Friends: Where is our nation headed when we have senators and media who no longer understand where human freedom originates?  Some thoughts on God in modern U.S. civics. 

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Spirituality Column #982

September 9, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Whither Freedom?

By Bob Walters

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” – Paul, Galatians 5:1

Paul’s assurance here of Christian freedom from the Hebrew old covenant Law vs. modern political freedom uniquely and divinely assumed into American government are today’s topics of discussion. And it was Virginia U.S. senator Tim Kaine’s egregious and ungodly civics fumble last week, comparing the U.S. Constitution to Islam’s Sharia Law, that necessitates a refresher about both God’s intent and man’s understanding.

Let’s briefly sort out human freedom as it applies to the three Abrahamic religions, U.S. founding documents, the Ayatollah’s current reign in Iran, and Kaine’s horribly errant take on a “core pillar of the American experiment” (hat tip: Peter Heck).

In case you missed it, Kaine offered this howler in a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing last Wednesday: “This notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator … that’s what the Iranian government believes. …  So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”

So, rights from our Creator are “extremely troubling.” Really? Thomas Jefferson’s take in the Declaration of Independence differs a bit: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Genesis 1:27 tells us humans are created in the image of God.  Thinkers through the ages – including Aristotle, John Locke, and Jefferson – have noted man’s special agency in divine freedom subject to God’s righteousness, which Paul understands is imputed to us through Jesus Christ. In Romans 13:1-7 Paul lays out the necessity of government and Christian compliance, but also our ultimate duty to glorify God.

Islamic Sharia Law, without getting into the tall grass, dictates that law and government are ordained by God – theocracy – with little mention of individual rights.

It scares me, but I’m not surprised, that a U.S. politician could be so far afield as Kaine seems to be.  He is saying our rights come – or should come – from government. Wow. Kaine could not be more wrong in theory, but is far from alone in his ignorance.

Going back to Galatians, cited up top, my Bible mentor George Bebawi called this letter “a stick of dynamite” as a broadside exposition on how Christian salvation by faith in Jesus is different from Hebrew compliance with the Law. Paul is expressing freedom in Christ, not slavery to “law that brings sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Paul’s self-proclaimed “slavery” was his declaration of love for and faith in Christ. That’s OK; most of us make ourselves slaves, i.e., are supremely dedicated, to that which we love. 

Founding father John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Those morals – collective, objective agreement on right and wrong and ultimate Godly purpose – are what Adams is citing, not non-Christian “religious” symbols and systems.

People possess rights from God apart from government. Or, is government the sole arbiter of human freedom? These are very, very different philosophies, Mr. Kaine.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends these articles on Kaine by Peter Heck and The Daily Signal. Kaine, btw, was Hillary Clinton’s VP running mate in 2016. Also, Walters checked and saw no coverage of Kaine’s comments on so-called “legacy media.” This tells us the media does not understand Kaine’s comments. Pity.

Spirituality Column No. 493
April 26, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters

“This above all, to thine own self be true.” Polonius in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene iii

As antithetical as this apparently self-serving quote may appear to a Christian, it provides a valuable lesson of how not to read Shakespeare … or the Bible.

Not that anyone is going to confuse Polonius with Jesus.

Shakespeare wrote lots of stuff that has a biblical ring to it.  This particular quote shows up all the time on lists of sayings people think come from the Bible but don’t, sayings like “Moderation in all things” (Aristotle), “God helps those that help themselves” (Aesop / Ben Franklin) and others.  You get the idea.

As for biblical passages and Shakespearian tragedies, smart people have been studying them for a long time.  When we encounter inspired scripture or secular platitudes, it is wise to seek truth not in the brevity or pithiness of a single line, but in the broader context of the writing, the actual lesson being taught, the perspective of the era and the wisdom of the ages.  Truth has a way of never getting old.

Our present day New Age / postmodern / warm-fuzzy love affair with our worldly appetites and self-defined moral standards would grab this Shakespeare line about “being true to one’s self” and claim it as authoritative affirmation of self-driven ethical reality.  “My point is proven,” we assume.  “I’ll keep my own counsel,” we assert.  And we miss the deep, timeless truth of selfless – not selfish – moral high ground.

Polonius was a not-too-trustworthy Shakespearian windbag who nonetheless had a gift for saying wise things.  Here he advises his travel-bound son Laertes, a friend of Hamlet’s, to be “true to himself” because in context, two lines later, “Thou canst not then be false to any man.”  The lesson is about dealing rightly with others so as not to defile one’s own reputation.

As for Shakespeare’s historical era, Elizabethan England (1558-1603) enjoyed great power and was subject to profound Christian influence.  The age followed closely the founding of the Anglican Church by King Henry VIII (1534), was a period of great British commercial and naval might, and just preceded the King James Bible (1611).

To learn wisdom or profound timeless truth that is sometimes hidden from view, we must train and discipline ourselves to look deeper than one line of Shakespeare, or one line of scripture or first-impression evidence anywhere.

How Christians “do unto others,” “forgive others,” “love others,” “let our light shine for others” and “make disciples, baptize and instruct others” all reflect the depth, breadth and health of our relationship with God.

That’s what reveals one’s true self.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that one’s Bible understanding enriches one’s grasp of Western literature.

Spirituality Column #307
October 2, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

By Bob Walters

Logic and reason may be the twin towers of worldly intellectual life, but faith and freedom are required to experience and apply the wisdom of God.

We can thank the ancient Greeks for modern mankind’s obsession with physical evidence, reverence for forensic consensus, and stubbornness against accepting the truth of faith.  “Truth” credited to Socrates (469-399 B.C.), Plato (427-347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), and championed by philosophers through the ages, grips both the highest reaches of contemporary academia and mankind’s simplest common sense.

That “truth” in a nutshell?  Things are only true if one can explain them.

It is among Satan’s cleverest deceptions, convincing humans that ultimate truth a) resides inside each of us and b) is limited to what we can prove to others.  God, desiring love and faith above all, bestows intellectual freedom on us to discover His truth.  Some people do find God through Christ, but many find only themselves, or the world’s pleasures, or despair, or confusion.  Some find only emptiness.

Absent faith in the ultimate goodness of God, the truth of Jesus Christ, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, countless thinkers have busied themselves trying to make sense of the world by worshipping explanations or devising systems.  They attempt to explain that which is unexplainable without faith in God; we mistakenly think ultimate truth will include a clear explanation.  Not so.

In the world’s realm of evidence, power, and self-examination, the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t make sense.

God became human?  Prove it.

Almighty God, in the person of His own sinless son Jesus the Prince of Peace, died a violent sinner’s death on the cross to … free mankind from sin?  Be serious.

Christ’s resurrection assures believers eternal life?  Who have you ever seen “resurrected”?

God did all this to save the weak?  This life favors the strong and powerful; if God exists, He (or She) favors them.

Historical ironies abound.  Greek philosophy flowered in the intertestamental years between the writing of the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi (circa 500 B.C.) and the birth of the ultimate authoritative teacher, Jesus.  From then until the 18^th century A.D., academic and intellectual investigation was overwhelmingly devoted to discovery through the infinite lens of Christ’s wisdom.  Today, the academy satisfies itself – restricts itself, actually – with the pocket magnifying glass of man’s knowledge.

In Greek-educated Paul’s 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, esp. v19, “the learning of the learned I will confound,” God declares the folly of intellectually “going it alone.”

Of course, we are free to think differently.  But it’s not wise.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is studying 1 Corinthians Wednesday nights at E91 church (class open to all) with former Cambridge University lecturer Dr. George Bebawi.