Freedom Ain’t Free

Our ancestors paid for it. Christ paid for it. Now it is our turn to pay it forward.

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Freedom Can Be Delayed

On Juneteenth, we celebrate freedom. Or perhaps more accurately, we celebrate the ongoing struggle for freedom.

Juneteenth reminds us of a difficult truth: Freedom Ain’t Free.

Freedom must be claimed, protected, and nurtured. Freedom requires participation. And what the last several years have shown us is that freedom can be taken. And as Juneteenth reminds us: freedom can be delayed.

Recently, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the political and spiritual landscape of our nation. As I do, my mind often returns to the pivotal moment in November 2008 when the nation elected its first Black president.

For many Black Americans, Barack Obama’s election felt impossible until it happened. Until that moment not one Black person would have told you honestly that they believed they would live to see the election of the first Black president.

However, to my surprise, I got to witness what I thought was the moment when the ideals of a post-racist society had finally been realized. I believed we, as a nation, had entered into a new dispensation of life.

Freedom Can Be Lost

Looking back, I see that the most powerful thing about Obama’s presidency was the symbolism of his presidency. Obama was in no way, shape, or form a perfect president.

Obama expanded the amount of drone strikes in the Middle East. Obama set record numbers of deportations and removals of migrant families from the US. And during his tenure the Supreme Court paved the way for corporations to have increased power over our national elections.

And yet, his presidency also made marriage equality law. The Affordable Care Act was enacted. And growing numbers of Black and minority leaders emerged in ways we had not seen since Reconstruction.

The symbolism of Obama’s presidency led many people—myself included—to take our foot off the proverbial gas. And record voting numbers in 2008 and 2012 dwindled in the years between presidential elections.

Those who showed up in 2008 and 2012 seemed to have disengaged in the years between elections. And during those moments, right-wing Christian Nationalists began to emerge and mobilize.

Plans were put in motion to weaken voter turnout. On June 25, 2013, after the start of Obama’s second term, the Supreme Court ruled against a key provision of the Voting Rights Act requiring federal preclearance. The Equal Justice Initiative reports that jurisdictions freed from federal oversight moved almost immediately to enact restrictive voting measures. States imposed strict voter ID requirements. Restricted early voting. Purged voter rolls. Closed down polling locations in Black communities.

The same year Donald Trump promised he would make America great again, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that North Carolina lawmakers had targeted African American voters with “almost surgical precision” to dilute Black political power.

And in 2026, Black people now have fewer voting rights than we’ve had since 1965.

Additionally, plans were put in place so women would have fewer reproductive rights than they’ve had since 1973. And soon we might discover that we all have fewer rights to citizenship, fewer rights to due process, fewer rights to equal protection under the law than since the Fourteenth Amendment was established in 1868.

And for almost two decades, Christian Nationalists have worked to secure power so that a political minority could take majority control of our national politics. Knowing they cannot prevail on the efficacy of their policy alone, they have used the levers of democracy in all levels to undermine the democratic process.

In 2008 and 2012, many of us seemed to believe that by electing the right singular leader the restoration of the nation could be achieved. But what we have since learned is that those who seek power believe if they can convince us that our participation in the political process does not matter, they can hold power without our consent.

Those who seek power have learned to steal elections and weaponize the government against its citizens. They have learned to send our children to war and raise our prices on groceries and gas, and they have learned how to make a profit for themselves in the process. All of this to make sure we are too distracted, too distraught, too disheartened to engage and vote in our democracy.

Freedom Requires Participation

Because the only way for democracy to survive is when people participate. Which is why I have lamented the fact that every election cycle feels like running in circles on a dumpster fire of a hamster wheel.

But what has become increasingly clear is that voting has consequences and not voting has consequences.

And what has also become increasingly clear is that much of the reason it feels like we are participating in a system that produces nothing and leads us nowhere is because we put sole responsibility for the restoration of the nation in one leader.

One president.

One election.

One vote every four years.

And as people of faith, we have placed the burden squarely on God to fix the mess of a broken world that our actions and inactions have created.

I recently heard environmentalist Natalie Kyriacou speaking at a “Reclaiming Democracy Together” event in Melbourne, Australia, where she observed how human beings often treat social, political, and economic systems as though they are laws of nature. Which they are not!

As she put it: “There is nothing inevitable about the way we run our economies, draft our laws, or govern our societies. These systems have no independent existence; they exist because we will them to.” And this insight struck me deeply and reminded me of something I deeply believe.

That the systems which govern our lives are not acts of God.

They are acts of human will.

Human beings create and sustain them. And with the grace of God, human beings can change, rebuild, and repair them.

And what Juneteenth reminds me is that freedom does not come because it arrives on horseback. Freedom does not wait until it is read aloud by courier.

Freedom endures when we embrace the sacred responsibility that comes with being made in the image and likeness of God.

Freedom Must Be Paid Forward

Freedom ain’t free. And a cost has already been paid.

A cost was paid by Fannie Lou Hamer.

A cost was paid by Martin Luther King Jr.

A cost was paid by Jimmie Lee Jackson.

A cost was paid by James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

A cost was paid by Viola Liuzzo and James Reeb.

A price was paid by Medgar Evers and Herbert Lee.

A price was paid by the countless people whose names we do not know but who sacrificed their life and love for generations they would never live to see. Generations they could, nonetheless, see by faith! Who would not only walk into promised lands but would help bring the promised Kingdom to make on earth as it is in heaven.

And God has already paid and given the best of what God has to give.

God has given us Christ.

God has given us God’s Spirit.

God has given us each other.

And by the grace of God we can do the work of freedom together.

Juneteenth reminds us that freedom may be delayed. Freedom can be tested. Freedom can be threatened. But freedom can never be denied!

Freedom is ours! It has already been bought and paid for.

And we must do our part to pay it forward, so that freedom remains the inheritance we leave for generations yet unborn.

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The New Evangelicals is a digital-first 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to creating a better path forward at the intersection of faith, politics, and culture. Through educational resources and inclusive community spaces, we empower people to reject Christian Nationalism and boldly advocate for their neighbors while holding onto a faith rooted in the way of Jesus: with love, justice, and compassion for all.