Crosslands Church

On Freedom

By Fred | Monday, June 28, 2010

(This is a break from the Pagan Christianity blogposts, which will resume later.)

The recent activities of protesters in Toronto during the G20 Summit have raised numerous issues close to the hearts of many – the economic crisis, the environment, international policy, to name just a few.  The actions of a minority of violent people and the response of the police have turned it ugly.  Some claim that these are the actions of a totalitarian state; that our very freedom is threatened.  Freedom is very important to us.  How much freedom do we want?  How much freedom can we stand?

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” were the landmark “inalienable rights” claimed in the United States’ Declaration of Independence.  This is such a ground-breaking statement that this phrase rates its own wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness).  Liberty (i.e., freedom) is seen as partnered with the “pursuit of happiness.”  In our culture, we see the one as dependent on the other.  Without freedom, there is no pursuit of happiness.  Without freedom, there is no happiness.  Conversely, we see any infringement on our freedom as an infringement on our ability to be happy.  The more free we are, the more likely we are to be happy.

Prolific Christian blogger, “nakedpastor,” even tests the idea that our freedom can be in contrast to our social acceptance (http://www.nakedpastor.com/archives/5500).  Social acceptance can impede our freedom (and, by implication, our ability to be happy).

On idiot responded to this seemingly extreme concept with an extreme comment:  “Rejecting social acceptance for all-out personal freedom? I think it’s actually a good thing that people aren’t wandering around naked and taking a dump in the middle of the street, etc. (use your imagination).”  Ironically, this comment was added by someone with a distinct writing style not dissimilar from my own (use your imagination).

But the point is right.  Author Charles Taylor traces the evolution of culture and thought from the Middle Ages to our present post-modern culture in his exhaustive (and exhausting) tome, A Secular Age.  In 1010 (in contrast to 2010), it was socially acceptable to take a dump in the middle of the street.  It is exactly social acceptance that prevents us from doing so (informed, of course, by knowledge of hygiene that reinforced this social acceptance after it had already changed).  The other comments on nakedpastor’s blogpost reveal that we have obviously all been socially conditioned.  So are we truly free?  Do we reject that social conditioning for the sake of freedom?

I believe that “freedom” is meaningless without being free from something or to something.  It would be like “going.”  I’m going today.  It doesn’t mean anything unless I’m going from somewhere and/or to somewhere.  Absolute freedom doesn’t exist.  We can be free from:

Tyranny and taxes

Social constraints

Sin

Bad habits

In-laws

Etc.

We can be free to:

Be ruled by representative government

Travel

Dance

Choose university courses

Live without guilt

Etc.

This reminds me of Aristotle’s idea of telos or “goal.”  Without a telos freedom doesn’t really exist.  When people cry and struggle for “freedom,” they are usually struggling for the telos for which they want to be free.  Sometimes in our culture, we say we want freedom, but all we want it for is to do what we want.  We think that we will be happy if we can do what we want.  We think we can have the telos without the limiting activity (i.e., “non-free”) activity that our telos requires.  The freedom to pursue happiness does not guarantee happiness.

Consider the following statement by N.T. Wright in his book After You Believe:  Why Christian Character Matters:

Unless all four musicians in the quartet scrupulously obey the rules in staying in time and keeping to the right pitch, none of them will be free to make music (p. 55).

We are relational.  We were created for relationship.  And so we will only feel completely free when we are in healthy relationship.  Which means that we will never be absolutely free.  Without the necessary limiting (i.e., “non-free”) activity, like practice, co-operation, selflessness, and discipline, we could never:

Play in the World Cup final

Perform in a live rock concert

Build a power plant

Have a family

Etc.

Absolute freedom is an illusion.  A real sense of freedom arises from recognizing what we were created to be and working towards that.