Commentary: “Our Culture Has No Clue!”

Ask most Americans to define freedom and they will give you the same answer as if you asked them to define liberty. Indeed surveys on these subjects always present the terms interchangeably. For once academic sources draw the proper line.  Encyclopædia Britannica defines liberty as institutional protection against arbitrary power, whereas freedom is the personal power to act or think without hindrance [1] , [2].  Christian “freedom” as defined in the Essay section is “liberty”  or freedom constrained by the Christian moral code as defined in the bible. 

Increasingly, polls suggest Americans wish to “do their own thing” without any moral or cultural constraints. 

• 57 % say right and wrong are determined by personal experience, not absolute standards [3].
• 65 % agree each culture must define its own morality [3].
• 63 % of Gen Z say what is morally right depends on individual belief [3].

Americans have lost their moral compass. Only roughly one‑third of adults (31 %) cite the Bible as their primary authority for deciding right and wrong [4].  Our Founders did not think our country would survive without the constraints of  religion on individual liberty. 

This will “to do whatever I wish”  perhaps accounts for the unwillingness to volunteer to serve in the armed forces. Only about one in ten service‑age youths (11 %) say they are definitely or probably willing to enlist in the Armed Forces [5], and that share drops to 9 % among 18‑year‑olds [6]

Americans seem to have no concept that unfettered freedom is anarchy–no place to live.  And, the ideologies some wish to replace our system with lead to totalitarianism— a system I have seen the results of first hand after the fall of the Soviet Union in the Russian Republics.  

Would Christians today be willing to die for Christ?  Would young people today be willing to die for liberty as the Founders did? I don’s know about that. 

1.  Cato Institute, “If We’re Not Careful, We Could Lose Our Liberty,” July 2024.
2. Encyclopædia Britannica, Liberty n.d
3. Barna Group, “The End of Absolutes: America’s New Moral Code,” May 25 2016.
4. Seductive Unbiblical Ideas Embraced by Americans”*, Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, Phoenix, AZ, Jun. 22 2021.
5.  Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies (JAMRS), *Youth Poll Study Findings: Spring 2024 Propensity Update*, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, DC, Jan. 2025.
6. Joint Advertising, Market Research & Studies (JAMRS), *Youth Poll Study Findings: Summer 2024 Propensity Update*, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, DC, Apr. 2025