The Three Faces of Freedom
By
Rev. Dr. Todd F. Eklof
July 1, 2012
It was July 4th, and a couple of unknown guards had agreed to work an
unfamiliar tier of San Quentin’s Death Row to earn a little extra holiday pay. If all
went well they’d still be off in plenty of time to celebrate with their families. But
when the inmates began complaining they hadn’t received things like toilet paper or
spoons to eat their meals, the guards took the low road and responded to their
insults with insults, calling the inmates “cry babies,” sticking their fingers in their
food, not feeding others, or telling them to eat with their hands. They even told one
inmate that they took turns having sex with his wife.
All of this was, as you might imagine, much worse and coarser than I’m
describing. After they left the floor, the inmates began conspiring to murder the two
guards as soon as they returned. But one of the convicted killers, Jarvis Masters, was
desperate to save their lives. “The guards had been idiots,” he thought, “but nothing
they had said or done would ever justify their murder.”1 But the other inmates, few
of whom felt they had anything to lose, were furious and there seemed to be nothing
Jarvis could say or do to prevent them from exacting revenge.
“Man, I don’t mind killing one of those goons,” an inmate said, “That one pig
pushing the food cart tonight who purposely stuck his nasty-ass fingers in my food,
he needs to die.”2
“No,” Jarvis argued, “Death is too permanent. What you mean is you want
them to feel the way you do.”3
So he suggested they all stuff towels into their toilets and flood the entire tier
instead, so that the guards would have to stay nearly all night long cleaning up the
mess and missing their Fourth of July parties. The inmates loved the plan and soon
put it into action. The guards were far from happy when they returned to the mess,
but there was nothing they could do but clean it up, even as the inmates laughed and
taunted them. “These cops are trying to wear eight-inch boots in four feet of water,”
one of them scoffed. “Hey officer, officer,” another shouted, “What a helluva Fourth
of July party, eh? … Man, isn’t it a splash.”
For his role in masterminding the flood, the guards threw Jarvis into solitary
confinement. “Oh, we know it was you!” they said, “And while you’re in the Hole,
you’ll have a very, very long time to ask yourself why.”4 But Jarvis just smiled at
Masters, Jarvis J., Finding Freedom, Padma Publishing, Junction City, CA, 1997, 2006, p. 163.
Ibid., p. 164.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., p. 166.
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them. “Being thrown in the Hole,” he thought, “was worth the pleasure of seeing
them still alive.”5
Jarvis J. Masters, whose stepfather regularly beat him to make him tough, and
whose mother was a prostitute and drug addict, didn’t have much of a chance in life,
which explains how he ended up in San Quentin at age 19. He was later sentenced
and placed on Death Row for his suspected role in the murder of a guard. Although
he still maintains his innocence, it was there that he discovered Buddhism, began
meditating and coming to terms with his past, his misdeeds, and found a desire to
transform his life and ways, even in a place so violent and volatile.
When his teacher, Lama Chagdud Tulka Ripoche came to the prison to
formally initiate him into Buddhism, Jarvis had to take a vow that he would never do
harm to anyone and would be of ceaseless benefit to others, even if it costs him his
own life. In his book, Finding Freedom, Jarvis, who still lives on Death Row, says,
“The freedom to be and express myself is what’s most important to me. It means
waking up every morning, content to be with the dharma in my life, with my prayers
to be of benefit to others, and with my writing to give voice to my human worth. I
simply want to live day by day as close to all my aspirations and freedom as I can.”6
It may seem peculiar for a fifty-year-old man who’s been locked away since
he was a teenager to speak of freedom in this way. It would not be surprising if he
said, “I simply want to be free from prison, to get our from behind bars and go
where I want, and do what I will,” but he longs, rather, for the freedom to express
himself. Given that he is now the author of two published books, Finding Freedom
and The Bird Has My Wings, I’d say Jarvis, by his own definition, is a free man.
Although we are not locked behind bars, I suspect, as Unitarian Universalists,
many of us can relate to Jarvis’ idea of freedom as self-expression. This, I think, is an
important distinction to recognize, that freedom for us means being free to speak
and express ourselves without being molested or oppressed by others. We value the
First Amendment, guaranteeing our freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and
freedom from religious tyranny. Living in a society that allows the free flow of
diverse ideas is largely what it means for us to live in a free country. As the late UU
Minister, George Marshall, explained in his book, Challenge of a Liberal Faith,
“Unitarian Universalists believe that the truth shall make us free, and that the free
mind can develop only in a society where knowledge is open, education is free, and
all ideas are subject to study an consideration by persons who had the right, duty,
and privilege to examine all sides of an issue and arrive at independent decisions.”7
Or, as the founder of Universalism in America, John Murray, more succinctly
Ibid., p. 167.
Ibid., p. 175.
7 Marshall, George, Challenge of a Liberal Faith, Skinner House Books, Boston, MA, 1966,
1988, p. 223.
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proclaimed, “Not all the stones in Boston, except they stop my breath, shall shut my
mouth.”8
Our esteem of ideological freedom, the sort of freedom that has the power to
dissolve bars and give wings to individuals like Jarvis Masters, not only frees us to
express ourselves, but also frees us from ideas, from dogma and the status quo,
inasmuch as it frees us to ask questions. We value a society in which our
inquisitiveness cannot lead to our inquisition. “The free person does not live by an
unexamined faith,” the great UU theologian, James Luther Adams once said, “[For]
To do so is to worship an idol whittled out and made into a fetish. [Rather] The free
person believes with Socrates that the true can be separated from the false only
through observation and rational discussion. In this view the faith that cannot be
discussed is a form of tyranny.”9 So freedom, for us, includes freedom from the
tyranny of ideas.
In addition to freedom of expression and freedom from dogma and the status
quo, our sense of freedom also seeks the same liberty for everyone. This, in my
opinion, is the only reason our churches exist to begin with. For the very notion of
society is at odds with the individual. Call it what you will, self-actualization,
individuation, or authenticity, individual freedom is among our greatest values and
priorities. Yet we manage to successfully gather and work together in community,
not because we share common beliefs, or a common way of life, but through our
common commitment to the principle of freedom and justice for all, for every
individual. “In a Unitarian Universalist congregation,” explains Rev. Jack
Mendelsohn, “an agnostic may sit beside one who believes in a personal God; at the
after-service coffee hour a believer in reincarnation may stand chatting with one
who affirms ‘utter extinction.’ Such are our diversities in theological belief.”10 Rev.
Forrester Church wrote similarly, “We value one another’s thinking. We respect one
another’s search. We honor it even when it differs from our own. We resist imposing
our perception of truth upon one another. At our best, we move… to a fundamental
trust in our own and one another’s inherent ability to make life meaningful.” At the
very least, I might add, ours is a religion that epitomizes the universal Golden Rule
in our desire and demand that all persons share the same freedoms as us. Freedom,
for us, includes freedom for everyone.
But if all of this represents our idea of freedom, how do we reconcile it with
the idea of freedom held by so many others who seem to have values quite contrary
to our own? There are those who praise freedom at every opportunity, yet seem to
care little about self-expression, questioning their own beliefs, and, especially, seem
Howe, Charles A., The Larger Faith, Skinner House Books, Boston, MA, 1993, p. 4.
Adams, James Luther, The Essential James Luther Adams, ed. George Kimmich Beach,
Skinner House Books, Boston, MA, 1998, p. 30.
10 Mendelsohn, Jack, Being Liberal in an Illiberal Age, Skinner House Books, Boston, MA,
1964, 1995, p. 40.
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to despise the rights of others to freely express themselves or question established
ideas.
During his second Inaugural address, for example, George W. Bush said, “The
best hope for peace in the world is the expansion of freedom in the world.” 11 On its
surface, I think most of us here would agree with this statement. But I’ve come to
realize there are many people who have a completely different idea of what it means
to be free than I do. I do not doubt President Bush’s sincerity. But what he meant by
the “expansion of freedom in our world,” and what I mean by it, is not the same. In
retrospect, he seems to have been referring to an expansion of the American empire
around the globe, while I mean an expansion of basic human rights for people in
every nation.
Better understanding this distinction can be of vital importance as we shape
the discussion of what it means to be part of a free world and a free society, for each
view will lead to a completely different outcome. President Bush also said, for
instance, “Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.” Yet, he famously joked, “If
this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the
dictator.” So there’s one idea of freedom that is forced upon others from without,
and another that empowers them from within.
Just this week we saw these diverse views of freedom played out in reaction
to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
For some upholding the bill empowers those who can’t otherwise afford healthcare
to more fully participate in the benefits of our society. Yet, for others, it is an affront
to freedom itself. Sarah Palin responded on Fox News by agreeing with the opinions
of the dissenting Judges, saying, “[theirs] are harsh words, articulated very fiercely,
the defense of America’s economic, commercial, personnel freedoms verses this
overreach of Obamacare.”
This is an important statement because it really gets at the heart of what
many in our country mean when they speak of freedom. As Palin sees it, freedom
refers not to freedom of expression, but freedom to pursue our own personal
economic and commercial interests, which further seems to mean living in a society
with minimal to no taxes or regulations. It is, likewise, an understanding of freedom
based upon individual liberty, but cares little about questioning authority or
equality for others. It is a freedom based upon ethical egoism, upon seeking what it
best for oneself. Perhaps Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said it most directly during
his 2010 victory speech, “America is a great country because of our system, and our
system is Capitalism. Capitalism is freedom.”
So we have these two opposing faces of freedom, freedom as self-expression,
and freedom as self-interest. But I propose that there is a third face of freedom that
11
January 20, 2005
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seems to often get lost in the mix—freedom as self-participation. Surely this is what
Dr. King meant when he so famously sang these words:
“My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers
died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if
America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the
prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains
of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from
the curvaceous slopes of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone
Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let
freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside,
let freedom ring. And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we
let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we
will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white
men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing
in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last!"
I’m pretty confident Dr. King didn’t mean to say, “Let Capitalism ring from
every mountainside,” or, “Capitalism at last! Capitalism at last! Thanks God
Almighty, we have Capitalism at last!” Nor was he calling for the right to merely say
what was on his mind, or to question church doctrine, or to let all people think
whatever they please. Dr. King was very clearly calling for social, economic, and
political equality, which means the freedom to participate in the full benefits of
society, to drink from public fountains, to visit public restrooms, to swim in public
pools, to be allowed into restaurants and stores, to live in safe neighborhoods, to
send his children to good schools and colleges, to vote and to have good jobs with
equal pay. When the slaves first sang about being, “Free at last,” they weren’t merely
longing to express what was on their minds, and certainly not for more of the very
economic system that helped enslave them. They longed to be free of the bonds that
held them captive and the injustices that burdened and broke their backs. “We
need… the freedom of life and limb,” W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “the freedom to work
and think, to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty—all these we need…”12
So as we continue, as we should and must, as our own history demands of us,
to protect and struggle for the freedom to express ourselves, ask questions, and
assure the same rights for all, we must not forget those who are still struggling for
the freedom to simply participate in the full benefits of society. For those seeking
the freedom to pursue their own self-interests, regardless of the costs to others,
may, at times, seek to demonize, dismiss, and silence us, but we are not the real
victims of such a one-sided view of freedom. As we continue to uphold our
commitment to the “free and responsible search and meaning,” let us not forget our
greater commitment to the “worth and dignity of every person.”
12
Du Bois, W.E.B., The Soul of Black Folk, Dover Publications, New York, NY, 1903, 1994, p. 7.
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So, on this Fourth of July weekend, a day of celebrating our Independence
and our First Amendment rights, let us remember the meaning of freedom in its
wholeness by not forgetting those still struggling for basic Civil Rights! Let freedom
ring for the fifty million Americans without health insurance! Let Freedom ring for
the undocumented immigrants currently being detained in sweltering makeshift
tent cities! Let freedom ring for all the women in our nation being denied
reproductive choice and justice! Let it ring for gays living in fear and gay couples
longing to be embraced as equals in a bigoted society! Let it ring in black
communities where fathers and sons are still being incarcerated at a
disproportionate and unjust rate! Let it ring for American Indians who, after
generations, are still living in squalor on reservations! Let it ring for every little boy
and girl who wants and needs a fully funded public education! Let it ring for our
struggling schools and struggling teachers! Let it ring for the poor, the homeless,
and for those without work! Let it ring wherever a mind is bound by fear or a tongue
by silence! Let it ring wherever a heart is bound by greed, and eyes or ears by an
unwillingness to see or listen! And, most of all, let ring for those who are bound by
the invisible fences of privilege that still prevent them from the dignity of meeting
even their most basic human needs! On this Fourth of July, let Freedom ring, let it
ring loudly, and let it truly ring for everyone!
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