first you don't succeed skydiving is not for you!"

Freedom. How we love and crave it, work for it, and sometimes even kill for it. Freedom is the quality which distinguishes us from robots and makes us human. Freedom--the treasure of the soul which so often eludes us and leaves outside its elixir. But in this season of Independence Day, we are reminded there are disciplines necessary for freedom.

First, we need the discipline of the worship of God. Psychoanalyst, Rollo May, has observed that when the religious center deteriorates or is displaced, the culture begins to fall apart. Then, he says, the culture begins to search frantically for a sense of meaning and purpose that will hold it together. Without that religious center there is, says Dr. May, "the seeping, creeping feeling that nothing matters...The threat is apathy, noninvolvement, that grasping for external stimulant." (Love and Will, p. 202)

Lewis Mumford, an expert on the cities of history, agrees with Dr. May. He points out how religious temples were at the center of the city, and religious feasts, festivals and rituals were at the center of the culture. Observe, for example, the temples of ancient Egypt, or the cathedrals of Europe, or American churches on the city square or main street to see the culture geographically organized around a religious center.

In his first Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789, George Washington said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of man more than the United States." He went on to add that we seemed to be "distinguished by some token of providential agency."

The late Professor Robert McIver of Columbia University says that national unity can come only from a system of values and standards to which it is committed. Wealth and power and opulence by themselves don't do it. A deeper commitment is needed. (See his book, The Ramparts We Guard) And that deeper commitment is found in the worship of God. For as St. Paul says: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (First Corinthians 3.17)

But freedom also needs the discipline of responsibility. However, our culture doesn't like the word responsibility. We much prefer rights. We champion civil rights, women's rights, children's rights, gay rights, and so on. But who ever heard of a responsibilities movement?

Our forefathers were just that kind of movement. Patrick Henry cried, "Give me liberty or give me death." He demanded a right, but he also assumed a responsibility. When signers of the Declaration of Independence affixed their signatures, they knew they were not only demanding the right of freedom; they were also assuming the responsibilities. They put their lives on the line as well as their "John Hancocks."

But we seem to have a generation that wants the fruits of liberty without the labors. We want the benefits of freedom without the sacrifices, the promises without the perseverance, the money without the morals.

The disciplines of freedom? Who wants them? We say that we have our lives to live, our parties to host, fortunes to seek, bread and wine to enjoy. We have our games to play, boats to sail, our leisure to enjoy in the summer breeze.

But freedom isn't free. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Totalitarianism is a spectator sport. We watch what dictators and big governments do for us. Then we watch what they do to us. As a former President said: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is also big enough to take everything you have." (Reagan) Totalitarianism is a spectator sport with no God at the center, but instead, a man, or oversized government demanding our total allegiance.

Democracy is a participatory sport. It requires our responsibility with Almighty God at the center of our worship and culture and politics.