"The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance."
- Henry Ward Beecher
The World View in Five Minutes on Monday, July 3, 2017 had a special report by Emily Swanson, "New Video Brings Out the True Meaning of Liberty." In the report below the author talks about the short video "The Lost Secrets of Liberty," which reviews what true meaning of Liberty to America. You can click on the link and watch the video.
Our liberty here in America is deeply rooted in our Christian heritage. The more we reject our heritage, the further we get away from it, the less free we are as a people.
The recent perverse United States Supreme Court decisions making abortion and same-sex "marriage" legal are leading the culture to the loss of basic morality, decency and freedom. America needs to wake up and return to its roots.
By Emily Swanson
A new video from Bill Heid and Heirloom Audio Productions
entitled The Lost Secrets of Liberty, released
in time for July 4th, has been censored by Facebook.
Heid sought to bring Americans back to a real meaning of liberty
and how true liberty is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“When we talk about something like liberty or if we say,
‘There's oppression.’ That has to have some type of framework. That has to have
some type of context. We have to say, ‘What is it that we're going to be free
of? Who is that’s going to be free of what?’”
Heid said that we need a clear definition of liberty in a
culture that has made liberty a cliche word.
“The poacher
thinks that conservation laws are oppressive. He wants freedom and liberty from
that. So what is it that we're going to talk about? My biggest fear that we
cover in the video is this idea of liberty; it's almost like a throw away word.
It's used so much. What is it that we're trying to get that has made us free?
What is it that has created this? How can we get underneath this concept and
start to discuss it?”
The reason given by Facebook for banning the film? “Images of
nudity or cleavage.” Heid’s only guess is that it might have been from an image
of Michelangelo’s painting. It appears as though Facebook is grasping at
straws. And ironically, Facebook, which should celebrate liberty, is actively
curtailing it.
Regardless of Facebook’s misguided agenda, Heid remarked that he
hopes the video will be a conversation starter about liberty.
“I like to think of the video as conversation starters. You
could send it to an atheist friend or a Muslim friend or even a Christian
friend that doesn't see things as we might.”
Heid emphasized the video is to remind us that liberty must be
tethered to the right foundation.
“It has to be tethered to something because no one can do
anything that they want to do anytime they want to do it. No one has that type
of abstract freedom.”
Heid said that the discussion starts at remembering where man's
slavery really begins.
“One of the things that Luther talked a lot about that really
was the springboard of the Reformation and the hinge upon which a lot of this
turns is that if we don't understand that being a slave to sin is a
foundational issue, we're going to find ourselves way off track.”
Heid said that the Word of God provides a great framework for
discussing the freedom of the one and the freedom of the many.
“There's always been this battle between the one and the many.
And most Americans don't even know what you would be talking about when you
said that. When we're talking that way we're talking about, ‘What's more
important? The guy in the pew or the church itself? The individuals in a
marriage or the marriage itself? The voter or the entire populace of the United
States. If you err on either one of those sides, you're going to have anarchy
on one side or you're going to have tyranny, on the other side. What I'm
positing here is that Christianity is the only thing that handles this one and
the many with the equal ultimacy of the Trinity.”
Heid advised how Christians should speak out for liberty in our
culture.
“The first thing we have to decide is what Christianity is going
to be. If we're going to reduce it to this idea where salvation is kind of in a
closet; I go to God for my fire and life insurance; then quite rightly it
doesn't speak to other aspects of our life and culture. I'm somebody that's
going to push this more comprehensive idea of what it means to be a Christian
and where does the Bible apply. I'm going to say all of the Bible for all of
life.”
Heid shared a little known story that he portrays in the film
about founding father Ethan Allen representing the mindset of God-given liberty.
“Ethan Allen,
when he's at the Fort Ticonderoga, as a young lieutenant, a Redcoat said to
him, ‘By what authority are you on the King's property?’ And he said, ‘By the
authority of the Lord God Jehovah and the Continental Congress.’ That's a
really interesting thing because we have to start to say, ‘By what authority?
Who has the authority to say this or that?’”
Heid said there needs to be a biblical awakening to reignite a
desire for true freedom.
“If there's going to be an awakening it has to be biblically-centered. We have to fall back in love with God's revealed Word and then we
can't be afraid to talk about it. We've got to get it out of its cage and say,
‘How is this applied?’ And then as far as liberty's concerned, I think that
liberty needs to be a byproduct of something else. If you're faithful to God's
Word, liberty is going to be one of those very enjoyable by-products.” ...
Heid emphasized that we can only taste liberty by seeking God,
not by seeking liberty as the end goal.
