Fighting for Freedom - A Cross-cultural look: Part 1

Photo credit-Palmer Moye

In the last couple of years, we have heard a great deal about fighting for 'freedom of speech' and the 'freedom of choice' and the right to be a 'free society'

….and what with 'cancel culture'  and the COVID-19 pandemic, we have many good reasons to feel we are losing some 'freedoms'. 

As I have pondered on this topic of 'Freedom', I realise it is one of those things we take for granted until it is taken away. It is also something we make assumptions about as to its meaning, until it is changed!

Furthermore, different people have different perspectives on what constitutes 'freedom'. For example I have noted various perspectives saying Queensland's building of a rural residential quarantine centre near Toowoomba is evidence of major 'gulag' type threats to citizen's freedoms, while at the same time the Queensland Premier is saying the reason she wants to keep the Queensland borders closed and other temporary restrictions from time to time is because she is fighting to maintain Queensland's present freedoms of movement and life within the state, in contrast she says of New South Wales where those freedoms have been massively curtailed.

So this 'freedom' issue is more complicated than we might first think.

Maybe before we try to discuss it or defend it we have to take one step back and actually define it.

In addition as Christians to desire God's definitions on all matters of life, as a 'westerner' coming from a very individual-rights based society, but living cross-culturally in a collective-respect focused society, I have been caused to realise that perspectives on 'freedom' can be differently understood or assumed in relation to a person's cultural 'norms', and these can then influence even what we think is 'right' and thus what we think is 'godly' or not. It has also caused me to examine various global situations with more varied perspectives, and propelled me to delve more deeply into God's Word to see where cultural views need to be Scripturally re-calibrated.

Before I go further, I am going to put out a warning that what I am about to say in this series of posts might not be altogether comfortable. 

But I hope it stirs our thinking ...in godly ways rather than cultural ways, to examine the world we live in and how we should or should not respond according to God's view of the concept of freedom.

 I'm also going to say that a significant portion of the ongoing pandemic restrictions on the normal freedoms in our societies (I am thinking particularly of Australia), seems to stem from fear, which is a whole separate (but linked) subject. It's easy to fear removal of freedoms because its taking us into the unknown, but it can also be easier to accept removal of freedoms when we are in fear, and whether governments or citizens, we can also put undue expectation on others and make unreasonable decisions when we are in fear. But let us remember that God is bigger than our fears.

I also want to say I can't address everything related to this issue in a blogpost and this series of posts do not propose to be exhaustive.

Created for 'freedom'

Before looking at the situation in our 21st century world, I am reminded that everything that God talks about regarding sin and salvation in Scripture revolves around the concept that sin is about bondage and salvation is about freedom, and lies are about bondage and slavery, and truth is about freedom - 'you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free' (John 8:32). God desires that we live in freedom…but freedom as he defines freedom, and not necessarily as our culture or tradition or assumptions define freedom. 

When we talk about 'freedom' I believe we are often in this day and age not all talking the same language when we use the word. Because we are wanting something we don't all define the same way, its not only causing confusion and conflict but it might be inhibiting our conversation about true Godly freedom, and thus opportunities to bring a gospel that is about true freedom.

So hopefully in an attempt to begin to unpack the concept and bring some clarity to our understanding, conversation and gospel sharing, I want to look both at cultural assumptions surrounding freedom in our world, and then some thoughts on how a Godly perspective on freedom could be formed….

Looking at our world... 

Our world is one of many cultural 'norms'

I hear it said that we have/had 'freedom' in the Western world in contrast to some other parts of the world - we believe its our right to live a certain way. But when we stop to think this issue through, we have to admit that the freedom talked about is not actually total freedom at all. There ares still laws, rules, standards and restrictions. We cannot do whatever we want with no-one telling us what to do.  

The reality is more about the fact that we are used to certain 'freedoms' and certain 'restrictions' and we accept them as normal, having grown up with them and learning to live within them. 

The Western world lives within many restrictions already. For example:

• Restrictions of movement (some places you can be fined for jay-walking, we have a certain side of the road on which we drive, we have speed limits, bike lanes, 'no-entry' signs on certain roads or properties, minimum age entry limits to some establishments and hours of operation of certain businesses may be restricted), 

• restrictions of speech (you can be sued for liable or defamation, and certain expletive words are not to be said in the media), and movies have ratings and restrictions as to who should watch them.

• cigarettes and alcohol are not allowed to be sold to people under a certain age

• health-requirement restrictions within a country (Even in Australia I had to show proof of all required vaccinations before I began any practical nursing in hospitals and my husband had to do similarly in his hospitality job at a conference centre - although they were well-established vaccines well beyond any clinical trial period), and to travel to a country (almost 20 years ago our Motswana daughter had to have a TB test before entering Australia as a foreign student, and when it came back positive she had to undergo treatment so as to produce a negative test whether she liked it or not, or she would not be able to enter Australia, and there are times within our region here that you can't cross borders without a Yellow Fever vaccination).

Living cross-culturally, I have also learnt that when different cultures have different rules and customs, and thus different 'freedoms', these may feel different or uncomfortable, but they aren't necessarily 'wrong', they might be just 'different'. 

Here are a few examples:

• Just recently there was a notice put up on our local social media, to remind women that to enter a Kgotla area (village leaders meeting area) here in Botswana they must be wearing a skirt not trousers. Now is it an infringement of my 'rights' as a female human being to be required to be in such a mode of dress? It may feel like it to some people, but the Kgotla has the authority to do that. 

• What about the fact that here schools are 'free' to transport multitudes of students on excursions or even to and from boarding school at the start and end of school terms, on the back of big open trucks (lorries if you are from the UK), while in Australia there would be restrictions that would not allow that (and probably not allowed in the USA or UK either)..

• Or what about the fact that here people are free to hang their washing over the fence or on an outdoor clothes line to dry, and in Australia it is normal practice  to hang your clothes on a clothes-line in the back yard to dry if you have a yard to do so. Yet in many places in the 'free country' of the USA it is prohibited to hang your washing on an outdoor clothesline and in other places it is even prohibited to have a fence around your yard.

• Here you can ride a bicycle without a helmet, or ride in the open back of a bakkie/ute as it zooms along a highway, but in Australia it's illegal

• Sometimes the concept of freedom overlaps with privacy. So this makes us think about how here in Botswana all the time we have lived here, in order to enter any government building you have to 'sign in' (put your name, date, address, ID, time of arrival and departure in a great big book at the entry). Some westerners find that an intrusion on their freedom to not have the government know too much about them.

• And yet, if someone from here went to Australia, they would be shocked that the Australian telephone 'books' list a person's residential address for everyone to see and know, because here in Botswana all 'addresses' in the telephone books are PO Boxes (since there is basically no mail delivery to street addresses). Having everyone's residential address may be seen as intrusion to their privacy and violation of the freedom to choose who knows where you live.

This 'freedom' word is not as simple or straight-forward as we might think it is if we just look at it from our own cultural perspective.

So in Part 2 coming up, lets maybe consider a little about what influences some of the different ways we as human beings think about freedom.