On Understanding Freedom – Sunday, June 30, 1946
As days of patriotic observance come and go, there is much said about freedom. Like all other principles with which men are concerned, freedom in theory may be one thing and freedom in practice may be quite another. It is a term comparatively easy to define academically, but sometimes difficult to define in the everyday relationships of life—difficult to say where encroachment begins and ends, to say when it is violated and when it is respected, because men have so many different ideas of freedom, and so many misconceptions concerning it. There are some, for example, who are committed to the principle of freedom for everyone, and others who want it only for themselves.
It is they who have forgotten that no man’s freedom is safe, so long as any man is in bondage. Then there are those who want freedom to abuse their freedom—who want complete license, freedom from all restraint, freedom from the necessary disciplines of life, freedom from law and order. It is they who mistake freedom for anarchy. All of us, of course, want our freedom to complain and to criticize. We may not always use this freedom, but without it we are not free. And then there are some of us who expect not only freedom but also a free living. But there is a great difference. Freedom must include freedom to work but not freedom from work.
Freedom from want without effort may sound like Utopia, on the face of it, but actually it is but the prelude to tragedy. There are many other so-called freedoms which some of us sometimes think we want, but which no straight-thinking man actually does want when he understands where they lead—and among them are freedom from responsibility, freedom from troubling ourselves with the issues of the day—and even freedom from thinking for ourselves. But when we indulge these freedoms we do so at great cost, because he who does not carry his share of the burdens of his own day and generation cannot long expect to have the blessings of freedom—and he who does not think for himself is never free. God be thanked for freedom, for with all it is abused, and neglected, and misunderstood, anything for which we could exchange it would be a bad bargain!
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 30, 1946, 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon, EDST. Copyright 1946.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
June 30, 1946
Broadcast Number 0,880