Host Alan J. Reinach, Esq., takes a broad look at the history of American freedom, and asks what we mean by freedom, concluding that the freedom God gives is paramount. 

<p>Host Alan J. Reinach, Esq., takes a broad look at the history of American freedom, and asks what we mean by freedom, concluding that the freedom God gives is paramount. </p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Church State Council

Alan Reinach

What is Freedom?

Our founding fathers not only pledged but gave their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to obtain our God-given liberty.

Liberty can only thrive if it's alive in the hearts of a freedom-loving people.

I'm Dan Matthews, and I'm pleased to welcome you to Freedom's Ring.

Here's our host and constitutional lawyer and minister, Alan Reinoch.

And what does it mean to be a freedom-loving people?

You know, it's hard to believe, but we've been recording Freedom's Ring Radio for more than 15 years now, and I'm not sure that we have really stopped to ask these most basic questions.

I've been reading a fascinating book about the story of American freedom.

It's clear that freedom has meant different things at different times.

But I wanna start our show today by playing a spot that I recorded 10 years ago with my son Benjamin, who would probably be appalled to hear what he sounded like now that he is taller than I am and about to graduate college.

Well, son, it's hard to explain, but freedom means being able to think and do what you want.

Because too many people think we need security more than freedom.

So that spot comes from the post 9-11 era when the real question was 1 of freedom or security.

As I said, freedom has meant different things at different times.

To our founding fathers, freedom meant primarily the right of political self-determination.

They wanted a say in governing their own affairs.

If you live in Washington, D.C., you don't have a vote in Congress.

Same is true if you live in other places governed by the United States, such as Puerto Rico or Guam.

We're taught in grade school, the Puritans came over to the New World seeking religious freedom.

Well, of course, that's only partly right.

They came seeking religious freedom for themselves, but hardly with a mind to grant the same freedom to those who differ.

The story of American freedom is certainly fraught with contradictions.

American prosperity was built on the backs of millions of African slaves.

It has taken 400 years for American blacks to achieve a measure of legal equality.

And even today, social and economic equality remain elusive.

What has American freedom meant for Native Americans, or for successive generations of immigrants whose labor was exploited as the engine of economic growth.

Well, some equate freedom with the so-called free market.

But we've got to take a closer look at this free market.

Walmart reported recently it would raise its minimum pay to $9 an hour.

Well, it doesn't hire, for the most part, at the retail level, doesn't hire full-time workers.

They cap their hours at 20 hours a week so they don't have to provide benefits.

A recent study showed that in Ohio, one-third of all food stamps went to Walmart employees.

So Walmart, great engine of the free market, is being heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer.

So for that matter is the fast food industry.

Another report I saw suggested that we taxpayers contribute a healthy $10 billion a year in public benefits to workers in the fast food industry.

Well, because they don't earn enough to pay the rent or buy food or, dare I say, shop anywhere else but Walmart.

Henry Ford figured out that if he wanted a market for his cars, if he wanted to sell cars, workers had to earn enough so they could afford to buy them.

Well, Walmart has figured out similarly that if they pay their workers a subsistence wage, they won't have any choice but to spend their meager paycheck at Walmart.

They won't be able to afford to go anywhere else.

And so sure enough it turns out that Walmart is the recipient of the lion's share of the wages of Walmart workers.

So let me ask you friends, is that freedom?

In many industries, in order to get a job, you have to waive your rights to sue the employer in court if they cheat you out of your wages, if they discriminate against you or sexually harass you.

You have to agree as a condition of getting your job to submit your claims to an arbitrator who is typically selected and paid for by, you guessed it, your employer.

An arbitrator gets lots of business from this company and it's all perfectly legal.

You have to sign away your rights and you sign away your rights too when you do business with many of these companies, when you sign up for cell phone service or internet service, when you sign up at your doctor's office.

Oftentimes you are signing arbitration clauses whether you know it or not.

Beware that fine print that we never read because it's in there.

But if you can actually get the fine print and have a sign something, then you can cross it out and not be bound by it.

Today it seems increasingly, maybe it's always been this way, the courts are not for you and me, they're for the wealthy.

Well, then coming back to the theme of my spot with my son Benjamin, there's the little matter of privacy.

Have you been following the story of Edward Snowden and the NSA?

Seems their government's motto is collect it all.

Well, maybe you've heard they're only collecting metadata, whatever that means, but it's metadata that tells the Feds who you call, how often, and when.

It paints a picture of your life even more clearly than the content of your phone calls.

And apparently the NSA has a backdoor into just about everything.

If they want, they can even listen to your conversation when your cell phone is off.

Apparently, unless you remove the battery.

Ah, but you can't remove the battery on your iPhone.

I've got 1 of those fancy new Samsung smart televisions.

Didn't realize when I got it that Samsung can listen to my family room conversation even with the television off.

And now they can plant stuff on your computer even when your computer is off.

And businesses are developing applications that can access your computer when it's not connected to the internet.

When we drive to the store, when we drive to work, cameras in many of our towns and cities are recording our license plates, allowing the authorities to develop a picture of your movements.

We're so way beyond George Orwell in 1984, it's just, it's not even funny.

Now, I'm not trying to make you paranoid, But remember the old saying, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

While the primary focus of Freedom's Ring has been, and will remain, religious freedom, today we're faced with the same problem as the Puritans.

For the vast majority of the world, including the Christian world, religious freedom means the freedom to believe as I do.

So long as you believe as I do, you can be free to practice your faith.

But you have no freedom to change your faith, and little or no freedom if your faith is the minority.

The folks who keep these sorts of statistics tell us that 76% of the global population live in nations with little or no religious freedom.

Today it seems here in America we enjoy the illusion of freedom more than its reality.

We're lulled into thinking that an abundance of consumer choices constitutes freedom.

You're free because you can choose 1 of a hundred red ties or buy a cheap suit or a designer suit or a Ford or a Toyota?

But there's another type of freedom we haven't talked about.

Jesus said, He who the Son sets free is free indeed.

And Paul wrote, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

In my generation we sang songs about changing the world.

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What is Freedom?

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