Recently a short YouTube video came to my attention. It is the Christmas message from LifeSiteNews and the words spoken are powerful because the essence of the message is so urgent in today’s marketplace of ideologies, phony rhetoric, and misshapen concepts about freedom. It reminded me once again of how twisted and illogical America’s pursuit of personal rights has become, not to mention the devastation it has already left in its wake.
Think for a moment about the gift of procreation for example. We all know—no matter the faith persuasion or lack thereof—that according to nature it takes a man and a woman to create a child. The contribution of each when combined renders a human being with precise, individual strands of DNA. That resulting human being is neither his father nor his mother, but rather his unique new self.
This miracle of life comes about because of the freedom we have to understand the gift of our individual sexuality and treat it with the reverence it deserves. We have it and we can either cherish it or abuse it. To comprehend this fundamental truth about ourselves is to take the first step toward understanding the truth about our identity as human beings. Once we get that part we can then ask in all seriousness whether or not the freedom we claim to possess gives us the right to do whatever we want when we want, no matter the consequences.
According to 2014 measures of morality and ethics, the answer to that question is complex. If we are talking about the “right” to use chemicals that harm women and can potentially kill babies, the conclusion should be that this is not a fair description of freedom but rather an aberration that makes no sense.
Yet, to many of us, the answer is that we have every “right” to do what we please with our own bodies because we have the freedom to choose. We say we can use contraception and abortion with nary a single restraint in the law to stop us. We call this freedom.
The consequences of such thinking are, as we know all too well, devastating. Millions of preborn babies have died. Countless numbers of families have been destroyed. Not only that, but nobody knows exactly how many women have been maimed or rendered sterile in the wake of such irrational abuses of what man defines as freedom.
So step back and think about this quote: “The evil of the modern age is The Evil of The Blur. It’s the evil of excusing things, or ignoring things, of just letting it all go as long as it isn’t impacting me.”
Yes, it’s the evil of tolerating the idea that freedom does not come to us because we deserve it or even because we have earned it; true freedom comes from understanding that there is good and there is evil, there is right and there is wrong. And that, depending on the choices we make, we can either become slaves to our own selfish appetites or free men who respect the laws of nature and do not tolerate the oppression that comes from advocating that which is destructive and frequently murderous to a fellow human being.
Lastly, in any debate about what freedom really is, we Christians have the upper hand. This is so because we know that Christ said, “If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
This is what freedom really is—the freedom in Christ that is always worth fighting for or dying for because it is the antidote to cultural tolerance of everything harmful and deadly to the innocent.
Tolerance of evil is not freedom!