Freedom

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, ch. 22:28  And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was [free] born.

This is one of only two references in the Christian Bible to Freedom. The other refers to punishing slave women.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes Freedom as the quality of being free from the control of fate or necessity; the power of self-determination attributed to the will. It also describes it as the state of being able to act without hindrance or restraint, or liberty of action.

We are a free people! Or are we? We are free to vote for whom we wish to put into parliament, yes; but we are not free (in Australia) to choose not to vote. There is a law stating that we are obliged to attend places of voting or we shall be prosecuted under the law. We are not free to learn some of the things that our governments do ‘behind closed doors’. The idea being that we would be worried and/or upset if we knew. Well, they’re right there! The worst example of this attitude to we lower mortals is when our Local Councils do the same thing. We are not free to mistreat others or to break the laws of the land, and quite rightly so, because adherence to the country’s laws, and service to other people is what makes us a civilised community.

Do we have the freedom to worship whatever god we adopt, and in whatever fashion we prefer? Of course we do: it’s in the Australian Constitution. Clause 116 states: The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth. There you are, whether we were born here, or came from another country either as immigrants, refugees or illegal immigrants – the Constitution guarantees us freedom of Religious Expression, no matter who, or what, we worship. But we should not feel free to tell people who worship in a different manner, or who worship a different God, that they are wrong, or that they will go to Hell because of their beliefs, because that is the worse kind of arrogance; and yet there are some religious communities who would have us believe that if we do not follow them, we are all doomed!