Daily Excerpt: When Liberty Enslaves (Aveta)
Excerpt from When Liberty Enslave by Jerry Aveta
There is a common experience between our experiences today and those before the Civil War many years ago. The effect of the intersection of faith and politics during these two experiences has had on our elections and our governance is uncanny in their similarities. Both times an election insurrection was stopped by the sitting vice president. Both times had people of the same faith on both sides of the social issues of the day claiming God’s favor and willing to divide the nation over those competing positions.
Part 1 of this writing focuses on the Civil War era and how liberty centered around the issue of equality. Some people of faith believed all men were equal, some did not.
Part 2 focuses on our present times and how liberty centers on the sanctity of life concerning abortion and gun control. Some in our nation feel enslaved by the liberty of others.
Part 3 describes methods for closing the divide in our nation beginning with the faith communities.
Keywords:
faith and politics, religion and governance, election insurrections, Vice President's role in history, Civil War and liberty, faith and equality, religious divide in America, sanctity of life, abortion and gun control, freedom vs. enslavement, political and social division, healing a divided nation, faith communities and unity, history repeating itself, intersection of religion and policy, Election 2024, Election 1860, slavery, abolitionists
Introduction
I have never been an avid student of
history. My only interest in the subject was when a specific history course was
required to attain a diploma or a degree. The type of history didn’t matter. I
was not interested. Engineering students like me looked at those studying
history with disdain. We referred to the football stadium as “L.A. Beach.” That
is where the “Liberal Arts” students, like those studying history, spent their
spring afternoons sunbathing while we labored through our various engineering labs.
This lack of interest was the result
of my classroom experiences, in which the teachers’ lectures blurred into a
series of indistinguishable words and inaudible sounds that made no sense to me
at all. When it came time to study for a test, all I found in my notes were a
series of random entries of dates and names surrounded by pages of doodles.
Needless to say, I did not excel in these studies. I was elated if I escaped
each course with a passing grade.
Because of this experience, my mind
was closed, and my attitude was negative concerning the subject. As a matter of
practical experience, I failed to realize the social and moral implications
that often are affected by historical events. That is, until recently. While
reading about the state of our union leading up to the Civil War, I was deeply
moved by the similarities between those conditions and those present in our
nation today. The parallels between then and now are stark and sobering. Stark
in that opposing views concerning the social issues of the time permeated the
nation. Sobering in the realization that these conditions were easily promoted
to provoke civil conflict and eventually war. This realization has produced a
deep regret for my having ignored the value of history for most of my life. But
more important, it has increased my concern dramatically that our nation is
living through a perilous time.
Comparing the pre-Civil War days to
now, I find a common experience. Both times contain a nexus between faith and
politics, a linkage that causes twists and turns in the way our nation is
governed to conform to these polarizing influences. In times past, there was a
common understanding never to mix politics and religion in the same
conversation. However, today discussions of politics and faith routinely fill
social media. The combination of the two has been extensively analyzed as
influential in the outcomes of recent elections. During the times leading up to
the Civil War, this same confluence of faith and politics can be found in the
election process and the governing of our nation. From the reading of those
past events and living through the current times, we learn the reason for the
warning never to mix faith and politics in our social discourse. Their
intersection results in a toxic social environment that is taxing to normal
relationships, relationships that often become short in conversation and high in
emotion. This bears true then and now.
An autopsy of the pre-Civil War and
our times reveals different social issues colliding with the faith of these
times. Although the social issues differ, they resemble how each vexes the
heart and penetrates the soul of our society.
At the core of the matter lie issues of life and death. Both experiences
offer choices of liberty or enslavement.
During the Civil War era, the exercise of
liberty in our nation centered on the issue of equality. Some believed all men
were created equal with equal rights. Some believed all men were not created
equal and did not have equal rights. At that time, people of the same faith
were found on both sides of these issues.
About our experience today, the
exercise of liberty in our nation concerns the sanctity of life. Some believe
the sanctity of life includes guaranteeing the birth of every fetus, regardless
of the circumstances of the pregnancy. Some people believe the sanctity of life
includes the liberty to manage the development of the fetus, maximizing the
general welfare of both mother and child. Here too, people of the same faith
are found on both sides of the issue.
Also, in our experience today, some
people believe the sanctity of life includes constraints in the use of guns and
the elimination of automatic weapons. Some people believe liberty includes the
right to stockpile ammunition and weapons without any constraint. Once again,
we find people of the same faith on both sides of this issue.
The social issues of today differ
from each other and even more so from those of years ago, but all are emotional
and powerful enough to already have caused a divide in our nation. The only
unknown is to what extent these issues will further divide. Can they be so
divisive that for the second time in our history, Americans will take up arms
against one another? That is yet to be determined, but we can learn from
history and the examples of some great leaders during those times.
On June 16, 1858, the Illinois
Republican Convention nominated Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for the U.S.
Senate. In his acceptance speech for that nomination, Lincoln stated that a
divided nation would not stay divided.
It would become either entirely free or a slave nation. I would suggest the same is true for our
nation today. We will become a nation that
continues to remain free in our liberty or continue to restrict our liberties
more and more.
Our nation’s divisions have grown in
part due to recent Supreme Court decisions reversing what many in our nation
believe to be a constitutional right protecting the general welfare of a
woman’s body. Many now feel enslaved because faith has been used to fuel a
political outcome that has reversed the freedom that existed for generations in
our nation. They feel enslaved by the
“liberty” of others, including others of the same faith.
Additionally, our nation’s divide
has been accelerated because legislators refuse to adopt any restrictions on
gun access and their use. Many in our nation feel subjected to violence while
routinely shopping in the mall, attending worship services, enjoying outdoor
concerts, or attending school. Here again, many in our nation feel enslaved by
this violence because of the “liberty” of others.
This phenomenon of “one person’s
liberty enslaving another” is not unique to our times. It existed during the
days of Lincoln as well. Frederick Douglas had been born into enslavement in
the state of Maryland in 1818. Having escaped to freedom, he became a widely
published author and editor of The North Star a Rochester, New York
newspaper. Addressing a crowd on July 4, 1872, Douglas stated the following: “The sunlight that brought life and healing
to you, has brought stripes and death to me. The Fourth of July is yours, not
mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”[1]
What was one people’s “liberty” was causing the enslavement of others.
“Feeling” enslaved is quite
different from “being” enslaved and in that regard, our times are blessedly
different from the pre-Civil War days. But these two times in our nation’s
history are decidedly similar, bending faith to conform to politics to justify
their preferred outcome.
Slavery is racism in its purest
form. While our nation has been purged of slavery, racism remains. The depths
and the extent of racism that we see in our country today differs from the
racism experienced in our nation generations ago in the form of slavery.
Slavery was localized then. Racism is pervasive today. Slavery was explicit,
violent, and degrading then. Racism can take many forms and functions today.
Slavery was a moral corruption commercially
induced into the life of our pre-born nation. A political and religious
underpinning nourished and sustained that vice over the formative years of our
nation, facilitating the divide in our nation between free and slave. In that way, slavery was not considered
racism but merely an acceptable social behavior by many during the Civil War
era.
Similar to our divisions today, what
some regard as a moral decision, others regard as a social right. For example,
many believe abortion is an immoral act because it is rooted in a faith that
defines life beginning at conception. Many believe it is a social decision
because their faith defines the beginning of life as the viability of the
fetus. Some believe that abortion is legitimate during mitigating circumstances
like rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in jeopardy regardless of
when life begins. In many instances, these differences exist in people of the
same faith who have been divided through a deliberate manipulation of faith and
politics begun many years ago.
Perhaps we can learn from Lincoln’s
words that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” words derived from
scripture (Mark 3:24-25) embraced by people of faith on both sides of the
social issues dividing our nation today. Perhaps a starting place for all in
our nation, beginning with people of faith, is to realize we may all have to
give up some of our liberties in order for all of us to be free. This is not an
uncommon practice in our society today. We sacrifice our liberty on the
highways of our nation, the airways of our skies, and the railways of our
country for the sake of the safety for all.
Why there is such resistance to this
same mentality over the issues of the day is perplexing but obvious. Never
before has there been a deliberate politicization of faith in our country. By
that, I mean a calculated decision by leaders of both a political party and the
leaders of faith communities to strategize an outcome. One party of this
agreement was seeking political power. The other party of this agreement was
seeking denominational power by exploiting a doctrinal position.
The eventual outcome of this
partnership is uncertain. But one thing is certain. A divided nation cannot
stand. Scripture declares it. The history of our nation proves it. My hope and
prayer are that this writing may help facilitate and further the cause of unity
in our nation in some way.
Want to know more about Jerry and his book? Click here for more posts and here for the book trailer.
For more information about this book, click HERE.
Awards
Gold Medal, Christian Thought/Enduring Light Category, Illumination Book Awards
Gold Award/Category Winner (Political Non-fiction), American Writing Awards
Gold Award, Literary Titan
Winner, Independent Press Award (category: political)
Literary Global Book Awards:
(1) Winner Nonfiction History
(2) Finalist Nonfiction Inspiration
(3) Finalist Nonfiction Social Change
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