The Bible Speaks to You November 1, 1969 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of October 24-30 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over more than 1.000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 395 - What It Means to Be Free

with contributions from Robert McKinnon, Wylodene Govia

[The speaker is Mrs. Wylodene Govia. The questioner is Robert McKinnon.] Questioner: All of us want to be free. And if we are sensitive to the needs of our time, perhaps we especially want to be free of racial fears, prejudice, injustice, inhumanity. I've talked to people of many racial backgrounds— black, brown, yellow, white—and some have felt free and others haven't, which leads me to believe that this feeling of being free involves a great deal more than being exposed to good laws, fair practices, or equal opportunities.
Speaker: You're so right. Admitting that good laws are valuable and to a certain extent are doing good, genuine freedom doesn't come from good laws, other people, governments, or employers. Genuine freedom is found in one's unity with truth that comes from God. As the Bible says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17). Liberty and freedom have their source in God and are therefore native to man in his true identity as God's likeness. As this truth is recognized, we won't hear cries of fear where there should be courage— moral courage. We won't hear or see or feel insecurity where there should be security, or desperation where there should be intelligent action.

Questioner: You say genuine freedom." I think many people today are especially concerned with social and political freedom. They are socially oppressed. They are not free to pursue their own abilities and fulfill their lives as others are, particularly, I think, because of racial prejudice.
Speaker: That's true. I know of many who are and have been challenged with these feelings of race and limitation. My family is made up of people from many different racial backgrounds. I am classified Negro.

It's so important that we understand the liberating power of the Christ, Truth, and its availability for all of us. I've heard it said that in order to keep a man down you have to stay down there with him. So it is most desirable that both the oppressed and the oppressor realize freedom. New insights into freedom were presented by Christ Jesus, who brought release from the oppression of fear, sickness, sin, and limitation. He said (John 8:31, 32), "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Now, Jesus showed that men may see themselves as fearful, insecure, oppressed, held back, but in their true identity as man they're actually free—the unfettered expression of infinite Spirit, or God.
Questioner: Could you explain what this true freedom or true identity means?
Speaker: Well, to be free, really free, is to understand the true identity we all have as man, as God's likeness, and to act as possessing it, not accepting anything less than God-given worth and value for ourselves and others.