On this 9/11 day of remembrance, many of us are asking ourselves basic questions about the state of our world and our future as a nation. We are no less vulnerable to attack than we were 20 years ago; we may be more vulnerable. And, more personally, the question of our individual identity—of how we see ourselves and our purpose for living in this uncertain world. Our identity and our reputation are priceless possessions that depend on another priceless gift--our freedom.
Our Identity and Freedom
Speaking of how we view ourselves, our granddaughter discovered a way to see herself in the mirror from multiple angles by orienting the mirrors of our bathroom vanity cabinets. We were amazed at this duplication of her cute face. We also realized there is another lesson we can learn from “looking in the mirror.”
Our family, friends, employer, businesses, and government agencies all have informal and formal ways of identifying us from a wealth of data that has accumulated since our birth. It is in our best interest to keep private many of our most personal thoughts and personal data such as credit card numbers, account passwords, and health records. A fundamental part of individual freedom is the right to have some measure of control over what others can see and know about us. Otherwise, in today’s world, our private information can fall into the hands of the wrong people. Our personal identity is one of our most valuable possessions.
Loss of Identity and Freedom
Imagine you are traveling on an interstate highway and decide to take an off-ramp. You proceed to a “Stop” sign and make a right turn to enter a detour for road construction. Within a quarter mile, you are stopped at what appears to be a highway checkpoint. An officer dressed in a dark green uniform asks you for your identification. You hand him your driver license which he keeps but does not acknowledge it as an official ID. You reach in the glovebox for vehicle registration, but the officer is not impressed. Additional attempts with credit cards, insurance card, and social security card do not convince the officer that you are really—You! You suddenly experience what it would be like to lose your identity, and with it, your freedom.
Does this sound a bit far-fetched and futuristic? Another conspiracy theory? Many Americans would answer “Yes.” But we need only to watch the daily news to see evidence of how a gradual progression of government policies can lead to an outright loss of our freedom. For example, the news from Australia is revealing how a formerly democratic government is becoming an authoritarian state (See HERE.)
“But wait,” you say.
“We live in America under the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, First Amendment, law and order, and due process. Life in my neighborhood goes on pretty much as it has for decades. I trust our mayor, law enforcement officials, school board, and my doctor.”
But what about the larger world in which these officials and agencies must
function—your state and federal government?
Let’s consider two recent and ongoing developments that seemingly allow state
and federal governments to justify policies that are restricting our
freedoms. The first is the increasing
pressure from the U.S. Government to achieve universal vaccination against the
COVID-19 virus.
During the past 50 years, we became familiar with the claim, "It's my body, and no one should be telling me what I can or cannot do." The pro-choice movement has rested squarely upon this claim in their successful effort to overturn government restrictions on abortion. Many of us are opposed to abortion on the grounds that it terminates the development of a human life that began at conception. At the same time, we ought to be “pro-choice” regarding our right to make decisions in consultation with our doctor in the best interest of our health. So, with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not anti-vaccination. We are simply “anti-coerced vaccination.”
In August, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the body of each man and woman in the military will be subjected to "his choice" regarding vaccination. Austin’s choice is that all will be vaccinated regardless of preference or whether they have natural immunity from prior infection.
Lippincott cites specific federal court cases to support his claim that, “Control over one’s own body is the basis of all freedom. If the government can mandate vaccines in the name of health and welfare, then it can mandate other procedures as well. It can erode the right to autonomy and independence in the most intimate spheres of life.”
The Federal Government’s COVID vaccination requirements just became more coercive this week. President Biden’s plan took aim at the nearly 40% of Americans who are not fully vaccinated (See HERE.). Over 80 million workers will be required to either be vaccinated or subject themselves to weekly COVID testing.
Meanwhile, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, “only 16% of unvaccinated workers would get the shot if required. Thirty-five percent would request a medical or religious exemption; and, 42% would quit their job… If a medical or religious exemption were not available, 72% said they would quit the job…” Many Americans are not anti-vaccine; they simply oppose the use of coercion through penalties, fear, and shaming while watching their freedom being taken away. In hopes of finding clarity amid the confusion, many are looking to science to light the way.
Where Is the “Good Science?”
Readers of Oikonomia know that we frequently emphasize the importance of “good science” (See HERE for “Follow the Science. But Who’s Driving It?”). More than ever, we need good science characterized by individual and professional ethics expressed through careful research, objective peer review, freely available and unbiased reporting, and healthy civil discourse as a basis for good policy making. When one or more of these links are weakened, many important questions go unanswered or are wrongly answered. The result is confusion, frustration, and threats to our well-being. Here are a few of the questions still needing honest answers:
1. Can we know the who, what, where behind
the 2019 outbreak of
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)?
2. What are the best therapeutics and preventive
approaches
(e.g. masks) against COVID?
3. What did we learn as a nation from the
apparent failure
of a complete lockdown approach?
4. Will the current vaccination approach
protect us or simply create
new COVID variants?
5. What is the risk/benefit ratio for a
policy of forced universal
vaccination?
6. Why does Dr. Robert Malone, principal
inventor of mRNA vaccine
technology, and other experts have serious concerns about
the
COVID vaccines? (See video HERE.)
Good science is also shedding critical light on the policy of requiring universal vaccination of college students. In April of this year, Cornell University began mandating vaccination of all university students, faculty, and staff with only limited exemption for religious and medical reasons. According to statistics reported in The College Fix (See HERE), this fall, Cornell boasted a 95% vaccination rate. However, the first week of classes in 2021 revealed 322 positive COVID cases (1.19% positivity rate) compared to 59 cases (0.2% positivity) in 2020.
The Cornell data raise questions about the effectiveness of both vaccination and face masks. And, there don’t appear to be hidden factors that skew the results. Students were required to wear masks both years—no variable there. Nor was number of COVID tests a variable. In fact, the number of tests was greater in 2020 (28,951) than in 2021 (27,103)! In all, the Cornell data suggest that shrinking the percentage of unvaccinated individuals to 5% combined with a face mask requirement did not lessen the already low incidence of COVID infection.
Obviously, the issues surrounding COVID are complex, and we cannot determine the best path for ourselves and our families without good science, good counsel from our personal physician, and above all the precious freedom to make the best choices for our particular health needs. Which raises the question of whether we are being selfish if we ask for the freedom to choose what is best for our individual lives.
Who Is Being Selfish?
Freedom that is so cherished by many Americans is being threatened by overreaching governmental policies. Personal freedom of choice is also being threatened in a more subtle and insidious way—by inciting resentment and rejection in our social interactions. For example, those who wear masks and/or who are vaccinated are encouraged to look and speak with disdain toward those who chose not to wear masks or be vaccinated.
According to Lippincott, “Some mandatory vaccination activists argue that refusing to receive a COVID shot is equivalent to murder, since an unvaccinated person might spread the illness. This is dangerous logic. Treating healthy people like biohazards is a recipe for stripping away all of their rights.” Lippincott drives his point further by referring to what has happened in Australia as a stark warning to all of us: “If you start treating your fellow citizens like disease vectors, you end up with the globe as a hospital gulag. [In this context, Americans should realize from what is happening in Australia, and wake up to what is happening in our country.] The Australian government has gone as far as removing children from their parents to quarantine them. Medical martial law and the biomedical security state are incompatible with human freedom.”
Attack on Our Identity
Let’s return to our scenario in which we imagined we were stopped by a guard at a highway checkpoint who questioned our identity and confiscated our personal ID’s. Next, the official orders you to follow signs to “Temporary Parking” where you discover over a dozen cars with their drivers and passengers waiting inside. Disturbed by this turn of events, you begin to feel fearful when you notice two other officers, dressed in similar dark green uniforms removing the license plates from the parked cars. Soon, another officer approaches your car, captures a photo of your face, and generates a plastic armband which he attaches to your wrist. Then, you are ordered to get out of your car and to join a line of others who are making their way to a drab, windowless building nearby.
If our imaginary scenario still sounds too futuristic, we need only to realize that on this very 9/11, many people in Afghanistan whose identity, if connected to the United States, will cause them to lose their freedom, and possibly their lives. Meanwhile, we have seen evidence that the COVID pandemic is being used by governments from America to Australia to usurp power over our individual lives in the name of making decisions that are best for our protection. In the process, Americans are told to find comfort behind their masks and jabs while listening to an endless babble from leaders that change their recommendations almost daily.
We live in a more unsettled world which makes us less patient and more fearful. Family and friends are divided over whether or not masks and vaccinations are effective and understood well enough to trust. Whereas, some voices call us selfish for not being masked and vaccinated, other voices from believers in Critical Theory claim that they can look us in the face and easily assign an identity to us based on our looks and behavior.
As we said in the introduction, our personal identity and reputation is a priceless treasure. Anyone who seeks to steal or diminish our identity is committing a great theft against us. Those who aspire to Critical Theory (See “Celebrating and Conserving Our Freedoms” click HERE) seek to divide us into groups labeled the oppressed and the oppressors. There are no winners in this insidious and hateful view of mankind. The oppressed are taught they are miserable victims of injustice at the hands of the oppressors. And, the oppressors are taught to bow in shame and guilt for possessing the abilities and opportunities that have helped them to achieve a fulfilling role in society.
To which of these groups, the oppressed and the oppressors, do you belong? For most of us, it is clear that neither of these labels are a fair assessment of who we are. But what if we lacked the protections of our Constitution, rule of law, due process, and an accurate understanding of American history and values? These protections and leaders who value them are the only effective deterrents against the advancement of Critical Theory into our schools, colleges, industries, and government. However, there is one more Person that has a great deal to say about our identity—God Himself.
Knowing Our True Identity
On September 11, 2001, as the Twin Towers were crumbling into clouds of dust, the bodies of hundreds of people perished, leaving only memories of each of their lives. Today, most of us cannot relate to the emotions of family and friends who lost loved ones on this tragic day so suddenly, and without being able to say “Goodbye” or even to have the body of their loved one over which to grieve. Yet, the persons they were in spirit, the personal identity of each one, is known and remembered by God.
When we ask questions about our identity, about “who I am,” our answers are often personal, subjective, and different from the answers of others who know us. But God’s answer to “who I am” is also personal but not subjective or inaccurate. God, or Jehovah, the Great “I AM,” has perfect knowledge of “who I am.” My true identity is found in relationship with Him. His Word, the Bible, reveals His knowledge of me—how I was dead in my trespasses and sin; and, how faith in His great love and power, God called me to die to my sin and shame, identifying with the death of His Son Jesus Christ, and then, caused me to be born again, raised in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection and in victory over sin and death (Romans 6: 3-11; 8: 5-11).
On this 9/11, we remember the tragedy of the attack on America. We must also remember that the identity, freedom, and hope of America depends upon the individual responsibility and dependence of her people upon the providence and salvation through faith in God.
You may be anxious and confused, or unable to identify how you are feeling. Be assured that God is in control and He knows and loves each of us. Maybe the most intimate revelation in Scripture that speaks of God’s knowledge of each of us as persons is recorded in Psalm 139. We close this article with a prayer on this day of remembrance that readers will be encouraged that our true identity is known by a loving God who daily pursues us to have a personal relationship with us. His gift of True Freedom in Christ is available to all of us who will repent of our own sin and accept the gift of this Freedom and Identity in Him. Psalm 139 begins:
LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, LORD, You know it all.
You have encircled me behind and in front,
And placed Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot comprehend it.
Search me, God, and know my heart;
Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way. – Psalm 129: 1-6; 23-24