Liberty and Justice for All?

For a country that is supposed to be the planet’s bastion of freedom and justice, have you noticed how little of either we Americans actually have in our day-to-day lives?

Let’s start with freedom. Think about how we spend our time. Are we exercising freedom of choice? For much of each day, I don’t think so. Rather, we do what our compulsions dictate. In other words, we submit to our addictions. The sad fact is that America is a nation of addicts. We are addicted to social media, addicted to alcohol, and addicted to drugs, including nicotine, marijuana, opioids, inhalants, and cocaine, sometimes several at once. We are also addicted to pornography, shopping, gambling, sex, coffee, food, video games, sports, exercise, and work, among other things. And addicts are not free. Anyone who has ever struggled with addiction knows that the word enslavement is not too strong here. We might want to stop taking part in a practice, but we simply can’t. Addiction is the opposite of freedom.

“But,” you might be thinking, “when I think of freedom in America, I’m not thinking of interior demons, but outside oppressors. We are still a nation in which individuals with enough self-control and will-power can chart their own course without being forced into anything.” But to what extent? Think over the past few years and consider how any aspects of your life are currently at the mercy of Big Government, Big Pharma, Big Entertainment, Big Food, Big Tech, Big Medical, Big Education, and Big Retail? To a great degree these conglomerates, and the rich ideologues that control them, dictate what we buy, what we eat, when and how we work and play, and ultimately what we think. 

On top of that, many of the addictions Americans are fighting are not primarily the result of bad personal decisions. Rather, people are addicted because of the immoral actions of those same power brokers. Purdue Pharma’s corrupt plan to foist addictive opioids on an unsuspecting nation is just one example, but there are plenty more. 

Which leads to a discussion of justice. Obviously, a corrupt pharmaceutical company that bribed politicians and doctors and lied about their product in a money-making scheme that has killed hundreds of thousands is unjust. However, this is hardly unique. The sad fact is that much of our daily experience now takes place under unjust circumstances. By that I mean that, in order to live and work in America, we have to navigate through and interact with organizations, businesses, and power structures that are run by people who a) are not following free and fair market principles but rather forcing their desires on the population through a money fueled power grab and b) do not have anyone else’s best interest at heart. They simply want more money and power. This is unjust.

The sad fact is that much of our daily experience now takes place under unjust circumstances.

For example, the price and quality of American food isn’t just. At our local market, it seems to average about fifty dollars per grocery bag of the chemical filled processed garbage that is making people sick. What are the options for folks who would rather not shop there? There are no cheaper, healthier alternatives. I suppose some people could spend a hundred dollars on gas to drive out to the country to an organic farm, and then spend several hundred dollars there on meat and produce for the month, but that isn’t possible for most. And that isn’t the consumer’s fault. Inflation and low quality food are the result of terrible government policy and corporate corruption at the highest levels. 

Our public education system isn’t just. Most families have no choice but to send their kids to the local public school, where they will almost certainly be taught superstitious nonsense and trained according to the latest ignorant educational fad. As for college, “easy” federal money, predatory financial policies, and the overtaking of academic departments by ideologues have made university education into what can only be described as a gigantic boondoggle for most students, one that will leave them brainwashed and in crushing debt just as they enter adulthood.

We could go on and on. The cost and availability of housing in America isn’t just. The way social media companies addict their users and exploit their personal information isn’t just. The fact that media and entertainment companies lie and constantly propagandize about everything from the LGBTQ movement to the benefits of selling your body on Only Fans. isn’t just. A political system that allows politicians to legally accept bribes and get rich off of insider trading is not just. A medical industry that encourages 13-year-old autistic girls to get their breasts cut off and identify as boys is not just. And we are all greatly affected; no one is free from these corrupt power structures.

Indeed, the people most affected are the most powerless: children. In the same way that it is not just for pre-pubescent girls to be put on puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, it isn’t just for any children to be murdered in the womb or have to grow up in single mother home because the father was a porn addicted loafer who only used the woman for sex. None of this is just.

And God hates injustice. That is why it is so important that we think clearly about these issues, understand how we got into this mess, and repent of whatever sins we are guilty. God will not sit idly by and allow the victims of injustice to suffer. Judgment is coming.

(I will have more on how we got into this mess in subsequent posts. I am also producing a television series that deals with these subjects in a more creative way. It is a contemporary take on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah called Libertyville. You can learn more about the project here and here.)