There is Freedom and Then There is Freedom!

Let me start with the fact that I agree with this guy. Please remember that: I AGREE with this guy. What frustrates me is that it seems no one gets the BIGGER picture. The bigger picture happens to be philosophical and not emotional--so people will tune out how to SOLVE this problem because thinking in a rational, analytical way hurts one's brain. We have A.D.D. as a nation and are too impatient to even focus for a few minutes on something we don't want to think about. Thinking hurts!!! But many people (not my family and friends, of course!) need to realize they must THINK PAST the pain.... it is so important for our future.

(Note: Any use of the word "you" is general--not intended for anyone in specific.)

I get why this man is saying that our freedom is threatened by politically correct language. I agree--a whole BOOK could be written about this subject. But to address it, we really need a higher perspective--historical, intellectual, philosophical and most important-- theological perspective.
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Number one: WHY are we feeling triggered in the first place?

TRENCH-LEVEL

ANSWER: Because the family has fallen apart. Because we no longer trust our authorities BECAUSE the family has fallen apart. We worship comfort and stability BECAUSE we have substituted food, entertainment, and fun for reality because reality hurts. Why does reality hurt? Because the family has fallen apart. Realize, I am not blaming these university kids. They are a product of their parents who are a product of their grandparents. In general, the blame points backwards.

Most people look at their family and think, "My family was okay." That may be true. I am not arguing the individual family. When the structure of a culture strains under the weight of the corporate collapse of the family, and when everywhere you look there are children of divorce, people who cannot hold down jobs, people who can't relate to others.... it will affect you no matter how perfect and functional your own family was.

No matter how wonderful we personally may be, we are swimming in a culture of depravity, corruption, vulgarity, emotional instability and despair BECAUSE the family has fallen apart. America has one of the top divorce rates on the planet. It is among the top in drug abuse, pornography addiction, materialism. Studies have suggested our nation is one of the most unhappy on the earth. Our prisons are overflowing. Think about this: When HALF of all adults are being medicated for emotional problems, we have a real crisis.

AND THIS IS IN THE CONTEXT OF WHAT IS CALLED A FREE SOCIETY!! Freedom didn't prevent this..... Freedom can't solve this. In fact, a fake freedom helped cause it.
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AIRPLANE-LEVEL

So why are the families falling apart? Because we live in a society that is driven by hedonistic, materialistic pleasure. Our god is money, emotion and comfort. We feel it is our God-given right to pursue happiness and live according to our own wills. We have wrongly conflated patriotic ideals with Christian ideals. Americans often believe that at the Founding Father's words were birthed from the Apostles' words. We actually ignore the

scripture that says that we must take up our cross daily, and sacrifice in love to live for others and try to fit that into a slice of "right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness." These two things are diametrically opposed to own another. You can't live for yourself and live for Christ. You cannot serve two masters. You are either living to make money so that one day you can retire and do what you want to do, or you are giving your life to serve Christ. It is impossible to do both.

More FREEDOM will not solve this problem. Christians need to choose this day whom they will serve.
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HEAVENLY-LEVEL

If you are living in sin you are not free. That's the bottom line. No matter what laws you put in place to protect rights, no matter how many lives are given for the idea of freedom, there is NO freedom outside of a holy life. Christ tells us the TRUTH will set us free--not a well-written, nor carefully enforced Constitution. Living in His Truth sets us free. And not immediately... but eventually as we learn to accept more and more of His forgiveness and grace. We become free AS WE BECOME LIKE HIM! (smile!)

Look at the mess we are in under all the false freedom and libertine liberty and riot-producing rights? Have we found peace as a nation? No. We have been lied to. Peace is not about getting to walk around and do what one wishes without impediments. Rights do not empower us, nor give us respect or value. Liberty was known, even to the ancient pagans and to the greatest Greek and

modern philosophers of all history, to be but a puff of smoke. And that is why you have the brilliant Nietzsches and Sylvia Plaths putting their heads in the oven and committing suicide. That is why the Freuds and the Hegels, who helped birth the nihilistic spirit of our age, have philosophically inspired three generations to plunge into the most hedonistic and narcissistic lifestyles unknown since the Imperial family of Caligula.

Real freedom; true freedom is not living in a country that flies a flag and tells us it is there to protect our freedom. Freedom comes--not from without--but from WITHIN US! Few people are authentically free, for they are enslaved in a system that has utterly imprisoned them in body, soul, mind and spirit.

People live their lives--without any meaning--as automatons moving about in a fake world in a little box run by Siri, who spend their evenings isolated and entertained, their days dutifully

responsible to the capitalist system awaiting that future moment when they can take their money and go find a little peace and pleasure.

This is the system we proudly call freedom. And it is a horrible lie. A Devilish lie. And it is why we are unhappy and we don't even know the source of our confusing and meaningless existence. Most people are not even AWARE of their own existence other than when their body calls out to be fed or rested or anesthetized.

Each soul longs for true freedom. But humans in every age and in every time have sought it unsuccessfully until they found it in Him. At the foot of the Cross. In humbly letting go of self and witnessing a God of such love that He was willing to die to conquer sin so that we could taste TRUE freedom. And that freedom is felt when we repent and turn from the sins that we believe give us so much comfort and pleasure, the sins that seem to give us so much power and respect. That freedom is an illusion. Do not allow the devil to fool you any longer--to make you stupid and keeping you blind and deaf and dumb.

Our freedom and our liberty can only be found in one place, and that is in Christ. Devotion and utter obedience to God will truly undo the shackles of narcissism, the meaninglessness of self-centeredness. In giving our lives to share in His Divine life through uncompromising devotion and the obedience of faith, we open up the vast eternal cosmos and we go from the darkness of deception to the true enlightenment.

In fact, we find there, underneath all the rubbish of false promises what our hearts and minds were yearning for. Love. Not a love that fades but a love that burns so brightly, it has the energy of a trillion stars. It is a love that burns sin from our souls and sets us free. And that is worth giving up a life time of illusory freedoms.