Musings: Notes From My Daybook

Newbigin states: "We have to confess also, if we are to be honest, that the same churches that demanded freedom of conscience when they were in a minority have, when they became majorities, denied to others the freedom they claimed for themselves. How, if we are to think of a Christian society, can we ensure that the same sins are not repeated when and if Christians are in a position to impose their views on others?"

One might think that the answer is to simply accept all truth claims. Maybe the best answer is simply say that all religions are right and good and equal so embrace whichever one fits you the best or make up your own. But such indifference about truth does not serve well either. And in North American contexts the evidence of pluralism's lack of cogent integrity grows. Newbigin alludes to a statement by the historian Gibbon: "In Roman society all religions were to the people equally true, to the philosophers equally false, and to the government equally useful."

In order to placate, nurse along, or, at times control, do we not continue to witness a call to simply accept one another, love one another, and embrace our differences--all the while diminishing what we hold to be unique about the Christian faith?

Maybe it is time to reclaim freedom. Of course, we will have to redefine it. Today freedom means autonomy--to do whatever you please. Freedom becomes a license to do whatever you want to do. Such a definition of freedom must be reframed with a deeper, more holistic framework. Freedom, held in tension with other ideals such as "the good" brings a sense of community and begins to open up the possibilitiy that freedom is not merely autonomy. Freedom may, in fact, have something to do with relationships with God and with others.

For Christians, freedom is not autonomy; it is, instead, a new life that is found in Christ. For the secularist, freedom can ultimately lead to a state of meaninglessness.

To claim the truth in Jesus Christ and to have confidence to give others freedom to exist, to hold their opinions and to learn is what freedom allows.

Again, from Newbigin: True freedom is a gift of grace given by the one who is in fact Lord; that gift, freely given, can only be received in freedom. It follows that the church cannot bear witness to that gift unless there is freedom to refuse it. Yet the church must still bear witness that this is the only true freedom: to belong wholly to the one by whom the space of freedom is created, and whose service is perfect freedom."