PARADOXES OF FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILTY

The Paradoxes of flexibility and Responsibility



The Paradoxes of Freedom and Responsibility

Introduction

In our age freedom is a distorted and detached concept kind of abstraction. There is little connection of flexibility to responsibility, to the widespread good or to truth.  To the modern world freedom is vitally appreciated as “the ability to do anything I please.” Now the absurdity of such delineation is usually evident in our time as my fundamental flexibility bumps up against your fundamental flexibility and suddenly we're demanding laws!

For a Christian although flexibility is the capability or ability to comply God. Now this is paradoxical to be certain, particularly for the modern world where obedience and flexibility aren't usually linked. But for the Christian, sin is slavery and the truth which God reveals sets us free. Consider these extracts from the catechism. (Kimball, 2005)

Discussion

The more one does what is good, the relaxed one becomes. There is no flexibility except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do bad is an abuse of freedom and leads to “the slavery of sin.” (Catechism of the church member place of worship # 1733)…By deviating from the moral regulation man violates his own flexibility, becomes imprisoned within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine reality

Consider too the phrases of the Lord who said, Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. If the child makes you free, you will be free really.

The first paradox of freedom is that freedom is experienced only in relation to what is good and true. (Kimball, 2005)

It does not take us long to see how enslaving sin can be. There are awful habits, addictions, compulsions and tendencies that set in as we dabble in sin and these can be very hard to break. We may march under the banner of doing what we delight but before long we have to do what our unruly passions demand and it becomes hard to break sin's contain.

Freedom is the capability to obey God, to do what is right, to be free to talk the reality courageously, to have the capability to be chaste, self-controlled, to have authority over our wrath and other passions, to have the power to pardon, this is what it really means to be free.

The second paradox of flexibility is that, since we are contingent and restricted beings, we can only know-how flexibility within parameters and by limiting our flexibility to a certain extent:

For example presume I was to demand flexibility from laws of gravity. Suppose I simply wished to decline the bounds that gravity imposed on me and in a proceed of revolutionary freedom and defiance paced off a big building. It would surely be the last act of flexibility I ever exercised. Only by accepting the parameters of gravity can I really be free. To deny the truth of gravity and act as though it was irrelevant not only enslaves, it ...