Land of the free, home of the misuse of freedom?

By Michael Mills

We did it everybody. We survived election season. Most of us, at least. The people have spoken and we have decided. Most of us, at least.

You may find yourself on the other side of this election season thrilled that your candidate won. Or you may find yourself despondent because your candidate lost. Whatever the case, what’s done is done and now we get to pick up the pieces from the chaos that we’ve made. Now we get to begin the work of reconciliation and healing.

Never more than during election season do we feel that we are free. Freedom, a defining distinctive of the American people. And when you’ve been handed a piece of paper and you get to write on that piece of paper, Yea or Nay, Him not Her, This not That, have you ever felt so free, so powerful?

Now, we could talk about true freedom or the illusion of freedom, but we won’t. At least, not here. The point is not whether we are or are not free, the point is what we do with the freedom we have. So, what do we do with the freedom we have?

This election season has been rough. I’ve seen people of peace breathing fire. I’ve heard people of compassion firing arrows of hate. I’ve felt the Church, the people of God, fractured. All in the name of freedom.

We have (mis)used our freedom for meanness. In the name of freedom, we have weaponized our words. In the name of freedom, we have grabbed for power.

Five years ago, I helped start a church. From scratch, we created and in that process of creation, we had ultimate freedom. We had a freedom to create, in essence, anything. There were no rules, no tradition, no heavy-handed oversight. We could make this church into whatever we wanted it to be.

Thankfully, despite my best efforts sometimes, through the accountability of community, through the foresight of practicality, and most significantly, through the beckoning draw of the Gospel, our freedom was used for good. What was created was modeled on the way of Jesus, the catalyst of the Gospel.

Speaking of Jesus, talk about freedom! The divine putting on flesh, empowered with all the freedoms of humanity and then some. While we are bound by natural law, Jesus willingly set aside the freedom to transcend such law…most of the time. Sometimes you do just need some extra wine to keep the party going.

So Jesus, this human-god, endowed with all the freedoms we enjoy and having access to even more, is an interesting test case. Thinking of Jesus’ life, his movement toward the vulnerable and away from the powerful, his subversive teachings on the economics of the Kingdom of God, his insistence on what seemed to be sacrificial suicide, his release of all the power, honor, and glory that he was free and right to claim…it makes me wonder, did Jesus use his freedom well?

By our standards, I’d say no. His life seems like a waste.

Well, then, what about our standards? Maybe that’s the problem. Because if I’m willing to spew hate at my sister because she thinks differently on an immigration policy, what a chump I am! As the people of God, that’s simply unacceptable. We’ve got to do better than that. We can do better than that.

The damage is done. It doesn’t have to be over but it is done. Now we have the choice, the freedom even, to decide what we do now. Do we continue to alienate and demonize? Or do we use our freedom as Jesus did?

May we, as a people of freedom, in the name of Jesus, seek to heal, reconcile, and serve. May we speak words of peace. May we offer a hand of cooperation. May we be the restorative presence of Christ in our world today. Amen.

Michael Mills is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church starter and lead pastor of Inland Church in Spokane, Washington. 

Note: The views expressed here in columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.

Interested in writing for CBF at Patheos? Submit your column idea to CBF Communications Director Aaron Weaver at [email protected].