Or so says a Church billboard down here in Crowley. I don't know what to think about it....I disagree with the statement. I think. And here is why : it all depends on whose definition of "Freedom" we are talking about. After all, some would (could?) argue that the Muslim extremists who are behind many of the terrorist attacks are fighting their own "Cause of Freedom." So, is their cause the cause of God? We Americans would argue "No." Then you have the people who feel our war in Iraq is a "Cause of Freedom" that is a "Cause of God." There are those who don't. I think we have to have a definition of "Freedom" and it must be Universal.
IS Freedom what God desires for His people (even those who are "lost")? Undoubtedly. But whose definition of Freedom? America's? George Bush's? Saddam Hussein's? China's? Who is to say what is best for other people? For China, Socialism and Communism have been "working" forever. But do the people lack Freedom? Or is their Freedom just different from that which we are used to? Most Americans would argue the first....there is no such thing as Freedom in China. Are they wrong? Maybe, maybe not.
Freedom is a relative term, but should it be?
Is the statement "The Cause of Freedom is the Cause of God" an excuse to invade countries, pillage villages, and "set people free" on our own terms? Remember, the Crusades were also said to be a "Cause of God." So was the Spanish Inquisition. Were they?
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3 comments:
The world thinks freedom means "no rules, no limits, no boundaries". God knows otherwise. Cf. James 1:25, 2:12.
Children know that they need rules and boundaries, too. A kid without discipline is an insecure kid.
In a political context, America's founders recognized that freedom didn't mean anarchy; in order to preserve freedom, laws must be put into effect to limit my freedom from treading upon yours, and vice versa.
I don't think that the statement "the cause of freedom is the cause of God" is an excuse to do the things that you describe (pillage villages, etc.) But neither do I think you'd find much of that going on in, say, Iraq. Quite the opposite, in fact. For one example, I was just reading this morning at Michael Yon's blog (http://michaelyon.blogspot.com) about how we're helping to re-educate the medical professionals over there, who prior to our efforts at liberation had been constrained to practice from decades-old photocopies of outdated texts.
A war against a government is different from a war against a people; and sometimes war is unfortunately necessary to preserve the greater peace and liberty. Or do you think Americans had no right to open fire on the British at Lexington and Concorde? In doing so, were we fighting the British people, our own aunts and uncles and cousins? I don't think so.
In order for people in America or Iraq or anywhere to be free, tyranny and the oppression of fear and terror must be removed. I'm not saying it's "God's work" except perhaps in the most abstract sense which you've already identified. Rather, I'd hope America -- and every nation -- would rather be on God's side than claim that God must be on theirs.
Happy belated 4th of July,
Jim
Hey thanks Jim! That was really, really well put!
Some freedoms are God given. Three of them were recognized as such by Thomas Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence. Others were outlined in The Constitution of the United States of America, freedoms the government had no right to diminish. Freedom to act in such a way as to elevate ones' self to a "higher" plane is one of the basic "instincts" of every heart that has ever lived, is living now, or ever will live. It is those who usurp those freedoms for their own agrandisement who become despots, dictators and slavemongers. Against those it is always right to fight.
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