On True Freedom

There is a pervasive assumption in America that the military is the guarantor of religious and political freedom (reference the tribute to militarism in D.C. on Jan. 20th). This way of thinking is especially strong among those who believe that there is something redemptive about violence. The Bush Administration continues to be focused on spreading democracy to other parts of the world via military force. In view of the widespread terrorism one needs to ask whether this reliance on coercion and deterrence is producing the desired results.

It is not unusual for citizens to assume that conscientious objectors to war choose "not to defend or fight for their freedoms". This critique brings to mind the words of Celsus, a Roman philosopher during the time of the Early Church, who also felt that Christians were unpatriotic. He considered them to be parasites on the state because they did not serve as soldiers. In response, the Christian scholar Origen affirmed that Christians actually "render an even more important service to their country than if they served as soldiers." It is the people of God, he declared, who are the salt of the earth. He was confident that freedom does not depend upon the sacrifices of military personnel. Rather, society is held together by people becoming "sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our Leader."

Self-preservation is a basic human task. But how one achieves freedom for ourselves and others varies widely. In his epistle, Diognetus wrote (A.D. 124): "For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humankind by country, or by speech, or by dress. . . . yet the condition of citizenship which they exhibit is wonderful, and admittedly strange. They live in countries of their own, but simply as sojourners; they share the life of citizens, they endure the lot of foreigner; every foreign land is to them a homeland, and every homeland a foreign land."

Arthur Gish, a writer and volunteer serving the people of Palestine, wrote: "Freedom is not for the state to grant. Freedom must be rooted in persons, not institutions. Thus freedom can best be preserved by limiting the power of the state. Since it seems to be in the nature of the state to reach beyond its limits and make itself absolute, civil disobedience is actually a service to the state in that it helps impede its self-destructive tendencies. Civil disobedience helps people to affirm who they are. It reminds them that they do not belong to their country, corporation, or class. They belong to God." (The New Left and Christian Radicalism, pp. 136-137). Or to paraphrase St. Thomas More, "Christians are the country's good servants, but God's first."

We could do worse in this terrifying time than to reflect on a poem by Poland's Queen Jadwiga (1372-1399):

"Nor can that endure which has not its foundations upon love.
For love alone diminishes not, but shines with its own light;
Makes an end of discord, softens the fires of hate,
Restores peace in the world, brings together the sundered,
Redresses wrong, aids all and injures none.
And who so invokes its aid will find peace and safety,
And have no fear of future ill."

Respectfully,
Donald Kaufman