There is so much talk at the moment around freedom; freedom of rights, accountability, what opinions are allowed to be shared, and the list goes on, becoming endless. There are lots of voices crying out over particular topics or events, people losing their jobs left, right and center over an opposing opinion, others being sued, violence erupting or death threats taking place with the world in turmoil, thus making individuals wonder what on earth is going on? With the age of the internet and even more so, with social media, it is so easy for hate to spread, cyber bullying to occur, the sharing of different ideas, expressing oneself to millions. There are pros and cons that go along with such an invention.
Firstly when understanding true freedom, we need to take a step back from all this chaos to think more clearly and actually look at this word ‘freedom’, reminding ourselves of what exactly it is, and what does it actually look like. It can be too easy to get caught up in a lot of the different things/ ideology that is swirling around the internet or news media these days, where so many are jumping on the various band wagons out there.
According to the Cambridge dictionary freedom means “the condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think etc. whatever you want to without being controlled or limited.” According to the Collins dictionary ‘freedoms’ are instances of this, such as freedom of speech, political freedom, freedom to decides one future, freedom of religion and so forth.
There are certain laws of the land that we are governed by, that I like to call more ‘moral’ laws for easy understanding, which are laws to safe guard humanity i.e.- laws against murder, abuse and road rules. These are rules to keep everyone safe and make the world go round. When discussing freedom for this article, we are going to park those laws to one side and discuss more the other freedoms as mentioned in the above paragraph.
As seen in the definition of what freedom means, true freedom is of being able to say, do and think how one wants and believes to be right. When we take a look right back to the book of Genesis in the Garden of Eden, God created Adam and Eve, both with free will, able to make their own decisions and choices. God could have made us like robots but that wouldn’t be true freedom, due to not being able to think freely as we are being controlled. He could have destroyed the devil straight away or Adam and Eve when they sinned but He didn’t, as that would’ve created fear in others hearts, resulting in worship or obedience to God out of fear rather than because they wanted/ chose too. A world of true freedom can only truly exist when you have the freedom of choice. The reason why saying “I do” when a couple gets married at the wedding ceremony is so beautiful, is because the bride or groom had the choice to say “I don’t”.
If we want true freedom to exist there will always involve risk/s- that is part of the package. God loved us so much and that is why He gave us the freedom to choose to follow Him or not. He’s not going to force it or take any individual up to Heaven who doesn’t want to be there. He sent His Son Jesus down to this earth with the risk of being separated from Him eternally, just to give us a way out of this sinful earth through the gift of salvation because of His love for humanity! What Real Love!
No government, famous person or any other individual for that matter, has the right to control or stop the way people think, as God Himself has given that freedom of choice, NO ONE has the right to change that. What I am seeing today makes me very sad with the loss of respect for one another and people losing their jobs just because they have a difference of opinion to someone else. There is no true freedom in that. We may not always agree with what others say or do but we can’t stop them from believing in what they believe. As soon as you try to stop or silence someone by hating them, refusing to talk to them or letting them share their opinions, personally attaching them, firing them or forcing them to resign over an opposing opinion, you take away their rights. Some say that they are being discriminated against by these individuals who have opposing opinions, such as those from the LGBTQIA+ community, (which might be the case in some circumstances), but while there is great lengths to give them their rights, others rights of being allowed a different opinion in this area are being taken away. There is no true freedom in that while giving rights to one, we are taking rights away from another of being able to disagree. (Disclaimer: no one should ever be persecuted, no matter who they are or what they believe). We are seeing this in multiple places, topics or areas now. People such as writers or comedians will soon be out of a job because they are not allowed to joke anymore or share their opinions, if it is different from those with the loudest voice at the time.
I have seen a huge shift in generations and how currently, people cannot handle or know how to deal with criticism or differences of opinions. We have lost resilience and this is lacking in teaching our children this skill in our education. This is something that is mainly only facing First World countries. We have swung the pendulum too far and creating our children to be too soft, instead of learning how to deal with adversity.
True freedom is living in a world where we learn to agree to disagree with others and yet still live in unity, showing respect, respecting others viewpoints and learning to get along despite our differences. When we study the Bible, particularly the book of Acts we can see this quite clearly. There were many people from different walks of life, race, socio-economic backgrounds, age, experiences, differences of personalities and having a different opinion, but yet all came together, to work together for God.
This is something that society once had but is now losing, sadly. Personally I would rather live in a world where I could be offended and true freedom exists, than in a world where your freedoms are being taken away and you are being told how you should think.
Learning to deal with others who are different to us or have different viewpoints is through taking the time to understand them, walking in their shoes and understanding why they view things in that way. You don’t have to agree but we are called to love others as Christ loves them. Christ came to this earth to die for all, not just one or two or three, but all! Showing love and kindness to them- love always wins in the end. Learn not to make assumptions that can’t be seen and always pray for others!
When we look at freedom, we always need to go back and remind ourselves of what it truly means before we cry out over anything, especially without solid foundations.
Food for thought…
Great content! Keep up the good work!