My Declaration - I AM FREE!!!!

The Constitution of the United States, First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This weekend is Independence Day. We celebrate the freedom of our great and free nation. I’m happy to live in the U.S. as a free citizen. I was born here, lived my whole life here, have never lived where I wasn’t free. (Unless you count the years in a legalistic fundamental A.C.E. Christian School. No freedoms there.)

I have to wonder if the great minds behind the Declaration of Independence would have written things differently if they could have seen the future? I’m only going to talk about one of them today, but I can’t help but think the freedom of speech is out of control. If they could have seen the internet would they have thought twice about this freedom? Anybody with a cell phone anymore can post to the web. Can say anything that they want. Most recently, a gentlemen got worldwide attention saying that the world was coming to an end and people sold everything they had to share this message. Now they are broke, and the world lives on. In Benjamin Franklin’s day, the quack standing on the corner saying this wouldn’t have affected too many people. Today everyone heard it. And how about Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church, right here in my home state?

I am using this freedom right now. And I have used it to bash fundamentalism, A.C.E., the Christian School I attended and its administration, Fred Phelps, and people who claim the sky is falling and the idiots who believe it.

Now, I personally do not know Benjamin Franklin, John or Samuel Adams or Thomas Jefferson. I can’t name everyone who signed this document, although I do know my freedoms came at a great price to them. (And I have to admit I know more about this document because of the movie National Treasure then I probably would have. My Christian School education was lacking in a few historical areas). I can’t believe they intended to protect our rights of free speech to use it as hate, because many of the signers were God fearing Christian men.

And in the vein of freedom of speech, I love comments and feedback on my blog. I especially get a kick out of Steve when he says I got an email from so and so about such and such and I didn’t tell anyone. People email Steve questions about things from my blog. He doesn’t care, for example, that I said he’s having knee surgery, he just doesn’t read me every day, so it surprised him to get asked how it would affect his training by a couple of fellow runners.

Last week I got hate comments on my blog. Nasty, spiteful, mean spirited, hateful comments. Worst of all, they were posted anonymously. WHO DOES THAT?

So with Independence Day I was thinking of our freedoms and how thankful I am for them. Even the freedom of speech. Not so thankful for the cowards who are willing to voice their opinion but not own it. It hurts. Even anonymously, these words hurt. I thought about not writing anymore. But I don’t run and hide. I do wonder though, if you don’t like me, why visit?

I’m thankful for my freedoms. Freedom of speech, obviously. Freedom of religion, we attend a religious gathering every week. Freedom to bear arms, we have guns in our home.

But the greatest freedom I have is this: John 8:31-36 “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “But we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”

The Son has set me free from my sin. It doesn’t get any better than that.

And I want to say directly to my anonymous commenter…

THANKS FOR SAYING I'M PRETTY.