Post-Independence Day, 2011

A little over 300 years ago, a War for Independence was fought against the British Empire; Britain conceded the defeat, and a nation celebrated its own birth. Years before that, however, men from many corners of Europe and the British Isles left their homelands in search of an elusive freedom. That search brought them to a land completely devoid of the amenities to which they were accustomed, and occupied by people who were more foreign to them than were the Orientals on the other side of the known world. There, surrounded by the dangerous and unfamiliar, the seekers found what they sought: the freedom to worship and teach as they believed was right, without the fear of soldiers knocking down their doors and delivering them up for harsh sentences.

Now, centuries later, we celebrate a date each year in the memory of the core beliefs which brought about the birth of our nation: freedom from tyranny, freedom from despots, freedom from fear of unreasonable constraints. When we sing the patriotic songs that were written so many years ago in an effort to memorialize the blood-filled striving for freedom, don’t we feel a rush of emotion rise in us, a sense of pride in what our forefathers accomplished? We are taught to hold tight to the freedoms given to us by those who fought for them; we are taught to proudly exercise the rights granted to us by the actions of those who came before; we are taught that we also must fight if necessary to ensure that our children also may have those same freedoms.

But do we? I have heard so many people lament the fact that the United States is no longer a Christian nation. So? What have you done to make your voice heard? What have I done? If every true Christian were to completely exercise his freedoms of religion and of speech, wouldn’t the Gospel be heard much more throughout America? How many of us can honestly say that we freely speak the Gospel to everyone we meet, through one means or another?

The freedoms we have been granted will not always be there; we will not always be able to speak out as we wish. If we value those freedoms as much as we say we do, why do we squander them by remaining silent? I’m not speaking of politics and the rising up of Christians in a republican attempt to sway the government in one direction or another, although I suppose that has its place. Rather, I am speaking of us, Christians, not taking every chance that God has presented us to do the work He has called us to: spreading the Gospel.

We will always be able to ‘practice our religion’ in the privacy of our own hearts and minds without fear of being stopped; Christ Himself said that men can kill (torture, imprison, etc.) the body, but only God can threaten a man’s soul. We will not always be able to speak out to the masses without the expectation of personal and governmental judgment.

Why should we not, why do we not take advantage of such freedom while we have it?