Freedom to make choices wasn’t the idea of political revolutionaries…it was God’s. In the beginning, God made Adam special above all creatures by breathing His own life into him. In addition, He went the extra step to give Adam (and Eve) the liberty to choose obedience or rebellion. which ultimately led to Christ’s coming to redeem us from the sinful choice. With the planting of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was risk. For centuries, theologians have debated the finer points of freewill, but the bottom line is, the DNA of humanity includes an inherent need for liberty. Naturally, there are requirements for training, discipline, and a process of maturing, but all along there is a drive to make one’s own choices.

Unfortunately, there have always been many who demand personal liberty while seeking to deny it of others. Our time now is no different. Whether it’s inside sacred circles, academic venues, or political establishments, we must be diligent to identify threats to foundational liberty. In sacred circles it comes as legalism or pressure to compromise long-held beliefs. In academic venues, it comes as demands to conform to history revisionism, political correctness, progressive ideas of genders, and socialistic approaches to economics, justice, and civics. In political establishments, it comes with the ever-encroaching reach of government officials claiming the right to give or deny us ours’ without any sense of accountability themselves.

Liberty is a most precious commodity, and as Americans it once set us apart from the world. Our founders knew it as God-given, self-evident, unalienable rights. May we continue to value it, demand it, teach it, and be willing to take the risk to give it to others.