May the Fourth Be with You!

I can’t help it. Having been born on the 4^th of July – a long time ago! – I’m a bonafide “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” and I’ve possessed a patriotic spirit for as long as I can remember. So, as another Independence Day rolls around, I’ll again be unfurling the red, white and blue, displaying it with pride.

Our nation is far from perfect – and it seems we’re finding more evidence of that every day – but the foundational values that have undergirded it remain as valid as they were when the Declaration of Independence was written and signed about 240 years ago.

The second sentence in the Declaration, considered one of the best-known sentences in the English language, states the case well: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

For more than 200 years, "Old Glory"
has been casting light into darkness.

It’s being used and abused these days by various segments of society to claim rights of all kinds, as well as entitlements, but it seems to me the key words in this famed statement are “self-evident,” “created,” and “endowed by their Creator.”

There have been countless debates over the religious and spiritual backgrounds of our founding fathers, whether they were Christians, theists, deists, or even agnostics. However, all who signed the document were agreeing to “self-evident truths” that included all men – humankind – having been created, and the rights to which we are “endowed” were established by a Creator. Although many today dispute what this means, “If the first sense makes good sense, don’t look for any other sense,” as someone wisely said.

Principles espoused in the Declaration, and other classic documents known as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, hearken to these assertions. Why else would we even be concerned about individual rights for all – or whether anyone has an opportunity to pursue happiness? As atheist Jean-Paul Sartre asserted, “Everything is indeed permitted if God does not exist.” In other words, every man for himself.

It is a sense of transcendent morality – based on unchanging, eternal truths – that enable us to have a determination for what’s right and what’s wrong. Without it, what’s good and right for me can be totally different from what’s good and right for you, and neither of us has a basis for declaring the other is wrong. As another non-believer, John D. Steinrucken acknowledged, “immutable moral laws of secularism” do not exist.

For me, July 4^th is an annual reminder that, as our Pledge of Allegiance asserts, we are “one nation under God.” I believe that reality is the sole remedy for the malaise that sadly afflicts our nation today. And yet, beyond being proud residents and citizens of the United States, followers of Jesus Christ are promised far more than that.

As the Scriptures tell us, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). Through Christ we can approach our Creator as our heavenly Father: “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household" (Ephesians 3:19-20).

Whenever I see the red, white and blue of the American flag unfurled against a bright, sunny sky, or hear the Star-Spangled Banner or John Philip Souza compositions like “Stars and Stripes Forever” or the “Washington Post March,” my heart swells with pride for the country where I was raised and have raised my own children.

However, I realize even more that in terms of eternity, our time here is just a blip, a mere moment. Therefore, it’s of far greater importance that we observe the admonition to, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2). That’s where our true allegiance should lie.

Is It Time to Reconsider ‘Freedom’?

Who doesn’t like “free,” right? Maybe a free item when you purchase one like it – buy one, get one free. Maybe a free stay at some resort hotel, the only caveat being that you endure a very persuasive sales presentation. Or maybe a free lunch, free education, or free health insurance. There’s a lot to like about “free.”

So it’s appropriate on this Independence Day to pause and consider what the whole notion of “freedom” is all about. We’re celebrating the virtues of equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and other “unalienable Rights.” The Constitution’s Bill of Rights consists of amendments written to protect many of these rights, including freedom of religious expression, free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms, and others.

These days, however, it seems the very concepts of freedom and liberty are under attack, being redefined by political and social agendas. The Constitution itself has come under fire by segments of society set on reshaping its meaning to accomplish their ends.

What does it truly mean to be “free”? When talking about liberty and freedom, how are we to understand these terms? What are the parameters, limits and boundaries within which we must exercise our freedoms? Is it time to reconsider, to revisit these questions?

It would seem interpretation of these freedoms – separated from what the Declaration calls “their Creator” – is subject to the whims, wiles and winds of ever-changing social mores. Even how our revered Supreme Court defines them depends on its current liberal-conservative makeup. Rather than serving as a constant, a standard and guide for “We the People of the United States” in our quest “a more perfect Union” and to “insure domestic Tranquility,” our Constitution and what the Founding Fathers meant when they wrote it has become a moving target.

I’ve always appreciated a very simple definition of freedom as “being free to do as we ought, rather than doing whatever we want.” The freedom to drive on the highway, for example, should also involve the constraint to drive at a reasonable speed, pay attention to what’s happening on the road, obey traffic signals, and show courtesy to other motorists.

The absolute authority on freedom, in my view, is what God has revealed in the Bible. It started in Genesis, when He told Adam and Eve, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden (of Eden), but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:16-17). From the get-go, God gave the first couple considerable latitude in their choices of food, with a single exception. But they decided that wasn’t enough freedom. They proceeded to exceed the limits of the freedom they had been given, and we’ve been pushing those boundaries ever since.

God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, as well as all succeeding members of His eternal family, to instruct in how to have healthy, growing relationships with Him and everyone we meet from day to day. His intent wasn’t to be restrictive, but rather to provide a means for insuring what He might have termed “domestic tranquility.”

Commandments like “you shall not murder,” “you shall not steal,” “you shall not lie,” and “you shall not covet your neighbor’s possessions” (Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21) don’t seem unduly harsh, do they? Especially in light of Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:33). However, many still find the commandments offensive. Especially ones that insist that we have no other gods before the one true God, should not worship idols, or “misuse the name of the Lord your God.” And for some, “do not commit adultery” is particularly problematic.

But without question, the Bible offers a plan for experiencing genuine freedom and liberty, a way to “be all that you can be,” as the U.S. Army marketing slogan used to promise years ago.

The apostle Paul wrote, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). What did he mean by “a yoke of slavery”? Paul explained that in another of his New Testament letters:

“Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life…. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life” (Romans 6:13-22).

In the gospel of John, Jesus made another clear assertion about freedom – freedom that’s not affected by changing philosophies and ideologies. He focused on freedom that can’t be redefined by government, society or political correctness when He declared, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32-36). We can be free to be and to become everything God has called us to be.

So as we celebrate the freedoms we have enjoyed in this nation known as the United States, we ought also to be grateful for the freedom we can have in Christ that spans eternity, transcends traditions, and crosses all gender, racial, ethnic and cultural barriers.