Freedom, responsibility need virtue

There is a saying, "Perhaps you had to be there," when someone doesn't understand the point of your story. Similarly, I hear the older generations saying, "I don't know my country anymore," but younger generations don't seem to have a clue as to what their elders are talking about.

Perhaps this is because "change" has become the only constant. Since the 1950s, there has been no definitive concept of a stable culture in America. What our country was to the older generations has generally passed from the collective memory of younger generations. How we did things is no longer how things are done.

Life in these United States has changed since the 1950s, as evidenced by the advent of technology that has reshaped our lives. Simultaneously, an overwhelming sexual sabotage of American culture, a consequence of Dr. Alfred Kinsey's fabricated report, devastated this nation's social and moral fabric. And let's not forget the poisoning of our nation's Christian roots by relativism, pluralism, and secularism.

Certainly, those of us who grew up knowing this nation at the end of World War II, find it now to be much different. Many of the differences are good and our quality of life has been greatly improved in many ways. But at the same time, much has been diminished. The question is: "Have we gained or lost the critical parts on which America's culture of freedom depends?"

Consider this. In the eighteenth century, the Framers of our Constitution were intimately familiar with the stories and teachings of the Bible. While there were many sources that inspired their vision of freedom, it was the biblical narratives that underwrote the foundation of a culture (how we do things) of freedom. Today, it seems that biblical foundation is being abandoned and forgotten, and with it, the lessons of freedom.

With every passing generation, fewer and fewer individuals and families are reading the Bible. Even many main-line churches have given up Bible study for studies in self-improvement and psychotherapy. The extent of biblical illiteracy in North America at the beginning of the twenty-first century is alarming. Why? Our concept of freedom is rooted in a biblical culture. Without a knowledge and understanding of this culture shaped by the narratives of the Bible, we cannot expect rising generations to understand true freedom. Lacking this understanding, how will they know when freedom is threatened?

Take, for example, the Bible's Exodus saga. It begins at Exodus 6:28 when Moses, acting as God's ambassador, confronts Egypt's pharaoh, demanding the release of the God's people from slavery. The story ends in the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. (Deuteronomy 27-30 and Joshua 8:30-35).

At the beginning, the end, and often in between, the Israelites are presented with choices. Initially, they must choose to leave a life of slavery in Egypt and fearfully cross through a divided sea to freedom. Additional, though less frightening, choices had to be made as they traveled. Finally in the Promised Land, they must choose between the way of life or death. God urges them to choose life, but they have the freedom to choose either way.

The lesson of the Exodus saga is that the gift of freedom is manifested in making choices, and then taking responsibility for those choices. In slavery, there are no choices and, consequently, no responsibility. There is only submission to the will of the master or, in our day, the government and its establishments.

The Exodus saga contains the beginning of a culture of freedom that became the cornerstone of our American culture. The stories and teachings of the Bible develop the values and principles expressive of that culture. The Founders referred to this biblical culture as virtuous living. The question is, are Americans virtuous enough today to sustain their freedom. As government progressively takes away our choices, can we be virtuous enough to choose freedom and act responsibility?