by Teri Ong
In the fall semester of 2000, my choirs were singing patriotic music. We usually sing patriotic music in presidential election years. Usually we memorize all of the verses of the “Star-Spangled Banner” and make sure that everyone knows the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Little did we know Election Day that year was going to be one of the most painful and momentous in American history. It was going to test the concept of “smooth transition of power” more than any national crisis. Not only do I clearly remember what I was doing when JFK died and when the Twin Towers went down, I remember what I was doing on Election Night 2000.
What was I doing? I was watching election returns until about midnight. That was when it became clear that we were not going to know who the next president was for some time. Then I was up most of the night crying and praying through many of the Psalms. It was probably that night that taught me most experientially the meaning of “groanings which cannot be uttered.”
The next morning I had to go and direct my elementary choir in singing Ron Hamilton’s song, “The Price of Freedom.” The knowledge of what we were doing to our nation overwhelmed me as I looked into the faces of those youngsters as they sang, “Remember, remember the price that was paid; remember the sacrifice Americans have made; Be faithful to that vision, though others turn away. Never forget the price of freedom.” I broke down and cried. I still do when I think of that day.
So this fall, once again we are singing “The Price of Freedom.” And once again the outcome of our Colorado election process was uncertain on Election night. We only had to wait a day, however, to find out that two of our favored candidates lost by very narrow margins. But very significant gains were made by conservatives all around the country at all levels. Alabama has never had a conservative state government since the Civil War, and they do now. But I am wary of what is driving political passion in our generation.
As a conservative Christian, I am most concerned that I have the freedom to live my life in accord with my own conscience, which is guided (I hope, controlled) by the principles and requirements of God’s Word. That is what freedom means to me. But most of what I heard during this long and ugly election cycle harkened back to Bill Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” Everyone feels strapped financially, and so the element that is missing from our lives is the freedom to spend money the way we want.
Liberals (an ironic term) want to pass out money taken from certain people by the government and give to others who will spend it in prescribed ways– for example, cash for clunkers, mandated health insurance, rebates on energy efficiency upgrades, credits for first time home-ownership, etc. This is their pathway to spending freedom. Conservatives want individuals and businesses to keep more of what they make so they can spend it anyway they like. Nonetheless, from either perspective it is all about the freedom to be self-indulgent.
Very few people in America want the same kind of liberty that our forefathers envisioned. They envisioned an equality under the law that would open doors for all men to take their own risks in trying to better their lot in life. They envisioned a system of justice where you wouldn’t be thrown in jail if you failed financially, so you could try to dig out of your own hole. They envisioned a system of government where all would be protected from having to pay for the excesses of the king at whatever tax rate the king saw fit to levy. But along with the freedom to make and take their own risks came the attendant freedom to fail.
What many people in America want today is freedom from risk and responsibility. That is why one of the biggest “industries” in America is the insurance industry. And when there is no private insurance company big enough to absorb our risk, we look to the government. Surely our government is big enough to stop hurricanes! And if it can’t, surely it can pick up all of the pieces afterwards.
A few days ago, I was reading Thomas Macaulay’s essay on John Milton. Milton is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, but he was also a prominent citizen and public servant passionately involved in the cause of freedom during the English Civil War during the mid-seventeenth century. One of Macaulay’s statements about Milton particularly struck me as being pertinent to our political and social environment today.
“That from which the public character of Milton derives its great and peculiar splendor still remains to be mentioned. If he exerted himself to overthrow a forsworn king and a persecuting hierarchy, he exerted himself in conjunction with others. But the glory of the battle which he fought for that species of freedom which is most valuable, and which was then the least understood– the freedom of the human mind– is all his own. Thousands and tens of thousands among his contemporaries raised their voices against ship money and the Star-chamber [oppressive taxation and capricious laws]. But there were few indeed who discerned the more fearful evils of moral and intellectual slavery, and the benefits which would result from the liberty of the press, and the unfettered exercise of private judgment. These were the objects which Milton justly conceived to be the most important. He was desirous that the people should think for themselves as well as tax themselves, and be emancipated from the dominion of prejudice as well as from that of Charles.” (pp.76-7)
I hope and pray that our newly elected officials will understand that fixing our tax structure and even “the economy” is not all that America needs. Among other things, America needs the freedom from one-size-fits-all public education and publically funded news media. America needs to pull back from government-mandated personal health and safety rules as well as “safety nets” because what Americans need most is to grow up and assume responsibility for themselves and the consequences of their own decisions. It is only in that type of environment that the freedom of the human mind can flourish.
Macaulay went on to say:
“He [Milton] knew that those who, with the best intentions, overlooked these schemes of reform, and contented themselves with pulling down the king and imprisoning the malignant, acted like the heedless brothers in his own poem [“Comus”], who, in their eagerness to disperse the train of the sorcerer, neglected the means of liberating the captive.” (p.77)
We need public officials and legislators with the boldness and insight to look deeper than our pocketbooks, legislators, who, like Milton, have the noble aim “to reverse the rod, to spell the charm backward, to break the ties which bound a stupefied people to the seat of enchantment.” (p. 77) Too long our society has been enchanted and stupefied with the promised benefits of socialized governmental largess. We can only hope that looking in the governmental goody barrel and finding it empty will help us break the spell so we can come to our senses and think rightly about the deeper issues. We can hope that our newly elected officials will help by using the charm backward at all levels of government.
Let us pray, as did U.S. House of Representatives Chaplain James S. Montgomery:
“In these moving days, we commend to Thee our country, our President, our Speaker, and the Congress; in all our various duties and spheres of service, grant that our motives may be one. As we face the stark responsibility of victory, grant that whatever we do may be in utter conformity to Thy will and to the blessed ideals of a Republic which is the inspiration of liberty-loving people in all the earth. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (On This Day, p. 155)
References:
Hamilton, Ron. “The Price of Freedom,” in The Great American Time Machine (Greenville, S.C.: Majesty Music)
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Essay on Milton. (New York: Charles E. Merrill Co., 1892), pp.76-77
LaHaye, Beverly and Michael Farris (eds.). On This Day. (Washington D. C.: Concerned Women for America, n.d.), p. 155.
