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Life, viewed sideways. Emotions, amplified. Answers, questioned. Me, between the lines.




- A Wounded Heart, Who Can Bear?
- Drowning Under a Tidal Wave
- Clawing My Way to the Sunlight
- Yes, Santa Claus, There Is a Virginia
- Fugu
- Touching the Spirit
- A Hole in the Universe
- Riding on the Dreams of Others
- Turning Into a Shark
 - A Heart, Ripped Asunder
- Surrendering to the Roller Coaster
- Hunting in the Jade Forest
- Dodging the Shark
- Dancing With Invisible Partners
- The Captain and the Harliquin
- Courting the Devils
- The Captain Makes His Mark
- Mad Dog to the Rescue
- Innocent in the Big City
- Dropping the Ball Briefcase
- Scrambling Brains
- Cheating the Reaper, Again
- What If the Man Behind the Curtain Is No Wizard After All?
- All of Us Have a Soundtrack
- Working With Broken Machines
- Happy Anniversary, Baby
- Standing on Stars
- Running the Film Backwards
- Identity Crisis ("Who am I?")
- Can We Ever Really Admit the Desires of Our Heart?
- Forgiveness is a Rare Thing
- Having Your Heart Caressed By the Creator
- Working With Broken Machines
- A New Leg to Stand On
- The Real Spirit of Christmas
- Chatting With Infinity
- Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
- We All Have a Great Capacity for Loss
- Brushed Lightly By Might Have Beens
- We See the World Through Our Own Looking Glass
- Every Storm Passes Eventually
- Accidents Can Introduce Destiny Into Our Lives
- Freedom Depends on the Walls Around Us
- Pulling Aside the Velvet Curtain
- Riding the Razor's Edge
- Dying With Strangers
- In Your Face
- Between the Lines
- The Bobcat
- Angel With a Coffeecup
- Innocent in the Big City
- Chains of Gossamer
- Playing With Knives
- Stumbling Through Memories (Ooops)
- Picture This
- Running the Film Backwards
- Playing the Score, Tasting the Music
- Coins and Corals and Carved Coconuts
- My God, I Confess
- Exotic in Thin Air (Part 1, Speechless)
- Exotic in Thin Air (Part 2, Taxi)
- Exotic in Thin Air (Part 3, The Pan American)
- Exotic in Thin Air (Part 4, Guano)
- Exotic in Thin Air (Part 5, The Andes Express)



 
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"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."

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"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."

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Sunday, July 11, 2004
 

The Cost of Freedom

free-dom
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous d : EASE, FACILITY e : the quality of being frank, open, or outspoken f : improper familiarity g : boldness of conception or execution h : unrestricted use
2 a : a political right b : FRANCHISE, PRIVILEGE
3 : a lifestyle that has been redefined over the years


As a response to my previous post on freedom, Angela wrote: "I think it depends on how you define freedom. The Bible does say, 'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.' 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)"

Angela is precisely right. The important question is, why is Angela right?

There are more verses that support the point Angela was making. For example:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.(Galatians 5:1)

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom... (James 2:12)

I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. (Psalm 119:45)


Yet, at the same time, we can clearly find many instances where freedom, as defined by western laws, actually allows and in some cases encourages behavior that is very much in opposition to the precepts of Christianity! How can this be reconciled?

To do this, we must open the book on one of the greatest deceptions of our time, on an infernal trick played on the best of us by the most evil one in the universe.

Two hundred and more years ago, the framers of the Constitution of the United States were vitally concerned with freedom. They were being oppressed in many ways by the English. The English were taxing them, regulating their press, denying them the chance to say whatever they wanted to in public. There were also groups of immigrants who had come to America with the express purpose of escaping religious persecution.

The document that was drafted after the American colonies achieved independance addressed each of these freedoms. Freedom of speech...freedom of religion...freedom of the press....freedom to bear arms. Each of these freedoms was then enacted into law.

And each one of them was a trap.

You see, as long as everyone is on the same playing field, such as the moral structure provided by Christianity, it all works. But the enemy knew from the very beginning that this was an illusion, that Pandora's box had been thrust open and the demonic horde was just waiting to spring upon this new opportunity.

Imagine, if you will, that an avowed witch set up a fortune telling stand outside of the building where the Constitution was being written. What do you think would have been the result? Keep in mind that in the state of Massachussets, for example, the crimes of idolatry and blasphemy, as well as over 200 others, were punishable by death. (Note: Oddly enough, rape was not one of them unless it involved a married person, a close family member, or an animal.)

Reviewing the writings of the time makes it clear that freedom did not necessarily involve being able to adopt a belief system that was blasphemous in nature or antagonistic in practice. Rather than remove common prayer from schools, they would have been far more likely to string up the athiest on the nearest sturdy tree branch!

But, over time, definitions were changed, lines have been nudged a bit at a time, and the very word "freedom" has become something it was never meant to be.

Things that were assumed to be commonly agreed 200 years ago are no longer given any weight. The existence of God, for one. What constituted "speech" for another. I do not think that "Suzie's Porno Web" would have been included in their deepest imaginings when wording the freedom of speech clause.

When the law we live by was framed, "freedom" was taken to mean freedom from the government, but yet functioning amidst the general social mores of the time. Since then, the social mores have been eroded so far that we can hardly find them, and freedom becomes the mere ability to do what we want as long as it does not harm another.

Interesting, that. There is one religion that does in fact hold to that very rule:

"An ye harm none, do what ye will."

That is the Wiccan Rede, the pledge of those witches that follow the pagan Wiccan religion.

So, in two hundred years, we have progressed from a society that endeavored to live freely under God, to one that follows a rule spoken by witches.

THAT is why the government and the Bible both speak of freedom, yet they do not fit when looked at together. The freedom practised today by our government is the exact opposite of the one espoused by the Bible.

Freedom, by the popular definition, makes Christianity a very contraining faith.

Freedom, by the Christian definition, frees a person from the real bondage, the bondage of sin, of doing "what ye will."

We all serve something, you see. All we can do, is choose our chains.

And I know where the yoke is light, the chains are freely worn, and the freedom rises to the heavens.

It's not Washington, DC.

I wish that each of us could discover the true meaning of freedom. It is tragic that we have allowed it to be redefined so badly.

Do you know who sends more missionaries to the rest of the world than any other nation? Do you know who exports more lurid pornography to the world than any other nation?

Did you know that these answers are the same?

That kind of freedom I can do without, I think.

The cost is just too high.


Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)



Permalink: 7/11/2004 02:45:00 PM |
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