Free Agency:
“To the question, For which citizens is liberty secured? the answer is: All of them. To the question, How much liberty are they to enjoy? the answer is: As much as can be achieved. And to the question, Which liberties matter? the suggested answer is: They all do.” iv
-Loren Lomasky
Everyone seemed to use freedom as a façade behind which they secretly worked their way to the top. The American dream was for everyone, but so many people trampled on others to get fame, money or power; and they threw around the word freedom like they actually meant it. Strict freedom proved to be more elusive than anyone could ever imaging and on this earth it was like a vase sitting on the edge of the table waiting for someone to walk by and send it crashing to the ground. The fact that anyone had any liberty at all was a miracle.
Once again, Zack found himself in the dark room with all the other players. The same table sat in the center empty. That’s how he felt: empty. He remembered his speech, the one that he gave to raise support for the HDLS. He was gun ho for freedom, but even then he didn’t understand. It took an existential crisis to help him know that the term freedom was so vague that anyone could twist the word to mean a variety of different things. Freedom, true negative freedom, was not about escaping law or about pushing an agenda. It was about optimizing the free agency of each individual.
Zack watched as Senator Hardin stood up from the floor where he sat and walked toward the table in the center. The pastor, at least that’s what they called him, also walked toward the table. Zack watched them sit down and begin talking to each other. They were in the same room but he couldn’t hear them. He got closer until he was hovering right over them, but still couldn’t hear a thing.
Frustrated, Zack sat down. When he did, he was launched into the center of their conversation. He could hear everything, but they were unaware of his presence.
“Yes, but why are we doing this?” Hardin asked, “If God promises to restore the world one day and do away with every injustice, why do we fight to optimize freedom here?”
“This is the best way we honor Him,” the preacher pointed at his Bible, “by striving to make things the way God designed them to be on this earth.”
Hardin placed his elbow on the table and ran his fingers through his hair, “If Christ is the only fulfillment, then we cannot make things the way God designed them to be in a world that rejects Him.”
The preacher threw his hands out to each side, “This is why we fight for a law that optimizes human freedom: because it leads to a Father who created the world in such a way that it optimized human freedom and who promises to restore it to that state. Freedom in any law points to God because humanity of itself is not wholly capable of the self- denial it takes to truly see itself as equal and free. We need a man in office who truly loves God because that man is the only one who will be able to deny himself.”
He was right. If the law was fulfilled in Christ and freedom found in Christ, then it was only Christ who could fulfill the laws of a nation and bring true freedom to its people. This meant the leadership would have to seek the guidance of Christ in all matters. Zack stood up and his dream room began to tremor. He saw others falling to the floor and he sprinted for the exit.