Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)
Subscribe: Spotify | iHeartRadio | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More
Father Len explains what it takes to become truly free and how the common American understanding of freedom leads to selfishness and narcissism.
Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom
- Freedom involves being free from something in order to be free to become something.
- The American Revolution was about becoming free from the tyranny of a king and the injustices and oppression of a political system.
- 70% of Americans say they are free or mostly free.
- Two thirds of Americans define freedom as being “free to do whatever I want.”
- Being “free to do whatever I want” is an immature definition of freedom and the least likely to lead to happiness.
- Being “free to do whatever I want” is a form of tyranny that allows you to intrude on the life and liberty of others.
- “The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos” by Sohrab Ahmari
- We create laws to set the parameters for a working society.
- To be free theologically means that we are always working on freedom. Working to become more free from the tyranny of selfishness, oppression, and injustice.
- When the people of a country define freedom as selfishness, it will always be divided and destroyed.
- People who report the highest level of happiness tend to be religious and meditate regularly.
- People who report the most freedom from moral constraints tend to be the least happy.
- “Suicide, A Study in Sociology” by Emile Durkheim
- The really hard part of becoming more free is wrestling with our own egos and recognizing when we’re being selfish.
- Christians who believe giving up liberties for the sake of others makes them less free don’t understand the freedom of the cross of Christ.