Just What is Freedom?

For all of my adult life, I've been an avid follower of politics, and the longer I do the more frustrated I get at the tendency of certain groups to hijack and distort the meanings of key words, phrases and even whole paragraphs from our nation's founding documents.

At its core, freedom should be defined by the five basic rights guaranteed by the first amendment: freedom of worship, freedom of speech, as well as freedom of the press, assembly and petition to the government. All of these are deeply rooted in the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which stresses the rights of the individual and the primacy of one's conscience over the old dogmatic approaches of Europe which were rooted in religion. Contrary to popular belief, our nation was NOT founded on Christian or "Judeo-Christian" principles. Most of the founding fathers were either deists of nominal Christians.

As our country evolved, we matured in our understanding of freedom. At the time of the adoption of our Constitution, voting was limited to white property owning males. This accounted for a mere three percent of the population at the time. In 1865 the thirteenth amendment ended slavery, although it would be another 100 years before the freedom to vote could be not be denied on account of race. In 1920 women were grated suffrage, creating the first crack in the glass ceiling that lead to freedoms they enjoy today.

History contains many other examples. In recent times, however, cable n"news" journalists, conservative radio hosts and many groups belonging to the religious right have taken a very peculiar view towards freedom. Clothed in vague language, they claim that they are defending "time honored American traditions" and furthering the cause of freedom by opposing gay marriage, hate crime laws protecting minorities and basically any laws that take government out of the boardroom but have no qualms about inserting it in the bedroom.

And all the while they seldom miss an opportunity to utter the word "freedom" in their speeches and on their websites.

These groups are no longer composed of just Bible Belt fundamentalists. In recent years, a disturbing and highly intolerant right wing has emerged within the American Catholic Church. Some can rightly be called hate groups.

These groups arrogantly promote the rights of THEIR constituency at the expense of minorities. Just what is freedom?