They had a picture of a soaring eagle with this inspiring phrased attached: "Freedom is not the right to do as you please but the liberty to do as you ought."
I would like to dust this phrase off in terms of where its author is right and wrong, and then rewrite the phrase as I define freedom.
Freedom is the right to do as you please; if you are awake and informed, then you accept that doing whatever you please to do comes with costs and repercussions, punishments and rewards, in this world and the next, based on your behavior. With this cautionary in mind, it is true that you can do as you please, but please look before you leap, and prudently conclude if what pleases you is the right thing to do, and worth the accompanying grief harvested.
Freedom is not only the liberty to do as you ought, but is also the liberty to do as you ought not to do.
Let us now rewrite the motto: "Freedom is the right to do as you please, but, as a moral person, you must work extra hard to make what pleases you coincides with what you ought to do. This careful history of prudent use of free choice lead one to come to know and live in God's presence in this world and the next, and that wondrous state of liberty is most promising, most rewarding and most pleasing."
No comments:
Post a Comment