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Freedom’s Just Another Word …
Rev. John L.
Saxon, UU Fellowship of New Bern (July 3, 2011)
Reading: On
Freedom (Kahlil Gibran)
“At
the city gate and by your fireside, I have seen you prostrate yourself and
worship your own freedom, even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant
and praise him though he slays them.
“Ay,
in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen
the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.
“And
my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of
seeking freedom becomes a harness to you and when you cease to speak of
freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.
“You
shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights
without a want and a grief, but rather when those things girdle your life
and yet you rise above them … unbound.
“And
how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains
which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon
hours?
“In
truth, that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains,
though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
“And
what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may
become free? *** If it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his
throne erected within you is destroyed. *** If it is a care you would cast
off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed on you. And if
it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and
not in the hand of the feared. ***
“When
the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow
to another light. And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes
itself the fetter of a greater freedom.”
Sermon
I
On
July 4th, Americans will celebrate the 235th
anniversary of America’s freedom from the autocratic, tyrannical, and
utterly despotic rule of King George the Fifth of England and all of his
red-coated lackeys. And just in case Queen Elizabeth or Prince William is
thinking about trying to make the U.S. a British colony again, we’ll
scare them off by shooting off some fireworks to remind them that we’re
free and we’re gonna make damn sure we keep it that way!
And
to celebrate our freedom on July 4th, we’ll all (or almost
all of us) take a day off from work, go to a baseball game, the beach, or
the mountains, have a picnic or cookout, eat some hot dogs, potato salad,
watermelon, and ice cream, and, of course, watch the fire works that are
keeping those nasty English tyrants in their place.
And,
perhaps, between bites of hot dog or potato salad, we’ll even take a
moment to give thanks for our freedom as Americans—the freedom to drink
as much tea as we want without paying one red cent in taxes (other than
North Carolina’s state and local sales taxes); the freedom to say
“no” when the king asks if some German soldiers can live in our home
for a while; the freedom to carry concealed or unconcealed handguns to
town hall meetings to discuss proposed health care reform legislation with
our elected senators, congressmen, and congresswomen; the freedom to vote
for our favorite singer on American Idol; the freedom to watch Fox News or
MSNBC; the freedom (except in 45 of the 50 states) to marry a person of
the same sex; the freedom to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance, or
salute the flag, or stand when the Star Spangled Banner is sung.
As
Americans, we have what people in Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen,
and all around the world want. Not just cars and TVs and cell phones and
all of the other things that supposedly constitute the “good life” of
Americans or the American dream. Not just democracy. But freedom. Freedom
of speech and assembly. Freedom of the press. Freedom of religion and
sometimes freedom from religion. Freedom from oppression, discrimination,
terror, and fear. And, at least in Saudi Arabia, freedom to drive a car
even if you’re a woman.
II
Freedom
is, perhaps, the most basic of American values, imbedded deeply in the
American psyche, our national character, and the words of the American
Declaration of Independence: that “all men are endowed by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights” and that among these rights are
“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Today,
of course, we can see that Thomas Jefferson and the other signers of the
Declaration of Independence didn’t mean exactly what they said about
freedom and liberty for all.
For
many years, American women were not free to vote or to serve as jurors and
married women were not allowed to own property separate and apart from
their husbands.
And,
of course, hundreds of thousands of enslaved African Americans were not
free until President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the
American Civil War ended, and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified.
And
even then, most African Americans were not, and many African Americans are
still not, truly free. For as the African American writer, Ralph Ellison,
said: “There’ve been a heap of Juneteenths gone by and there’ll be a
heap more before we’re free.”
The
day is not yet here when any of us can truly say: “Free at last. Free at
last. Thank God Almighty, we’re all free at last.”
III
Liberty
and freedom are core American values even when and if we sometimes take
them for granted or misuse or abuse them.
But,
more than that, liberty and freedom are, I believe, core human values.
And,
for Unitarian Universalists, liberty and freedom are core religious values.
Individual
freedom of conscience and belief is, and always has been, one of the
primary foundation stones of liberal religion and a free church in which
people with free minds freely gather together.
And
a free mind has always been one of our primary religious or spiritual
goals—a mind that, in the words of the 19th century Unitarian
minister, William Ellery Channing, “jealously guards its intellectual
rights and powers, that does not content itself with a passive or
hereditary faith; that protects itself against the usurpations of society
and does not cower to human opinion; that refuses to be the slave or tool
of the many or of the few; that resists the bondage of habit and does not
mechanically copy the past or live on its old virtues; that opens itself
to light whencesoever it may come and receives new truth as an angel from
heaven.”
Indeed,
freedom is such an important value for Unitarian Universalists, that the
20th century Unitarian historian, Earl Morse Wilbur, claimed
that freedom, reason, and tolerance were the three distinguishing
theological values of Unitarianism—and, in fact, constituted the Holy
Trinity of Unitarianism.
Freedom
is, for Unitarian Universalists, a theological value springing from the
inherent worth and dignity of every human being. And it encompasses not
only individual freedom of conscience and belief—the right of each and
every person to decide for herself what she believes, what is right or
wrong, and what is good or bad—but also the right of each and every
person to be free to be who she is and who she is called to become, to be
free from oppression and discrimination, to be free from hunger and need,
to be free to live her life in peace, to be free to give voice her
beliefs, to be free to learn and grow, to be free to make her own choices
about her life.
IV
What,
though, does it really mean to be free?
Well,
in the gospel according to Kris Kristofferson and Janice Joplin, it’s
written that “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
And I know that there’s some truth in that (as there is in all good rock
and roll songs). But I also know that that’s not the whole truth.
Freedom
is, at least in part, about the absence of restraints and, as long as
we’re connected or tied to anyone and anything, we’re never truly or
completely free.
In
fact, I’m not sure that we can ever be truly and completely free from
everyone and everything. And, more importantly, I don’t think that any
of us would ever want to be truly and completely free in the sense of
having nothing left to lose—no connections or ties to others or life,
nothing to give meaning or purpose to my life and my freedom.
Freedom,
like so much in life, is relative. We are, I believe, all free, even those
who wear the physical, emotional, or spiritual shackles of slavery, abuse,
oppression, poverty, or illness. And none of us is, or can be, completely
free, regardless of whether we are among those who live the privileged
lives of educated, middle-class Americans who can, within limits, do what
we want, say what we want, believe what we want, buy what we want, go
where we want, and live the way we want to live.
We’re
free because freedom, I believe, is an essential characteristic of what it
means to be a human being. And we are, at the same time, unfree, because
external and internal constraints on human freedom are also a part of what
it means to be human and to live together as human beings in families,
communities, societies, and the world.
V
So
let me ask again: What does it really mean to be free?
To
be completely honest with you, I’m not sure what it means to be free.
I’m not entirely sure what freedom is.
But
I believe that, as the 20th century psychologist Erich Fromm
suggested, there are at least two aspects to freedom—a negative aspect
and a positive aspect: negative freedom or “freedom from” and positive
freedom or “freedom to.”
Negative
freedom, or “freedom from,” refers to the absence, or relative
absence, of external constraints on an individual’s ability to make his
or her own choices or live her life as she pleases, while positive
freedom, or “freedom to” refers to both the absence of internal
constraints on the exercise of one’s negative freedom and, I believe,
more importantly, the use of one’s “freedom from” to fulfill one’s
own potential or, I would add, to act in ways that affirm one’s own life
and the flourishing of all life.
A
person who is not locked up in prison has at least some amount of negative
freedom or “freedom from” simply because he is not a prisoner. But he
may or may not have positive freedom or “freedom to” since “freedom
to” involves how he actually uses his freedom from prison.
VI
Both
“freedom from” and “freedom to” are important and valuable.
And
both are related. “Freedom from” is, at least to some extent, a
necessary precondition of “freedom to” or positive freedom. And
perhaps that’s why so much of the political and social discussion of
freedom, including Franklin Roosevelt’s affirmation of freedom from
want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, and freedom of worship,
focuses on “freedom from.”
But
I believe that “freedom to” or “freedom for” is, in some sense,
more important than “freedom from.”
“Freedom,”
as UU minister David Rankin reminds us, “is the ground of all vital
activity” and an “indispensable element for growth and wholeness.”
Thus, he says, “justice without freedom is oppression,” “love
without freedom is an illusion,” and “faith without freedom is
dogma.”
“But,”
he continues, “freedom by itself, untethered and ungrounded, teeters on
the chaotic” and a “faith that is totally free threatens to become
irresponsible or irrelevant.”
And,
as Kahlil Gibran reminds us, we cannot be truly free until we free
ourselves from the internal, as well as external, shackles that bind us,
and our freedom becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
So
freedom, in the sense of the negative freedom or “freedom from” that
we celebrate (or, as Gibran noted, even worship) as Americans and
Unitarian Universalists, is not, to me, a value in and of itself, but only
a means to a greater end: freedom to become all that we are called to be,
to become more whole, more compassionate, more connected, more grounded.
It
is not enough to be free, for we can be free to hate, free to kill, free
to make war, free to treat others as less than human, free to deplete the
earth’s resources, free to pollute, free to consume, free to waste our
time and talents, free to take our freedom for granted.
It
isn’t enough to be free. Because it matters what we do with our freedom.
And I’m afraid that, too often, we human beings, Americans, and
religious liberals abuse and misuse the gift of freedom. We celebrate our
“freedom from” but ignore or neglect our greater “freedom to” or
“freedom for.”
VII
So
between bites of hot dog and potato salad this July 4th, I hope
that all of us will pause a moment to give thanks for the freedom that we
enjoy, to remember those who have worked and lived and died for the cause
of liberty and freedom throughout human history, and to pray for those who
are struggling, fighting, and risking their lives for freedom today around
the world.
But
I also hope that we’ll remember, on this July 4th and every
day, that that freedom is not an end in itself but a means to a greater
end, that being free is not enough, that freedom, like almost any other
good thing, can be abused, misused, and perverted, and that it matters
what we do with our freedom, as Americans, as Unitarian Universalists, and
as human beings. Amen.
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