Even though most enemies of our freedom and the freedom of the other are founded in fear, they get manifested in so many different ways. And there is no shortage of people standing around attempting to protect their turf by exploiting this fear that resides in most people.
Suspicion is one such destructive activity/manifestation.
It's driving the chaos we are seeing in politics, the economy, the culture wars, and the religious wars. And the most dangerous religious wars aren't even the ones on a battle field. As long as fear is the most dominant governing factor in a person's life....fat chance of seeing a change happen in the individual who is afraid.
"Freedom excludes suspicion. A choice must be made here with no compromise or half measures. If I think I am free in Christ, I can have no suspicion of others and must break with Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. If there is freedom only in the reciprocity of love, I must lay down all weapons. This is the act of freedom. A choice has to be made. I can advance with all my equipment and analyze the other sociologically and psychologically. I can pin him down and dissect him like a butterfly. But if I do I lose my own freedom and shut myself in the circle of his determinations. I can do this or I can advance in freedom. A choice which is both intellectual and vital must be made here." Jacques Ellul
5 comments:
right with you kent.
Rob, you've been so quiet in the blogging world. It's always good to hear from you.
wow.
todd
I think that exposes how in reality we are so less free because of the current national political and security climate. The entirety of the debate regarding the presidential election is couched from both sides in suspicion and fear. I get at least 3 or 4 email barrages a week from folks I know who are so afraid of and suspicious of a particular candidate getting elected that it has them almost paralyzed with fear. How they can't see that as a freedom robber if almost beyond me. It is as if they folks think the possible actions of any president are bigger than the God and Father that made them.
Kirk, I agree, the way Christians act (fearful and hateful) during and after elections here in America really is strange....and telling.
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