freedom?!?*

Studying in Canada revealed how profoundly American I am. I think like an American. I have an American attitude: I expect things to be quick and orderly. I don't like people telling me what to do-- I hate being micro-managed. There are certain presumptions that I take for granted because I am American: individual freedom being one of those core values. Hello, Bill of Rights. Hello, Declaration of Liberty!

I used to think that freedom would arrive with adulthood. No more bedtime! No more chores! I could all my money however I wanted! I could eat all the dessert I wanted! No more green peas. I would get to do whatever I wanted and be whomever I wanted to be. Haha... at least for me. Now, it seems that as we age we inevitably move toward more constraints... or at least different constraints. Even more shocking, I'm not sure the constraints are all bad. I'm coming to think independence (as a free-floating state) is an intellectual farce just as autonomy is.

My American and childhood concepts of freedom are small and naive compared to the Christian concept. Os Guiness sees current American culture in the context of a War about Freedom. The Judeo- Christian concept of freedom:

Jewish and Christian freedom has a number of very striking features. It's derived, not self-created. It's relational; it has to be done in community. It's not atomistic and individualistic. And it has a framework of truth—"The truth will set you free." And it's not boundless.

Opposed to:
On the other hand, you have the philosophical revolution that comes out of the Renaissance that humans are capable of creating themselves. You tie that with the scientific revolution, which imagines we can through science create ourselves. And then there is the consumer revolution, where everything is possible through the market and you can be whoever you want to be. You can see how these things have created this incredible sense of infinite possibility. You have profoundly anti-Christian views on freedom underlying so many of the discussions.

Judeo-Christian freedom is derived, relational, done in community, bounded by absolute truth: a meta-narrative rooted in history centered on God. In the Christian faith, we're freed from death and sin in order to become fully, truly human through relationship with Jesus and our neighbors. Whereas, the philosophical revolution conceives freedom in human-centered terms of infinite possibility. I conceptualize this infinite possibility in terms of self fulfillment and reaching potential.

Conflict is eminent. Internal conflict for the American Christian... or Christian American. Christian freedom gives a person an identity as a child of God and a member of the Church; it's a bounded identity. We're called to love... because we are loved. There's a moral aspect to Christian freedom. Modern philosophy says identity is self-created or chosen (I'm straight or gay, Republican or Democrat, my profession, my race, my weight, my marital status). This kind of identity is prone to fluctuate with circumstances.

An added dimension of the concept of freedom is the positive and negative freedom, using Isaiah Berlin's categories*. Os Guinness defines them as:
Negative freedom is freedom from—freedom from oppression, whether it's a colonial power or addiction to alcohol oppressing you. You need to be freed from negative freedom. Positive freedom is freedom for, freedom to be. And that's what's routinely ignored today.

To quote Kierkegaard: How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

Os Guinness argues (correctly, I believe) that Americans are interested in negative freedom rather than positive freedom. We're more interested in being able to drink a 32 oz Coca-Cola in NYC than we are in the freedom to live a healthy lifestyle. I know I view freedom in more American/negative terms than Christian/positive terms. I can feel my tendency toward negative freedom in my hesitation toward commitments. But, making a commitment to other people forces us to become people and to face our demons that we could easily avoid outside community. We are profoundly social beings; it's in our DNA. The illusion of autonomy is giving us rope to hang ourselves with a freedom unbounded by morality/virtue. Having to create and maintain an identity is a lot of work.

Transformation is a slow process.

* This is a reflection on Christianity Today's Freedom in Balance (interview with Os Guinness)