Fragile Freedom

 

Fragile Freedom

One score and fourteen years ago, standing on the west side of the Berlin wall, Ronald Reagan gave a speech that thundered throughout the world like a powerful echo and let “freedom ring”!!!

 “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” pounded like a massive mallet at the hearts and minds of both civilians and politicians alike, eventually removing the ugly scar of the wall from the wounded chest of Berlin.

On the east side of the wall, far away by the Urals, I too began to feel "the wind of change" blowing through the streets of my enormous country, previously bound into silence and helplessness by the Red string of communism.  And the three great rights of mankind “of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of happiness” were finally being honored. 

This change was more than exhilarating. Gradually the shackles of fear and atheism began to fall and the effects of Freedom became undeniable. But the price for Liberty was high in the
Soviet Union. It was paid slowly, incrementally like a seventy-year mortgage, by the blood and suffering of millions, the only acceptable payment plan. 

Here in the US, the price for freedom was paid with the same currency. The Lord proclaimed that He “redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (D&C 101:80). This is a covenant land and has been from the beginning:

Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be ^afree from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but ^bserve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written (Ether 2:12)

 

The cornucopia of the Lord’s blessings poured out without measure over this land has become such “a norm” that we can no longer recognize the source of these gifts!!! The freedoms, privileges, and standard of living have been here for so long they seem to have merged with the landscape of this country. We perceive these blessings as intrinsic and inherent, which is comparable to saying that The Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument or the Golden Gate Bridge have “always been there”!!!

While being quick on taking up the Lord on His side of the covenant, we fail to recognize that we are not holding up ours, with this one nation being hardly “under God” nor being any longer “indivisible”. We joyfully sing that “this land is for you and me", but it’s been a while since we have paused to ask ourselves “What can we do for this country?” We, the people, forget that freedom was never ours to have, it was granted to us as a gift and a blessing!!! 

          Like frogs swimming in water that is increasingly getting hot, we rationalize that what we are experiencing politically is perhaps nothing more than the effects of "global warming" and ignore all the Red Flags, frantically billowing in our faces!!! Freedom is fragile. The prospect of losing it seems neither real nor probable to us, despite these wise and sobering words from Ronald Ragan:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

The thought of not having the Freedom to pass on to future generations is mighty unsettling!!! Yet we brush it off with naiveté of little children who cannot grasp that just like gravity applies to all living on the planet, so do the laws of God.  And if prior civilizations that peopled this continent became subject to bondage and ultimately extinction after violating the terms of the covenant, we can only expect the same!

We refuse to “awake to a sense of (our) awful situation”! (Ether 8:24) We don’t want to know that once we concede to giving up our Sovereignty in the slightest degree, it is taken from us in a charlatan bait and switch manner by those that seek “to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and …the destruction of all people”  (Ether 8:25).

 

For me, coming from a country where Freedom was never a given and watching this nation trade its Agency for safety is like observing a liberated Berlin willingly change into the striped pajamas of Auschwitz!!! It is both horrifying and mind-boggling…

 

Does “Give me liberty or give me death” imply that when knowingly or not, we reject Liberty we are opting out for its alternative - death? Doesn’t bondage ultimately lead to decline and extinction? To echo the words of Patrick Henry, Ezra Taft Benson said something along very similar lines:

“I don’t know how you feel, my brethren and Sisters, but I’d rather be dead than lose my liberty…I do have fear that it may slip away from us because of our own indifference, our own negligence as citizens of this land. And so I plead with you this morning, that you take an active interest in matters pertaining to the future of this country...”

 

The cornerstone of Freedom in this country is the Constitution. The very constitution that according to the prophet Joseph would one day be “so torn and rent asunder, and …hang by a thread”. Like Reagan, I do not come only “to lament”, but to ring the Liberty Bell lest it should begin to resemble too closely the Bell Tower of Berlin, a Nazi relic and symbol! I also share a promise of hope offered by Joseph:

I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington. It will be saved by the citizens of this nation who love and cherish freedom. It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church – men and women who will subscribe to and abide by the principles of the Constitution.  (Our Divine Constitution, emphasis added).  

Where are those men and women?  Are we those “enlightened members of this Church”? Can we still become them? What shall we do with our Fragile Freedom?

“Arbeit Macht Frei” was the motto that millions faced entering the Nazi labor camps. “The work will set you free”. But just like work within a barbed wire doesn’t set anyone free, neither do unrighteousness, ignorance, or indifference!!!

 

Only Truth does…