TRFG - Doubt 3 - Christianity is a straight-jacket

Some people are turned off from the idea of God because they believe following God would involve many restrictive rules against how they want to live their life. They say they would rather be free to do (and think) whatever they want without worrying about what God would have them do. Is a belief in absolute truth the enemy of freedom? Some argue that freedom is the ability to be able to define meaning and existence. It follows then, that anything infringing that ability cannot be maximizing my freedom.

However, this view of freedom has shortcomings. Our definition of freedom must take into consideration the reality of the world around us. In particular, we will see that people with this view have a misunderstanding about truth, community, Christianity, and what it means to be free itself.

Truth Is Unavoidable

Just like we said earlier in this study, any claims about universal truth must necessarily apply to the themselves. If you say “all truth claims are really an effort to control people”, are you just trying to control people with your claim of truth? Whenever you say “this is how you should live and think about religion”. You are really just claiming a way to see truth, i.e. that has become your religion.

Community Can’t Be Completely Inclusive

It is argued that common moral beliefs are not necessary for a group of people to function as a community. However, this statement is an oversimplification. For example, a liberal democracy depends on a list of shared values - a preference for individual over community rights, a division between public and private morality, and the sanctity of human choice. Many cultures around the world do not espouse these views.

In fact, any community will necessarily be somewhat exclusive in order to protect the integrity and safety of the group. Consider a board member of Planned Parenthood who has a religious experience and now believes abortions are wrong and continues to tell others about their views. Also consider if the director for 40 days for life has a daughter who gets an abortion and because of this experience, decides that abortion under any circumstances should be legal. Eventually both people will be asked to leave the organization because their beliefs are at odds with the group, regardless of how open and accepting the group may be seen as a whole. Community demands a set of principles to define it. Without boundaries that define the group, there is no way to know what the group is fighting for, they can only know what they are fighting against.

Christianity Isn’t Culturally Rigid

Recall how we said that some people claim that a belief in absolute truth is ultimately too confining, restricting everyone to conform to one version of what is “right”. However, we see a different pattern throughout Christian history.

The Bible explains how people from every tribe, nation and tongue will believe in Jesus and ultimately be in heaven. Through the course of history, Christianity has adapted to other cultures. It started in Jerusalem before spreading to the Hellenists throughout the Mediterranean. Later, Christianity spread to the barbarians in Northern Europe, which led to the spread in the Americas. Today, the church is thriving in South America, Africa and Asia.

Christianity has also been strengthened as new cultures are added to the fold. For instance, as Christianity spread in the West, logic and reason prevailed and encouraged Christians to think deeply about their individual faith. Now that the church is spreading very rapidly in Africa, the spiritual element of our faith is being more pronounced as Jesus is seen to be the answer against the dark spirits that have ruled the African villages for centuries. African scholar Lamin Sannech writes:

Christianity answered this historical challenge by a reorientation of the worldview…. People sensed in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred nor their clamor for an invincible Savior, and so they beat their sacred drums for him until the stars skipped and danced in the skies. After that dance the stars weren’t little anymore. Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans, not re-made Europeans.

While Christianity is able to embrace and renew what makes each culture distinct, secularism is not so adapting. It forces other cultures to replace their views with Western ideas of individuality and (anti-)spirituality. Christianity on the other hand, forces them to critique their practices but still inhabit them.

Freedom Isn’t Simple

At the beginning of this post, we said that our definition of freedom must take into consideration the reality of the world around us. As an example, if you’re 5’4” and weight 140 pounds, you won’t be able to be an NFL lineman, no matter how hard you try. There is a physical reality in the way of you achieving your dream. Generally, you can only be free within the confines of reality.

In fact, it is often true that only after a person restricts himself in some way is he able to experience greater freedom. A young boy with aspirations of playing in the NBA must dedicate himself to learning the basics of basketball. If he is serious about his dream, through his teenage years, he will dedicate himself to getting better at basketball to the exclusion of other activities. Only after doing all of this may he achieve his dream of truly expressing himself and demonstrating his abilities for the world to see in the NBA. Similarly, a writer must learn the basic structure of writing before he is able to truly express himself through writing. When you are in love, you are constrained to remain with that one. So if we can restrain ourselves to grow physically, intellectually and emotionally, why wouldn’t this be true morally?

Love, the Ultimate Freedom, Is More Constraining Than We Might Think

While there is a tremendous amount of freedom to express one’s love in marriage, it is also extremely constraining. Out of all the people in the world, you can only express your love to this one person. In a human love relationship, both sides give up some of their independence for the sake of their beloved. While we might expect that God would not similarly limit himself and would instead demand that we make all of the sacrifice in our relationship with him, in Christianity God did limit himself to a servant. It is this demonstration of love that the apostle Paul says “constrains” us to love him. When asked if it is hard to love God, C.S. Lewis replied “It is easy to those who do it.” The true Christian is not externally following a bunch of rules laid down by some power on high. Instead, he is constrained by love to do every little thing to please the beloved.

Question 1 Greg doesn’t like the idea of Christianity because he doesn’t think he could fully express himself if he was a Christian. How would you respond to Greg?

Question 2 We have said that when opposing the validity of a claim of absolute truth, the critic is necessarily making a truth claim of his own. As an example, Keller points to democratic values. “Western society is based on shared commitments to reason, rights, and justice even though there is no universally recognized definition of … any of these” (p. 39). Do you agree that the values of Western democracy constitute a type of secular absolute truth, and that adhering to the rightness of those values is no different than a Christian holding to the truth claims of Scripture? Why or why not?

Question 3 Chloe thinks “A ‘one-Truth-fits-all’ approach is just too confining. The Christians I know don’t seem to have the freedom to think for themselves. I believe each individual must determine truth for him- or herself.” How would you respond to Chloe?

Question 4 Kevin claims, “Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.” How would you respond to Kevin?