The Tragedy of Too Much Freedom

- "We have to constantly be updated and calibrated in our Walk if we want to keep a fresh relationship with righteousness"- Pierre Johnson

I saw a video of a Arizona trucker and a young New Yorker go viral on the internet. It was a brutal beating the New Yorker received from the trucker. I haven't seen anything like that in a long time. Perhaps it is my age and my progressive walk with Christ, that gave me pause. I don't know. Whether the fact that it was two against one or big against small,  I do know I was disturb by it on so many levels. The main level of my disturbance was at the casual manner it was filmed and observed by onlookers. No one stepped in and no one tried to make peace. One man nearly committed manslaughter while his so-called friends looked on and cheered. Two precious lives could have been destroyed over foolish pride. The victim's life will definitely not be the same. His defeat has been plastered all over the internet. This brought to mind Proverbs 1: 10-18

My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, "Let us lie in wait to shed blood, let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause....we shall fill our house with spoils. Cast in your lot among us.....My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path. For their feet do evil. And they make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread....But they lie in wait for their own blood"

This world is chalked full of so many so-called "freedoms". Secret freedom to tweet what you want and videotape who you want. People are free to hide their racism, sexism, sarcasm and social ineptitude behind chat room talk and memes. There are public freedoms. Freedom to instigate riots and divide communities, freedom to degrade our leadership, our country and ourselves.

We poke fun of victims and praise the cowardice of bullies and perpetrators. We have the freedom to express so many opinions that we have lost all need for facts and all capacity for moral compassion. Perverse men brag that: "Ya'll respect the one that got shot. I respect the shooter". People, this should not be!!! Would we make memes of Martin Luther King laying wasted on a balcony floor and print t-shirts glorifying James Earl Ray as an original gangster? I hope not!

Even our children are freer to roam larger territories away from the watchful eye of guardians by way of social media. Regrettably, some even wander freely into chat rooms where waiting predators befriend them and lead them away captive through molestation or exploitation. They have the history of the world in their hands to discover and obtain pertinent information at the speed of 4G, but somehow remain as ignorant as ever to the deep things of the world. These children are being filled with trivial news feeds thus lacking the understanding of politics or spiritual matters that could mode them into the life changers of tomorrow.

Young Americans are being filled with trivial matters, lacking understanding of politics

Some separation and boundary must exist to sustain civility and retain morality. I view far too many Americans acting and busying themselves in foolish dress, conversation and philosophical cliche. What was once done in the dark is now on the web or cast as a topic on a television talk show.We have become far too amused by social issues like single parent teens, murder and relational instability. This is done not as an attempt to solve these problems more so than it is an attempt to capitalize financially off of them by glamorize the participants and excusing it as "reality" television. People subliminally like to see others fail because it deflects from the spotlight of their own personal shortcomings. As our society could use a broader moral compass so that we cease to navigate our minds and hearts towards such foolish and unprofitable things.

The Holy Scriptures implores us to "guard our hearts, for everything you do flows from it" (Proverbs 4:23). The foolishness in us allows us to places ourselves in high regard. A common personal description you hear or read declared by someone is that: "I am a good person". How conceited and inaccurate this is!! All of us could find major flaws in ourselves. If we really love ourselves as we profess, an inventory of our works and deeds is in order. Have you taken revenge or were you strong enough to forgive? Have you zealously assisted the downtrodden or have you walked over them in disgust? If we were to judge ourselves as we judge other we would be ashamed and embarrassed.

But, we don't have to reflect on ourselves, do we? Who has time for self-assessment when every website has a poll to take or a page to comment on about someone else? We are so free to judge the world that we have lost the freedom and desire of self improvement. This has lead us to be captive to our own desires and addictions unable to correct them and unwilling to review them. Could it be that collective despair and degradation in society is the result of the individual's lack of self-correct and examine? (Galatians 5:9).

We would all do well to temper ourselves and what we allow into our hearts and minds. We are an acquired species. Everything that we are is acquired. Our prejudices and fears and our success is based on the life experiences and relationships that mold and shape our beliefs. The tragedy of too much freedom is that it isn't free. To echo the words of my father: "Free stuff can cost to much"!! Moreover, it is not really freedom at all to be captivated by covetousness, violence and immorality. To have our thoughts programmed and manipulated by the illusion of cinema or the allure of consumables is SLAVERY!

The best exercise of freedom is to free ourselves from ourselves. We must create God-like boundaries in our lives, placing only that which is pure, loving, gentle, kind, praise worthy and of good report in our presents, so that you may live empowered with joy, faith and a peace that surpasses all human understanding (Philippians 4:8). Only then will you be totally free!!

Male Apathy Breeds Mother-Man Mutation

"Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consist principally in dealing with men"- Joseph Conrad


I called LaRae Wilson, founder of BiPolar Gear and a lifelong friend, on the phone this morning and I was met with a pleasant surprise. LaRae is always a pleasure to talk to and to be around, but this friend of over twenty years had something very different to say than normal. She told me about her new walk in Christ and how she, like myself, was being tested in her temperament and understanding of the scriptures. She spoke about her new zeal for God's Word and a revelation that she had about herself from the Holy Spirit:

"God told me that I was a mutant", explained Wilson, "I was functioning out of my design as a women and taking on too many things that a man was designed to do".

LaRae Wilson, left, with model, Chanel Davis

I was intrigued by this revelation and, so immediately, I got to my computer and looked up the word "Mutation" on Wikipedia. It is defined as following:

"In genetics, mutation is a change of the nucleotide sequence of the genome of an organism, virus or extra chromosomal genetic element. Mutations result from unrepaired damage to DNA or the RNA genomes...from errors in the process of replication or from the insertion or deletion of segments of DNA by mobile genetic elements. Mutations may not produce discernible changes in the observable characteristics (phenotype) of an organism. Mutation plays a role in both normal and abnormal biological processes, including evolution, cancer and the development of the immune system."

LaRae, like many women have, whether by force or free will, gone through a mutation in free society over the last 70 years. Though working was never new to women, during World War II, the idea of masses of women in the workplace was put to test. Though out of necessity, yet unlike within poor families, this particular change in American was facilitated by a "propaganda campaign to sell the importance of the war effort and lure women to enter into the manufacturing sector" (Rosie the Riveter).

Some positive of this propaganda is the independence that women gained in realizing their buying power. This power, coupled with expanding voting rights and political awareness, gave women a near equal footing on the social playing field. The "near equal" being made evident today in the fact that women earn $8,000 less annually than their male counterparts according to CNN. Something the Obama administration looked to correct with the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Bill of 2009.

Single mothers are more susceptible to poverty

Though women are being promoted as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, representing districts as Congresswomen and nations as presidents and heads of state, they have suffered from a more less positive mutation. According to singlemotherguide.com, "As of 2011, 11.7 million families in the US were headed by single parents, 85.2% of which were headed by a female". Consequently, this has lead to a spike in poverty and the resulting rise in juvenile delinquency. The Labor Department reports that half of the unemployed women were those with children under the age of 18 (1.2 million). Half of single mother families have an annual income of less than $25,000. According to the Hamilton Project at Brookings Institution, the annual earnings of single parent families plummeted 20% between 2007 and 2010, compared to only 5% for two parent families.

These numbers can be attributed to the inability to receive affordable day care for working mothers, income inequality and a lack of corporate flexibility to the needs of single parents. But, the most glaring negative of working women and single mothers is the "mother-man mutation" of women into more masculine roles in the family and society. Women are forced to do things that men were designed to do and as a result have had to make changes to their God-given purpose in an effort to sustain a viable family and social relavence. And though it has been deemed necessary at times, it is not one that most women desire to do.

Childhood problems linked to absentee fathers

Whether through war, incarceration or indifference, men have greatly lacked in fulfilling their God-given roles in the life of society today. While radical Muslim extremist continue to suppress the freedom and talents of women, many Christian nations like America are exploiters of women in the home and workplace and are unwilling to protect them from danger and social injustice. In recent days, the Republican-lead House begrudgingly sent the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to the desk of President Obama's desk for signage. Several Republican lawmakers dismissed the need to protect American women from domestic abuse, stalking, assault and workplace harassment. Ran Paul (R-KY) was one of eight zealots who voted to strike down the 18 year old measure. Women make up over 50% of the total electorate, but only 18% of the 535 seats in this the 113th Congress This is further evidence that women are being misrepresented in the political arena.

I attend a church of about 2,000 members and roughly half of them are men. However, the majority of the leadership and administrative positions are headed by women. When asking those men to serve, from my experience, most do not desire to be in a position of labor and responsibility. This is not new in church or society. The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Philemon, had to urge Timothy to; "help those women which laboured with me in the gospel". His is an unheard cry that resonates throughout the Church and the home even today.

Music like Rap objectify women

Media and entertainment also continue to objectify women in the most demeaning light. Most of the music on the radio in America that is classified as "love songs" merely sexualizes women and highlight their physical attributes. The nature and beauty of womanhood as the factual persona of purity and wisdom is trampled upon by innuendos of lust and characteristics of incompetence and irrationality. Women who are unyielding to immoral demands or are proponents for equal rights are labeled as "bitches" and cast aside as nothing.

The mutation of "mother-man" has damaged not only the lives of the economic capacity of women and the potential success of their children, with 40% of single mothers below the poverty rate, but has damaged free nations overall. The added burden of women, poor or middle-class, being left to survive unguarded in society, has created a cancerous mutation in the female psyche. Many women are burdened with having to be a respectable women, breadwinner and a male-like figure to their children. This burden has added undeserved stress and provoked a trepidation and distrust of men in general.

"Its challenging at times. We have to find the work life balance and be there for our children", Rebecca Collins, former vice president of Signworks in Indianapolis.

Some critics blame the method of distribution of entitlements as one of the causes for the break up of the family structure. They feel that the welfare system encourages "backdoor relationships" where the unemployed father or male guardian is forced to live outside the home so that the mother can receive full benefits or assistance. Some critics point to the high cost of living that has forced some women to do the difficult work at home, as well as on a job. Theological critics cite a breakdown in the moral compass of the male psyche and his turning away from his God-given dominion of a responsible reflection of Christ toward the women and children in his care and in his culture. Women point to the deterioration of fundamental "old school" values in men such as hard work, chivalry and moral ambition.

Dr. Cindy Trimm, best selling author and former senator, warns women against what she believes is a "culture" that leads women to think they can and must do life alone. She affirms that there is nothing wrong with desiring help from a man. "We all know that God created Adam first and Eve second. I don't mind being second because we all know that the second edition of anything is better than the first", preached Trimm to thousands of followers in Dallas."I'm single. I admit to you that I need a man! Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby! Ain't nothing like the real thing"! 

Men of Project Fatherhood take time with their children in L.A.

Thankfully, some men are getting the understanding and assertiveness to break the cycle of male apathy and insensitivity. Men are joining more male centered groups and workshops in an effort to take back there rightful place as priest, provider and protector of the women and children of their communities. For example, underprivileged fathers meet weekly in South Los Angeles to encourage one another to break the generational curse of fatherless households in their community of Jordan Downs. The group named Project Fatherhood meets every week to steer men away from crime and into the trust and respect of their children and wives. Headed my Craig McGruder, an ex-convict and father, the men in program share advice, network employment opportunities and spread the word throughout their housing project to other men who seek to make right the wrong choices and to make amends with their family and love ones by living up to their full potential.

"Growing up the way we did, during the time we did, a lot of the dads might as well have been in another world, said Anthony Christian, a Project Fatherhood leader, "There had to be a better way at looking at being a dad. That's what we want people to think about".

Paul Washer

Paul Washer, founder of Heartcry Missionary Society, takes a bolder biblical approach when he extols the virtues of manhood in society towards women. He teaches young males on the responsibilities of manhood in society and to it's women in his "Manhood Series" on courtship and dating. He admonishes men to view women as "God's daughters" and to treat them with honor and holiness. He believes that women aren't trophies to "date", but gifts from God that men should not approach intimately except in an effort to marry and protect.

"There is no such thing as biblical dating. If you're dating, I don't care who you are, you are out of God's will. Period", Washer explains, "You can talk to me about it later, you can be mad if you want. But, that's just the truth. There is no such thing as recreational dating. There is biblical courtship, there is no recreational dating".

Much is to be done for women in our society to becoming all that God intended for them to  . I, for one, will definitely do my part to eradicate the hideous "mother-man" psyche that has engulfed the lives of our most precious resource, our women. They are the most valuable asset to any productive society. It is well known that the welfare of women is the infallible reflection of any culture. Women possess a keen awareness, a strategic intelligence, a strong sense of family and a gentle compassion that befuddles men, yet preserves his legacy throughout generations of humanity. Women are designed to be loved, encouraged, protected and free to do all the things that give us all reason to live and dream. I pray that through Christ and the Holy Spirit, my friend LaRae and countless other women are not hindered by the lack of leadership by men in our society, but that they be remain rooted int the woman-mother expression of God, so that we can all live out our days in wholeness, holiness and the love of on another.