“Let freedom ring!” These words were written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 in the lyrics to “America,” also known by its opening lines, “My Country, ’tis of Thee.” They were famously echoed by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. Throughout the history of the United States, Americans have held freedom as one of the foundational values of our country.
Freedom is also a central value in the New Church. Divine Providence 97 says, “It is a law of the Divine providence that a person should act from freedom in accordance with reason…. Therefore, the Lord guards the freedom in a person as a person does the pupil of his eye.” This is particularly true in spiritual matters. True Christian Religion 482 says, “A person would have no free will in political, moral and natural matters, did he not have free will in spiritual ones. This is evident from the fact that spiritual matters occupy the highest region in the human mind, like the soul in the body.”
Every person’s spiritual freedom is preserved by the Lord regardless of the political system they live under - even the most repressive regime cannot force anyone to stop thinking about the Lord or to stop loving Him and loving their neighbor. But the ability to freely express those internal realities does make a difference. True Christian Religion compares the freedom of people in countries where free speech is permitted and countries where it is not:
“When the freedom to speak and write is restricted, so is freedom of thought, that is to say, freedom to take the widest view of things is kept under restriction. It is like a dam built around the basin of a spring, which raises the level of the water to the outlet of the spring, so that water no longer flows out. Thought is like the current of water, and the speech it gives rise to is like the basin. In short, the inflow is proportional to the outflow; likewise understanding from a higher level is proportional to the freedom to speak and express one's thoughts.” (True Christian Religion 814)
The freedom that we experience in our country is something very much to be celebrated. As we do so, we can also remember brothers and sisters in other countries who do not enjoy the same freedom, who must practice their religion in secret if at all, and we can pray for their freedom. We can sing “America,” and close with its final verse:
“Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our king.”