It has become fashionable, in this last century, to think of our American system in utilitarian and economic terms. Our system is considered great only insofar as the stock market is thriving. While prosperity is nice, it should not be our highest moral end—either as individuals or as a republic.
When our Founding Fathers shrugged off the yoke of servitude imposed by the British crown 250 years ago, they did not see it as a means of economic prosperity. It was a moral decision, driven by the deeply philosophical and theological belief that all men are created equal and have an innate dignity as individuals before God and each other.
This is how the Apostle Paul put it in his letter to the Galatians: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Individual liberty and personal freedom are not means to an end; they are ends in and of themselves.
One of the greatest lies told to us, which we on the right have repeated as forcefully as those on the left, is that freedom and liberty are but tools in the process of building economic prosperity.
The purpose of the lie has been simple. If “comfort” and “security” are the highest ends a republic can secure for its citizens, then liberty can be easily traded for servitude or control. This is why the left is so committed to creating crisis after crisis, where we give up freedom in exchange for baubles.
By turning freedom into a governing commodity, we have given the forces of tyranny a foothold not just on our shores or in our government, but—worse—in our hearts. For the sake of something “free” from government, we trade our freedom for the yoke of servitude.
It is undeniably true that where liberty and freedom have flourished, people have tended to prosper. But our individual and general prosperity, or lack thereof, must not be a condition for the allowance of liberty and freedom.
With the price of His blood, Christ set us free from the tyranny of sin. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is not something we earn or deserve, but that we are given. Likewise, you do not have to earn your freedom. The generation of our Founding Fathers secured it for us with their blood. We do, though, have to keep fighting to retain it. Every day. And just as we must resist the allure of sin, so we must resist the gentle call of slavery.
It is not for prosperity that we have been set free, but rather for the sake of freedom itself.
