The Price of Freedom
As we celebrate our independence, there is an opportunity to contemplate how different people value liberty and freedom.
What brought this to mind was a piece on the NPR series, This I Believe. The piece was contributed by James Loney. He is a Canadian Christian peace activist who spent 118 days in captivity as a hostage in Baghdad in 2005. Here is the segment of his comment that I found moving.
“I believe there are many ways we can hold one another captive. It might be with a gun, an army, a holy book, a law, an invisible free-market hand. It doesn’t matter how we do it, who we do it to, or why. There is no escaping it: We ourselves become captives whenever we hold another in captivity. Whenever we soil someone else with violence, whether through a war, poverty, racism or neglect, we invariably soil ourselves. It is only when we turn away from dominating others that we can begin to discover what the Christian scriptures call “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
Another example of putting a price on freedom played itself out in the news today. President Bush commuted the prison sentence of Scooter Libby. The President’s justification was the Mr. Libby was a loyal public servant and that in his opinion the sentence was excessive. This is the same guy, by the way, that said that those found guilty of crimes in the investigation the Valerie Plame affair would be fired and prosecuted. This is also the same guy who has issued fewer pardons or commutations during his administration than any modern President. In fact while governor of Texas, he refused to commute the death sentences of 150 men and two women. In the case of Karla Faye Tucker, he ignored even the Pope’s request for mercy, and allowed the state to carry out the first execution of a woman since the Civil War.
So what was so different about Mr. Libby that he deserved this action when so many others were denied and why now before all of his appeals were exhausted? I have to believe that there is a quid pro quo at work here. Libby was promised that if he remained loyal and kept his mouth shut, he wouldn’t spend any time in jail. When the courts refused to put off Libby’s jail time while he exhausted his available appeals, Bush had no choice. That is the price of freedom that Bush was willing to pay.
Finally, there are the tens of thousands of people who have died in Iraq in this most recent conflict. They paid a huge price for a questionable cause. They are enjoying the embrace of their Creator, while we continue to struggle to make some sense of their sacrifice. That is the price and obligation of our freedom.
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Romans 8: 18-21