I have the great privilege of pastoring Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and the politically averse, so I rarely write or talk about politics. In part, this is to maintain the trust that’s crucial for a pastor to do his or her job well with each of these types of people. But it’s also because I see many Americans—even those calling themselves Christians—who worship the false god of politics, allowing politicians, political parties, and pundits tell them what’s wrong and right, true and untrue, and how to live their lives. I don’t want to be liable for someone being led deeper into worship of that false god.
I think (and hope) that my approach to politics is aligned with the way of Jesus. While the way of Jesus had (and still has) profound political implications, we almost never see Jesus in Scripture directly addressing the politics of His day.
But there are times when I see an opportunity to use a civil holiday or cultural occasion to invite people deeper into the way of Jesus, so I’ll speak about it. I think this is one such opportunity.
When I was in high school, I had an opportunity to go to a camp at Valley Forge sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Alongside one youth representative from each state, we learned about many things American, including the Constitution. Nearly 15 years later, I remember almost nothing from the camp, but I do remember two things from a presentation by two constitutional lawyers.
The first thing I remember is that one predicted that an upcoming major Supreme Court ruling would be either 6-3 one way or 5-4 the other way because he knew which justices would want to write the majority opinion, no matter if that majority wasn’t aligned with their own interpretation. He was correct.
The second thing I remember is that these two lawyers—one progressive and one conservative—talked about how most debates around the constitution and many debates around our laws of the land have to do with two competing values: Freedom and Safety.
The thing is, America doesn’t have total freedom or total safety. And you can’t have both total freedom or total safety. They’re at odds with one another.
They gave the example of a country with near-complete freedom. I can’t remember exactly which country they used as an example, but it would be like them giving the example of Yemen or Haiti today. In these countries, you have near complete freedom. You can kill, steal, and demolish anyone and anything you want with very little likelihood for punishment for those actions. This is what complete freedom looks like. Such freedom comes at a cost to safety.
They also gave an example of a country with near-complete safety: Soviet Russia. The USSR was one of the safest countries the modern world has ever seen. This came at a cost to freedom, though. The punishment for even the most petty of crimes was wildly severe, so in fear, the civilians avoided anything that could resemble wrongdoing.
The lawyers pointed out that many debates in America are a tug-of-war between these two values, Freedom and Safety. It tends to be that conservatives prioritize freedom more and progressives tend to prioritize safety more.
Take, for example, gun control. Typically, conservatives are advocates for less gun restrictions, giving them and others more freedom to own what they want and carry it in the ways they want. Typically, progressives are advocates for more gun restrictions, giving them and others greater assurances of safety by giving less access to guns.
This was a particularly helpful reframe for me. Rather than seeing one side as “bad” and one side as “good,” this has helped me see two sides of many debates as advocating for two good priorities. Where we find the helpful balance between Freedom and Safety is where we disagree.
As I was thinking back on this lesson in constitutional law yesterday, I couldn’t help but think of a place in Scripture where the balance between Freedom and Safety is most evident. It happened in the most perfect place humanity has ever lived: the Garden of Eden.
In the Garden, God gave Adam and Eve both Freedom (“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden…” Gen. 2:16), and Safety (“…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Gen. 2:17).
God limited their freedom to keep them safe. He did so by giving them rules to live within. God’s freedom for us is a limited freedom. He gives us so many options of what to do and how to do it. But there are boundaries to the freedom He has given us because outside of those boundaries, we risk our safety. Because God loves us, He gives us limits to our freedom.
God also limited their safety to give them freedom. If God wanted Adam and Eve to stay perfectly safe, He would have created them as puppets, only able to do exactly what He wanted them to do. But true love involves freedom, letting someone do what they choose to do. Because God loves us, He gives us limits to our safety.
In our modern world—one much less ideal than the Garden of Eden—we sometimes expect God to give us both freedom and safety. Like, “God, let me do what I want but keep me safe while doing it.”
That’s not the way it works.
When we push our freedom, we risk our safety. When humans believe they can do whatever they want, however they way, they put theirs and others’ safety at risk.
When we solely focus on safety, then we don’t enjoy the life God has given us. We don’t enjoy the joy of using God’s freedom to make our own decisions or to step out in faith to share the goodness of the Kingdom of God with others.
Living in the way of Jesus looks a lot like limiting our freedom in the way God limits it while enjoying the freedom He has given us to live the safe life He offers us.
As you celebrate the balanced freedom and safety of the United States of America today, I hope you’ll also ponder how to live within the freedom and safety God has given us!
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Hunter Bethea 
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