Cost of Freedom

You and I live in a time when TV commercials receive higher ratings than regular programming.  Vendors and Madison Avenue Marketing compete for airtime during the Super Bowl.  The network that carries the Super Bowl charges an unbelievable $2.6 million for a 30-second ad slot.  Our government paid $2.5 million dollars for the 2010 census ad.  The bottom line is the record number of viewers for the Super Bowl.

The commercials can be funny.  A Snickers ad that shows Betty White being tackled is funny and continues to be a hit.  Budweiser beer usually has some very humorous ads.  They have enough money in their coffers to do so to make them funny.

One night several years ago as my son Aaron and I were watching TV, Budweiser aired an ad for the Fourth of July.  The ad shows Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other men of that era at a backyard barbecue.  It tries to be humorous, but it was offensive.  It shows our founding fathers as bumbling idiots drinking beer and partying, something typical of today.  Ben Franklin’s character accidentally tilts a cannon creating fireworks when it discharges.  They say that we should do this celebration every July 4.  Aaron commented on how disrespectful the commercial was about our founding fathers and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The men that signed the Declaration of Independence did so at great cost.  Some lost their fortunes, some lost their property, and some lost their lives for signing their names on that document.  A document and freedom we make frivolous today as evidenced in the Budweiser commercial and actions of many citizens.

Snickers went through a fiasco a few years back when they aired a commercial that was considered inappropriate by many viewers.  They withdrew the ad, as have many other brand name products when there was public outcry against them.

We live in a nation where public outcry is changing.  Isaiah reminds us, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”  We see that unfolding before our eyes.  We have a tendency to forget.  Most people do not like history, but without knowing where we have been, we might have the tendency to repeat our past mistakes.

How did my young son determine that the beer commercial was disrespectful?  Many his age would have never considered that thought.  I would like to think that it is because I have tried to teach him the real meaning of the Fourth of July and the great sacrifice that our forefathers paid for us to enjoy a grand holiday.

I think that it is important to tell our children about real people and kinfolk that have gallantly served our nation to preserve our great freedoms.  Millions are enjoying the fruit of the work of those gone before us.

The Bible tells the story of Moses and the Exodus over and over.  Spanning centuries, the Exodus and God’s love for the nation of Israel in caring for them until they entered the promise land is as one of my professors put it, “a watershed event in history.”

When the nation of Israel would forget and stray, God, or His representative, would remind them of the great cost and victory of the Exodus.

When we make frivolous those events of great sacrifice and great significance, there needs to be condemnation.  Freedom comes at great expense.  Once, an old friend and I were discussing Salvation.  She enjoyed needling me, especially about me being a Southern Baptist.  She was bragging about her salvation not costing anything.  I reminded her that it might not have cost her, but the cost of our salvation bankrupted heaven.  It cost God everything.

Could it be that we are not teaching our children about the cost of our freedom?  Are we profaning the sacred?  When do we draw the line with humor?  Will our freedom without remembrance keep us free?  I think the Psalmist says it best.

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:  Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:  That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:  And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God (Psalm 78: 1-8 KJV).