Saturday, March 7, 2015

The Free Man


Let's face it - we all know that slavery is evil and freedom is good, right?  But wait, maybe too much freedom is bad.  Or, perhaps, a little slavery is good.  Wait.  That's not right.  Oh, I don't know.  I can't ever keep track from one minute to the next which is politically correct today.  Human nature is so good at changing its collective mind that I can never keep it straight!

As school children we were all introduced to the evils of slavery.  Our history books were filled with chapters dedicated to educating our young minds to embrace our freedoms while eschewing slavery in all its forms. Ironically, we learned that slave owners were "bad" at the same time that we learned that our slave-owning government was "good".

We can all agree that the slave owners of the South were bad, right?  We can agree that the only decent thing to do was to give the slaves their liberty, right?  But what if?  What if a few of the slaves were prone to violence?  Would it still be good to give them their freedom?  What if a few were rapists?  Thieves?  Murderers?  Would the slave owner still be right in giving them their liberty?  What if one of those slaves was Adolf Hitler?  Osama Bin Laden?  Charles Manson?  Would the "Master" still be righteous in giving those men their freedom or would he then be an accomplice to unspeakable atrocities?  Would the slave owner be "good" for refusing freedom to Hitler, Bin Laden and Manson, in spite of slavery being evil?

We can't have it both ways.  As humans we judge a matter depending upon circumstances, upon current philosophical trends and upon shifting social opinion.  We expect freedom at all costs - until something bad happens - and then we turn on the very authors of the freedoms we claim - and require accountability for their atrocities against humanity!  We hold others responsible for our evils - simply because they granted the freedom that we demanded.  In our double mindedness, we expect to retain our freedoms while blaming others for the inevitable consequences of that freedom. 

Our duplicity doesn't stop with the relationship with our fellow man.  It is brought into sharp focus every time we hear the refrain "how could a "good" God allow bad things to happen?".  What we consider a virtue in man (not keeping slaves) we consider an evil in God (why did you allow that to happen?).  We want the freedom to believe how and what we want but we still hold God accountable when things don't go according to our plan.  When evil runs rampant, it is God we blame.  Never do we blame ourselves for the very freedom of conscience that God granted us at birth.  Would we rather have God keep us as slaves, never to make decisions for ourselves?  Is that the price that we would be willing to pay for a secure, safe, evil-free world?  Slavery, my friends, is the only answer for a world without hurt, a world without evil. 

Bad things happen.  Evil people do evil things.  Life is imperfect and unpredictable.  But God loved us enough to give us our freedom.  No. Matter. The. Cost.  God had every right to program us for a perfect, sinless life.  But He chose to give us our free will - freedom.  And because of God's gift of freedom to me, I will fight with everything in me to secure that freedom for my fellow man.  We are not slaves.  God is not a slaveholder. 

I am a free man.  I will use my freedom to fight for yours.

8 comments:

  1. For what it's worth:
    There were less then 10,000 Southerners who owned slaves. On the even of the civil war there were about 600,000 blacks in America. Slavery was rampant in Africa for 1000 years before the first slave was brought to the Americas. The people who owned the slaves and ran the slave trade in Africa were muslims, it was like a muslim family business to own and sell slaves. The business was handed down from muslim fathers to muslim sons. There were more white European slaves in Africa then there was in America. The Muslim slavers would attack coastal cities in Europe and the English isles. Slave were brought to America over 100 years before America became a country. Most slaves brought here were transported by Dutch and other European ship captains very much in the same way that foriegn drug cartels bring drugs here. It was done without premission, without government approval and it was done to provide something for a minority of people. When the civil war started 99.97% of Americans did not own slaves. Most Americans from 1776 when the government was formed until 1865 when slavery was abolished did not want slavery and opposed slavery much the same way most people today oppose dangerous illegal opiates and other harmful drugs. Yet when the left chooses to use the broad brush of activist blaming all Americans are blamed for slavery. Ironically it is typically the very same leftist who advociate for legal and expanded opiate and drug use. Most Southerners, especially those who fought in the civil war, saw their fight as one of states rights and not pro-slavery. Almost no enlisted Southerner was or had ever been a slave owner, many Southern officers were slave owners. Slavery was indeed a terrible thing and perhaps there were 10,000 people who should have been shamed but not the 34 million Americans who were alive in 1861 nor the 330 million Americans alive today who never owned a slave and/or never was a slave. The slavery issue as it is used today is about power, political dominance, bullying and neo-racism.
    One last fact: The organized opposition in the North to the emancipation of the slaves was Democrat. The organizer and first members of the KKK after the war were Democrats. The entire Southern political and power structure until after the 1964 civil rights act was Democrat. The vote for the 1964 civil rights act was overwhelingly Republicn for it and Democrat against it. The pundits today would have you believe that in all of this the exact opposite was true.

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    1. Amen Anonymous 8:54. Another truth is that the victors of war win the right to write their history books. The War of Northern Aggression was about States’ rights.

      Lincoln, much like Obama today, used slavery for his own agenda. Those poor children who are government-schooled suffer the indoctrination that 'Lincoln freed the slaves'. The truth is that Lincoln 'freed' the slaves over whom he had no jurisdiction, and refused to free those under his jurisdiction.

      Robert E. Lee, the South’s leading General had freed his slaves and declared that slavery was “a moral and political evil”. Stonewall Jackson agreed with Lee. Does anyone honestly believe they fought to preserve a system which they hated? An excellent source of the truth about the war is ‘Facts The Historians Leave Out’ by John S. Tilly ($5.95 on Amazon).

      The 2nd big whopper spewed out by government schools is that the southern States had no right of secession. Americans can look no further than the Declaration of Independence to learn the truth. But sadly they are too lazy and ungrateful for our Founders' sacrifices.

      Montana Guy

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    2. I wasn't exactly talking about physical slavery. Interestingly, I do believe that God used slavery many, many times to put His people back on track. He allowed slavery or His glory. But, the truth of the matter is that people look at slavery as evil when perpetuated by men, however, they expect God to limit men's freedom when it might adversely effect their lives. Freedom of thought, self-will, brings with it a high price - but it is one I am willing to pay in order to choose my eternity!

      Enola

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  2. I am a free man, responsible for my actions alone. If I mess up here I'll pay the piper for my mistakes and answer to my Lord for those mistakes when I stand before Him. Until then, et me dance to my own music and I give you the same curtesy.

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  3. This is such a hard thing to embrace, I know that in my own life I had an incident that I blamed God for and it haunted me for years, kept me from being free. I heard a lady speak much the same as this - about free will and how God's 'fathers heart' bled for me because of the sin someone else perpetrated against me. Such a simple line and such profound peace when it becomes a part of one's mental conversation.Thanks for a real thought provoker. There is more than one message here!

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  4. I think my only real freedom is to choose whom I will serve. Once I have made that choice, I am no longer completely free, but am constrained as a consequence of that choice..

    As an example: A good number years ago now, I chose to serve this country in the USMC. Once I had made that choice, for that season of my life, much of my life became very structured and many of the "freedoms" I had as a civilian were no longer available. I don't regret that choice and have never lamented the loss of freedoms that came with it. On the contrary! I believe I am a better person today for having made that choice and for having been faithful to the ideals and constraints that came with it.

    The same is true for everyone. I can choose to serve my own passions and constrain myself from receiving the benefits of a moral and thrifty life. I can choose to set a career, the desire for financial independence, the ideals of "tolerance" or "security", or even some truly noble cause as the master of my life. With that choice comes 'benefits', sacrifices and consequences. I am free to make the choice of master, but am not free to avoid the associated responsibilities and consequences.

    What I am NOT free to do is choose more than one master. The choice is mutually exclusive: I can chose only one. I am not free NOT to choose. I will choose my master, or allow something (or someone) will choose to master me.

    I have chosen to serve Christ. I am fully aware that I do so imperfectly, despite my best efforts. In making that choice I accept that I am surrendering the rest of my freedoms to His will. I do so understanding he has a plan for my life that may require me to give up things I hold dear. I do so knowing I will not understand many of things that happen in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have not regretted that choice and do not lament the loss of "freedoms" that come with surrendering my will to His. On the contrary! I believe I am a far better person for doing so. For now and eternity.

    True and absolute freedom is an illusion. We will all serve someone or something: it's just a matter of choosing who or what. I, for one, am OK with that. I have made my choice.

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  5. People who say they don't believe in God or who choose not to repent and become a new creature in Christ, choose not to become born again, often justify their position by saying that because of all the evil in the world, God is either too weak to control or eliminate the evil, or that it exists because He doesn't care (or doesn't exist). Someone once pointed out that as God said, there is none without sin except Jesus, so if God eliminated sin from the world, he'd have to eliminate us, as we are all sinners. God gave us the right to choose, to have free will, but many people want to blame God for how we choose to exercise that free will (as you said). A very good post, Enola.

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