American Freedom and the Dreaded "M" Word!

Freedom: The most important American word.  More important than the word “God” is this word “Freedom” to Americans.  It’s definitely more important than the words “Religion” and “Christian.”  It holds much more meaning for Americans than the words “Morality” or “Responsibility.”  We look at nations that have less freedom than us, and we love our freedom even more, and then the word “Patriotism” takes on more weight, and the word “Pride.”

Image from http://bumpshack.com/2011/06/18/hustlers-larry-flynt-offers-anthony-weiner-a-serious-job/l-9/

I realize that the more weight we give to the word “Freedom,” the less important the others become.  Contrary to popular belief, a society that is 100 % free is not a Utopia, and would face many problems.  For one thing, it would not be a safe society.  It would not have any rules.  You cannot impose rules on people who are 100 % free.  It seems to me that the freer this society becomes, the more rules we have to make and enforce to keep this immoral society in line.  It’s the ultimate Catch-22!

       We take our freedoms for granted, and so we pay the price for freedom without responsibility and without morals.  The government gives its citizens freedom without accountability or morality, and in fact, fights for the rights of its people to have freedom without these hard-to-define limitations.  Questions like “Whose morals?” are ballied about as the nation degrades to such a point that the government has to step in and impose restrictions to freedom.  The interesting thing about all this is how the whole system is designed so that the taking away of these freedoms is done with the majority support of the society’s citizens... for our own safety, you know.

Remember this?  Image from http://popcrush.com/tags/janet-jackson/

     If you ask me, the solution to our dilemma is not to curtail freedom, but to increase morality, thereby increasing a sense of responsibility and achieving freedom with the intelligence and wisdom it takes to handle it correctly.  And if we start asking questions like “Whose morality should we use?” then why not ask, “Whose morality are we using when we have to impose rules and regulations on an immoral society?”

    Maybe that’s the main problem.  Too many these days have the short-sighted view, saying “Let’s clean up this place,” instead of the long-sighted view, “Let’s plan for tomorrow.”  The first attempts to clean up the past, the other looks to the future.  When an earthquake destroys a building, instead of cleaning up the rubble every time it happens, why don’t we learn from this and build a better building, one that can withstand an earthquake?

Image from http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/08/11/miley_cyrus_pole_dance_at_teen_choice_aw   

     A society that has freedom without morality and responsibility is really not free at all.  And that describes America just about perfectly.

    America!  Land of the Free!  But you can’t own handguns, and you can’t put up any religious symbolism at school!  It doesn’t sound so free to me!

When will the world see that we need Jesus?

If we open our eyes we will all realize that He loves us!

When will the world see that we need Jesus?

When our hearts are as one and believe that He’s the Son of our God!

The Lord is our God, and we shall never want

The Lord is our God, and we shall live forever

Oh, if we share the love of Jesus, see each other as He sees us

Then His love will see us through!

(Oh, you know His love will see us through – oh, you know His love will see us through!)

When will the world see that we need Jesus?

When sister and brother love one another as one!

When will the world see that we need Jesus?

When our hearts are as one and believe that He’s the Son of our God!

-     “We Need Jesus”

      Petra

- From my Journal, September 1999