[The law of freedom]
Dear Donagh,
I was listening to a podcast from some religious group, and the speaker kept saying that the truth will set you free. He said it was from the bible. But I got the impression, after a while, that he was just trying to trap people into some mind-bending organization. There was something spooky about it and I felt that when he talked about truth, it was just a piece of bait. My lasting impression is that If I was tempted to join them (I wasn’t!!!), I’d soon be saying goodbye to freedom. What I want to ask you is this. Are those words from the bible? And if so, is all religion a kind of baited trap? John
Dear John,
Yes, those words are from the New Testament. They are from John’s gospel. They are quoted as coming from Jesus himself. Here they are in context: “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you continue in my word you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31 and 32).
He was talking with people who believed they were free already. They took pride in their freedom, so this must have been challenging for them. “We are descendants of Abraham,” they said indignantly, “and have never been slaves of anyone” (John 8:33). This, regrettably, was untrue. They began as a population of slaves in Egypt. Then in the 6th century BC they endured ‘the Babylonian captivity’ for about 70 years. And even as they spoke, their country was subjugated by the Romans. Ancient writers saw this clearly. St Augustine (354-430) was blunt about it: “Why do your scriptures remind you continually that God took you out of ‘the house of slavery ‘ [Egypt] if you were never slaves? Why do you who are now talking, pay taxes to the Romans, if you never were in bondage?” They were denying the historical narrative, but that wasn’t what Jesus was talking about. “They knew of no other kind of slavery than physical slavery,” said another ancient writer, St John Chrysostom (347-407). But the freedom Jesus was speaking about was a different kind of freedom.
What does that debate, so long ago, have to do with us today? Plenty. It still serves to remind us that there are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. I think we know this already; we just need to remind ourselves every now and then. We can make ourselves slaves of just about anything. A free citizen, for example, can still be, as we say, “a slave to the drink.” Just think of all the passions and addictions and obsessions and distractions that we willingly surrender ourselves to…. At some point we see that we don’t need other people to enslave us; we enslave ourselves. And so, we are never free until we are free of ourselves.
All recovery programmes begin with an acknowledgement of the truth. “My name is Dave, and I’m an alcoholic!” People who are recovering from addictions know (often to their cost) that one small lie, one sneaky evasion, one dishonest deed can upend their recovery. It may take years of effort and failure, but they eventually learn that only the truth will set them free.
There are easy truths. 2 + 2 = 4. But there are also profound truths that require everything of us. If some religious group is promising you freedom, you are right to take a good look at what they are offering. You said you suspected it was bait. Good for you that you trusted your instincts. Real freedom is too valuable, and too dearly won, to throw away.
Your second question is whether all religion is a kind of baited trap. There are people who want to be trapped (for purposes of psychological security or whatever) and there are religious organisations that exploit such people. But no, it’s clear that there are very many religious people who are truly free, and who attribute their freedom to their religious faith. His contemporaries said of St Dominic (13th century) that he was “astoundingly free.” It’s also true that people change in the course of their life, slowly and perhaps painfully becoming free as they get older. It’s not possible to draw clear lines. But time does so, eventually. After a century or two, it’s obvious if a religious group is producing unfree people.
Now here’s a paradox, in another verse from the New Testament. St James wrote about “the perfect law of freedom” (James 1:25). To many, freedom and law sound more like opposites. Here’s the full passage: “Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like people who look at themselves in a mirror… and, on going away, immediately forget what they look like. But those who look into the perfect law of freedom and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act, they would be blessed in their doing.”
Freedom does not mean doing nothing. In practice it means the opposite: committing myself wholly to doing something good, while not becoming snagged by my own ego while doing it. I am not free unless I am free of my ego. This is the ‘perfect law of freedom’. That mirror that St James mentioned shows me who I am and who I am not. With that realisation I am free, and in no danger of being trapped or trapping others.
So, thank you, John, for your letter. You helped me to think a little about these things.
Donagh