Freedom?

I've never been one to care much about politics or news. I've lived in the smiled-upon land of the free and the oh-so-safe home of the brave where the underlying tenets of my faith, the basics at least, have received an agreeing nod for centuries by my culture. So I've never had reason to question the continuance of that freedom. I've foolishly taken it as a given that the laws of my land would never counter the laws of my God.

But lately my stomach turns every time I hear the news. As a Christian in today's world, I find my beliefs, which once informed public policy and law on every level, completely discarded in society. The battle cry of "Equal Rights" has taken their place. You've surely heard the stories of Christian photographers and bakeries, how new laws - and new interpretations of laws - eliminate the freedom of creative professionals to answer to their consciences about what sort of work to accept. And recently the legal changes are spreading wider. Additional legislation threatens to interfere with the decisions being made by churches and Christian schools. Soon it may not be legal to refuse employment or enrollment or membership to a man or woman who's living a lifestyle regarded by the church as sinful, even though our First Amendment prohibits laws that interfere with religious institutions. Now, instead of nodding along with Biblical teaching, or even simply allowing Christians to write their own policies that adhere to Biblical teaching, our culture refuses Christians the right to act in accordance with their beliefs. And ironically, it's all in the name of providing equal rights for all. 

What people want is inclusion. People want rights and they want those rights be identical to the rights of the person next door, no matter the differences - large or small - between them. And though it seems a common-sense thing to desire, it's not been valued historically as much as you might think. As cultures have known for millennia, to maintain order, safety, predictability, and security, a society needs to set boundaries. It's why we have prisons and traffic laws and local courts. There will necessarily be inequalities if a community is to function successfully. But the American culture has made equality so important that it's willing to sacrifice the freedoms of some for the privileges of others. We've put such value on rights that we've failed to see the inevitable ripple effect of breaking our own rules. Like an invisible toxic gas, the idea that everyone deserves the same thing has poisoned minds across the nation.

But behind the smoke screen, there's a quiet and beautiful truth that our culture is missing.

There is a place where equality reigns. There is a place where rights that had been denied are given freely. There is a truth that overrides the law and overrules the strikes against us.

It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Christ offers inclusion. The gospel gives us the rights of God's very children. The gospel of grace gives all of us equality, positions as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ himself. The gospel stands ready to grant honor and privilege and freedom. This is what people are searching for: Jesus Christ himself and the free gift He offers.

Though this is what we want, we are crippled by our own pride. People cringe at the idea of being forced to change in order to be accepted. And the first thing the gospel does is expose the fact that we don't deserve to be included. Everything we do that opposes God's perfect nature is a stain on our record and there's no rewriting of that Law. So naturally, we're excluded from His favor, and that might be a very unAmerican truth to swallow.

But God is kind. All He requires is humility, the willingness to recognize that we do not deserve anything and that our actions have only condemned us. When we approach Him in this attitude, He gives two things: complete and total grace which accepts us in our rotten but humble state, and the power to change the things about us that made us rotten in the first place. The best part is, He even gives the humility needed to approach Him in the first place.

People want freedom, but they're grasping at such a small version of it. Freedom in this country to get a particular job or to receive lodging at a certain bed and breakfast, despite your non-traditional lifestyle, is a sad and (dare I say) a narrow-minded accomplishment. And perhaps even the freedom of a Christian school to write its own policies and refuse admission to individuals whose lives do not reflect Biblical teaching is a pitiful right to have gained. The freedom offered in Christ, offered by His gospel, is a complete and eternal freedom from all your guilt and failure, from all the things in this world that make you ache and lie awake at night, from the struggle to find meaning, from worry and anxiety and depression, from the oppression of every government on the planet, and from your own self. People want freedom from perceived injustices. But there is a much, much bigger freedom, complete with all the rights you could ever dream of, available to you if you turn to God with a heart of humility. And it includes the best possible injustice: the gift of eternal life, which you could never, ever earn, given by someone who paid for it so you could receive it freely.

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If you'd like to share your opinion about this with your lawmakers, use this link to ask them to halt legislation in Pennsylvania that would legally penalize ministries and Christian schools for adhering to their convictions about what the Bible teaches.