From The Pastor’s Heart OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
After listening to Congregational Committees hearings on what went wrong on the day of the insurrection at the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and also watching a news flash on a representative who participated in a zoom Congressional committee hearing, using guns as the backdrop, I began to think about the right of rebellion that is built into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I began to feel that the right to rebel has become the right of destruction. I am not singular in my thoughts because Albert Camus, one of the most profoundly influential thinkers of the last century, reflected on rebellion in the French Constitution that led to the revolution. And he said that the urge to revolt is one of the “essential dimensions” of human nature, manifested in man’s timeless Promethean struggle against the conditions of his existence, as well as the popular uprisings against established orders throughout history. But then he shows how inevitably the course of revolution leads to tyranny.
In my brief reflection, I am saying that the First and Second Amendments of the American Constitution that offer the rights to free speech and the right to bear arms are seeded with destruction. I do not know that I can tell all that the writers of the Constitution had in mind when they wrote the First and Second Amendments – the rights to free speech and the right to bear arms. I am sure that they did not intend for these rights to be abused as they are being abused today. But here is where we are – living out the abuse of the freedoms.
Let me frame what I am arguing by asking the following questions:
· Are there limits to our freedom of speech and freedom to carry arms?
· Do people have the right to say anything that comes to their minds?
· Do they have the right to spew anger, hatred and bitterness that will lead to violence?
· Do they have the right to speak any dirt that comes to their mouths?
· Do they have the liberty to use the language of ridicule and bullying that destroy others?
· Is this the kind of right of speech that the Constitution is seeking to give?
· Should people have free reign to purchase all the (kinds of) guns that they are purchasing?
· Do they have the right to brandish their guns in the public square, as many are?
· Do they have the right to attack the Capitol or any other building or people with their guns?
· Do people have the right to use their guns to intimidate others, as they are doing?
I am not trying to give direct answers to the questions above but let me turn to the Bible, a book in which I have a better understanding than the Constitution. Let me remind you, dear reader, that we can abuse freedom. Freedom without limits is a farce.
If at all, you know and accept the history of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the Genesis story, you will agree that something went wrong when they misunderstood and abused their freedom(s). Something went wrong when they listened to the serpent instead of listening to God. Something went awry when they rebelled against God. Something went amiss when they ate the fruit from the tree God had told them not to eat. Read the story in Genesis 3, and you cannot miss the struggle with identity, the fear, the pain, the alienation, the conflict, the blaming, the shaming, the suspicion, the despair, the destruction and death that came as a consequence of the abuse of the freedom.
Let me even invite you to read Genesis 4 to see the brokenness in family relationships and Cain’s resentment that led to the murder of his brother Abel. Read on further in Genesis and see how Lamech, one of Cain’s great-great-great-grandson, followed Cain’s disobedience and murderous ways by killing a person he felt had insulted him.
Then look at the boast of his sin to his two wives and his rejoicing about suffering no consequences: “If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.” I do not need to trace the rebellion story any further, except to state that God had to wipe out the earliest generations of humanity with a flood, then start human history again through Noah (Read Genesis 6-9).
Why do I seek to connect the freedom in the American Constitution with the freedom in the Genesis story? It is to state that freedom is portentous of good and evil and that when we refuse to respect the limits of freedom, we are bound to self-destruct. If we have no limits on how we speak and carry guns, we can be sure that soon and very soon, we will reap the ultimate results of our misappropriated freedoms. I remind us of two things with a critical biblical perspective.
1. Our freedom of speech
Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:5-8 NIV)
2. Our freedom to bear arms
Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52 ESV)
Do you get the message? Although we have our rights and freedoms, we need to watch our rebellious tongues because they can cause real trouble. We need to think clearly about the weaponry we think we need for protection because it can lead to destruction.
I pause here and will speak more of the right of rebellion in a future reflection. However, whatever think of the right to participate in rebellious speech or defense, you must carefully examine your actions and motives.
