Religion stifles personal freedoms, right? Too many rules. Too much of the thou-shall-not! mentality. If the human race grows up and dispenses with religion and all its suffocating rules, then we can finally be liberated to experience true happiness. So we are led to believe.
The recent trend in our nation has certainly been to omit religious influence in making public policy. Efforts to simply display copies of the Ten Commandments in public schools or government buildings are met with vigorous legal challenges. Obviously, there are forces in our country that wish to expunge all reference to God and religion from public spaces.
Those who crafted the founding documents of the U.S.A. distinguished our nation by promising religious freedom to the people. Citizens are guaranteed protection from State-imposed religious beliefs and practices. This bold stroke of liberty stood in sharp contrast to the generations of religious oppression perpetrated against millions by toxic collusion between corrupt religious and government institutions.
Let the Church be free from State coercion and let the State be free from Church manipulation!
Respect for the distinctive roles of Church and State finds support in the Bible, especially in the teaching of Jesus. When asked about paying taxes, Jesus said that we should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God. He made a distinction between government and religion. And he exhorted us to give to each its due.
Jesus made no effort to enlist the power of government to advance his spiritual agenda, nor did he use his message as incitement to violent rebellion against oppressive governments. He forbade his disciples from using violence, even to protect his own life.
Proper respect for the different roles of religion and government has long been expressed in our culture by the phrase “Separation of Church and State.” This separation, however, is interpreted in different ways by different groups. Some are more concerned with protecting the Church from the State, others are focused on protecting the State from the Church.
Those who desire a secular culture have found the idea of a separation between Church and State to be useful in promoting their vision for society. They perceive and promote the separation of Church and State as a wall, an impenetrable division that allows no meaningful dialogue or influence between the two. As a result, religion will have no voice in government if they have their way. And they seem to be making progress.
Nevertheless, progress at expelling religious influence from government has had some unpredicted results. First, it is not clear that freedom has been increased. Second, it is certainly not clear that the number of rules has decreased.
Our secular champions for freedom have produced a plethora of rules that encroach on almost every sector of life. They even dictate what pronouns we must use. They demand that we stop using words like “mother” and “father.” They insist that we agree with absurd notions (for example: men can get pregnant and give birth).
They constantly redefine the rules of language. Certain terms are suddenly deemed to be racist or something-phobic. Or you might be labeled a climate denier or an election denier or a birther or another type of ‘bad’ person. If we ask the wrong question, we are a threat to democracy or to science or to some other important institution, thus justifying government to abuse its power and silence our voice.
This often bizarre list of rules expands with alarming rapidity. It also changes arbitrarily. What you could say or do yesterday may be unacceptable today. (And yesterday’s actions are always judged by today’s rules.) Fear of saying or doing the wrong thing becomes its own pathetic prison.
This expansive and unpredictable secular law code makes the Ten Commandments look far more reasonable and sensible!
The Bible says we have a choice. To be free from righteousness (God’s commands) is to become a slave to sin (selfish destructive desires). Conversely, to be free from sin is to be a servant to righteousness. (See Romans 6:15-23).
The attempt to find freedom and meaning by shedding accountability to God is futile. Without God’s standards, there is no real meaning or purpose to our existence. Surprisingly, we find freedom when we choose to serve God. Why? Because God is more than rules and laws. God is love.
God’s love leads us to perfect freedom. How? God’s love does not depend on rules, but on faith. When we simply trust Jesus, we have God’s love. His commands are still helpful, but they are not the basis for earning his love. His love is his gift to any who will receive it by faith in Christ.
The world only loves those who follow its rules. If you don’t believe so, try using the wrong pronoun or asking probing questions about man-made climate change. See how the world responds.
In Galatians 5:1 we read that it is for freedom that Christ set us free. The verse goes on to exhort us not to submit again to a yoke of slavery. Jesus called on the weary and burdened to follow him, taking on his yoke, which is easy, carrying his burden, which is light (see Matthew 11:28-30).
When the world’s ways get too heavy, Jesus is ready to invite us home to God’s love and God’s ways. In him we find rest for our souls.
May the Spirit of God enable us to appreciate and experience God’s freedom to the fullest,
Brother Richard
brotherrichardsblog.com 