Fighting for Freedom - A Cross-cultural look: Part 5 - Being Human

As we conclude this series on fighting for freedom, often in discussions about freedoms, it seems to be a battle for arguments for and against particular types of freedoms or lack thereof. It can feel like it is a topic that is only about conflicts and differing opinions and goals.

But what if we recognised that underneath it all, we are all fighting for the same thing.

Firstly we are all fighting for what we think is 'right'. We are fighting for what we believe is good, beneficial and useful to us for our wellbeing and happiness in whatever way we define those things.  The problem is that we differ on what we think is 'right'….and that depends significantly on our worldview, whether we know Christ as Lord or not, or how much our society has influenced us and how much we have allowed God to transform and renew our minds according to his Word.

But secondly, we are all fighting not just for freedom for the ability to do certain human actions in daily life, but we are fighting for the freedom to be the human beings we believe we should be. 

We don't just want the ability to make certain daily decisions and act accordingly, we more fundamentally want dignity!

It is from whatever we believe is human dignity (honour) of being, that we derive what we believe should be human freedoms of decision for our doing.

Thus deep down, we are fighting for the freedoms that are rooted in the hunger of humans for honour.

Our desire for freedom is….the fight to be fully human - based on whatever you believe is 'being fully human'….you want the full dignity of that status acknowledged and allowed, and you see any restriction on living in the full dignity (honour) of being human as one and the same as restricting your rights to freedom.

Essentially it is a desire to be free to be you….

Free to be you?

Now, while that phrase fills our world, and some of you might be thinking that 'free to be me' is just plain sinful thinking….let us just pause a moment and think more deeply about this:

God created us as humans - we are meant to be human - we are meant to be who we were created to be.

If your worldview context includes God as Creator then you desire the freedom to be who you were created by God to be, and if some authority restricts that you will feel your created human dignity is being eroded.

But if it does not include God as Creator then you still desire the freedom to enjoy human dignity. However, either your society (if you submit to its demands) or yourself, becomes the measuring stick of what it means to be 'human', and what it therefore means to have 'dignity' (honour) ….and thus what it means to have 'freedom' ….and thus what 'freedoms' you will fight for believing that violations of certain freedoms are a threat to your—human—dignity (honour).

We see this awareness of being treated as 'less than human' and thus without (or with less) dignity, in things like:

Slavery - long been seen as treating people 'less than human' - to be 'owned' by another human and thus not allowed to make any choices about their own life - where to live, what to eat, what to wear, when to wake up, when to sleep, with whom to have sex and preventing them from owning anything themselves or being able to earn, buy and sell with their own money or tradable goods.

…and as an aside (but important aside)….I believe it was rightly observed and pointed out in a lecture by Martyn Isles that many women in our modern world feel that 'serving an employer is freedom and serving a family is slavery'…and this feeds an ungodly notion that a woman who does not have a paid job outside the home is not 'fully' who she should be…the inference is she is not fully the person (human) she is meant to be. When she believes this lie, she then 'fights' for the chance for the power of freedom beyond the home because she feels the home is a place where she is 'enslaved' (…to the kitchen sink, as is sometimes sarcastically - but harmfully - said)

Victim mentality - throws shame on your opponent and thus when you are successful at shaming someone else (lowering their status, image, reputation). It by default 'elevates' you - (raises your position relative to the opponent) to feeling restored to some degree in human honour, or at least higher than (looking down on) those who threaten what you believe is your right to human dignity ( honour).

Lockdowns - in these COVID years, lockdowns became no just a momentary sacrifice or inconvenience (especially in Melbourne, Australia who gained the sad reputation of being the most locked-down city in the world), but apart from the huge financial stress, it becomes a threat to being able to have the dignity of work, the dignity (sometimes called self-worth) of having a job (as opposed to being unemployed or a failed businessman or businesswoman), the dignity of providing for your family, and the fear of not being able to do those things, of feeling a failure….it is linked to being properly 'human' in its fullest sense.

Government control - whether it be lockdowns or masks or QR code check-ins or 'quarantine' regulations, people fear not having the freedom to 'determine their own destiny' - to choose how they live out their humanity, and to live to the full in the dignity of their humanity.  Again if you believe in God the Creator then your dignity is defined and directed by confidences and assurances of his design and the destiny that he has for you. But if you deny or ignore God and leave that all to society or yourself you will live according to how well you can control your ability to live in accordance with your idea of what defines the dignity of being human. Some people also substitute the authority of government for the authority of God in their lives and the government becomes where they put their trust, hope and confidence for guidance and safety.

African view of evil - evil is the disrupter/destroyer of virtue - where virtue is considered to be goodness and living in virtue is seen as being human - anything that inhibits what is believed to be part of the virtue of being human in community with other humans, is looked on as restricting/inhibiting the freedom to be full humans. This is not so different in all communities to one degree or another.

Poverty - is seen as preventing some people having the ability to enjoy the basic human food and shelter requirements for good health and safety, or even education, in order to have equal opportunity to social position and ability to care adequately for themselves and their family.

War dehumanises society - it involves people killing other human beings in order to preserve the dignity and freedoms of their own society. Human beings become enemies and a danger to each other instead of working together. It 'tears down' instead of 'building up' people and societies. It destroys business, breaks apart families, leaves children as orphans, ruins supply of goods and services etc etc. 

LGBTQ+ - separate of the issue that these are distortions of God's plan, people who categorise themselves this way feel that they are 'excluded' from acceptance in mainstream society and thus thought of as not as having equal human value as others, and thus they fight for what they believe is their identity as a human being.

Segregation - whether it be Apartheid or Vaccine passports, to be treated as 'not acceptable' to fully participate in community life along with everyone else is to be seen as less than equally valued and embraced as human, or prevented from full human participation in society. To be excluded from what other humans are doing, can make a person feel 'less than' others in value and dignity. It is the same concept of lepers in bible times who were excluded from society. When COVID-19 quarantine hotels were first instigated people made comments about how they felt like they were 'ashamed' because of the 'exclusion' they had to experience.

Ultimately, underlying all this is the inbuilt desire to 'be human'. Whether we understand it or not, or articulate it clearly or not, or even recognise it or not, ….because we were designed to be what we were created to be—human, it is what we seek to be. 

We are not 'accidentally' human, just like we are not 'accidentally' male and female as humans. We did not by chance, evolve to what we are, nor are we continuing to evolve into higher forms of humanity or into some other form of life. We were designed as uniquely humans, in God's image, within God's greater eternal divine purposes for his creation.

However, because of mankind's fall into sin, we are no longer fully what we were created to be. Human beings - as male and female - were created to have the honour of being in relationship with God. That is not some optional extra and nice addition to human existence like a bonus add-on, it is the very core of our being, reason for living, hope for the present and future, and what should define the root of our human identity.  

But its gone. 

And we search for this dignity of being 'human' because in its place all we have is shame, whether we fully realise it or not. We are not 'satisfied' and we 'feel' a need for something more that will give us true human dignity.

…interestingly, here in Africa, when a baby is born it is not considered yet fully human but grows into being fully human as it grows into higher and higher levels of relationship status within a community. Both evolution - which believes humanity evolves into higher and higher states of skill and communication and community over time (from apes to neandathol man to present man to ??? in the future), and African tradition seem to have a underlying awareness that humanity as it is 'lacks' something, and has needed and does need to 'progress'. The lie that is believed by both is that such 'progress' occurs, when in reality the longer a human being is alive and humanity continues, without the intervention of Christ, it does not progress but it continues on its path of regression - further and further away from the Creator with whom we were created to enjoy the honour of relationship.

But in this we see that there is a sense or sub-conscious awareness that being human is not just a 'physical' and 'biological' state, but a 'belonging' state and of 'knowing honour and value in relationship' state. …and we cannot escape that….

Our identity is rooted in what we understand to be our humanity. 

We are meant to be in right relationship with God and thus right relationship with the other humans God has made, and we seek for the peace and happiness of such relationship. But when we reject, ignore or reduce the part that God should play in our humanity, we don't just move on and still find all is well. Instead we continue to seek what we have lost, and seek it in all the wrong places. We seek to be human apart from the God who made and designed us as human. 

The first place we seek to find that lost human identity and honour is from relationships with other humans, especially with those who for some reason we feel we share some commonalities, shared goals or shared struggles. We may feel shamed and afraid when alone but that is eased when others welcome and accept us. But its just a warped shadow of the honour we are meant to know in relationship with God. 

Instead of giving to others from what God has given us, we begin wanting to get from others what we are meant to get from God. 

But we don't get from others what we hoped for. 

And what we get from others doesn't satisfy. 

Some give up and seek to exit life on earth, others accept this is all there is and seek to get as much from it as they can in this life on earth with little regard for anyone except themselves. Others try to redefine what it means to be human, to be someone of worth, to be male, to be female, so that it will fit their own ideas and sinful fallenness and they can feel they have 'achieved' it. Others keep searching.

In the West we have gone a step further and told ourselves that the answer lies in not only ignoring God's definition and design for being human, but we don't need to look to others either. We tell ourselves that we are sufficient as individuals to define our identity and thus should have the freedom to design a form of living according to that which we believe will make us feel the honour of being 'fully human', content and complete, satisfied and secure. But it doesn't and it won't.

*It bears consideration that…..To be 'human' as human beings created by God, we must acknowledge we are not all-knowing and thus we are not sufficient to determine what is best for us or what is true. Not only do we need God, but under God we need each other and the exchange of ideas and perspectives of insight that we all bring to the extensiveness of humanity. We should be free to think, analyse, gain knowledge, listen carefully to others even if they disagree, and above all bring all this together in the pursuit of what is true and best. To disallow certain people from speaking respectfully about their perspective and letting them be heard, while allowing others is to show partiality and inhibit humanity. It not only excludes and segregates but it ultimately steals from humanity the very broadening of knowledge under God that will benefit it and help us be 'human'. This is why the freedom to express varied ideas and opinions even if they differ from our own, to challenge each other, and stretch each others thinking is so important.

Some people in their desire to have freedom to 'live out' their humanity, want to shut down those who they feel are a threat to their opinion, cause or belief by which they have defined their idea of being 'human'. They are fearing what they believe is the freedom of their human dignity. But they don't realise that these Devil's offerings of 'freedom' are in fact bondage in 'freedom' language clothing.

True freedom of being truly human only comes through a new human identity in the second Adam - Jesus Christ. We were created as 'human' by the Divine and it is only through the Divine-who-became-human that we can individually be born again so as to belong together in a new humanity on God's design terms. 

Let us not belittle or deride the desires of others to pursue what they believe is the 'dignity of being human', but lets pray to be better bearers of the good news of how to know a new identity in the true humanity in Christ, to a desperately searching but hopelessly lost world.