I was driving around Pennsylvania where I live and, as my wife and I were turning into the state park where we were going to physically distance and hike, there was an abandoned building on the side of the road. The faded yellow building had wear and tear on it, but it had hints of recent activity. In big, bold, black letters across the whole building someone had spray-painted, “Liberate Pennsylvania” across the whole building. I did a double take. Liberate Pennsylvania? I think what the spray-painter had in mind about freedom and what the Bible has in mind about freedom are two different things.
Freedom, or liberation, from a Christian perspective is not about our personal rights. As much as you will find me involved in human rights and civil rights, I personally have a hard time using the language of “rights” from the pulpit. Too often rights, or freedom, are centered solely in an individual perspective.
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