Unmasking the Oppressive Nature and the Perils of Radical Autonomy
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.
—Psalm 19:7-11—
Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
—Jesus, in John 8:34-36—
When we forget God we are asserting our own independence, so forgetting Him has to mean forgetting we [are created and] dependent beings [who] need divine direction and guidance to form a society that is both productive and free.
—Pastor Sam Jones1—
Key points: Ordered liberty is a rarity in the world. Where it has flourished, it has done so thanks to the moral and ethical underpinnings of biblical Christianity and Christianity’s positive influence on society at large. Without these underpinnings, authentic liberty is a fantasy, despite a deluge of feel-good rhetoric touting “tolerance,” “rights,” and “freedom.”
You can access all the articles in this series from this page.
Most people have absolutely no understanding of the delicate balance between national order and individual liberty. Perhaps no modern observer painted a clearer picture of this balance than Francis Schaeffer. In the last book he would publish before he died, Dr. Schaeffer explained,
In our own country we have enjoyed enormous human freedom. But at the same time this freedom has been founded upon forms of government, law, culture, and social morality which have given stability to individual and social life, and have kept our freedoms from leading to chaos. There is a balance here between from and freedom which we have come to take as natural in the world. But it is not natural. And we are utterly foolish if we do not recognize that this unique balance which we have inherited from the Reformation thought-forms is not automatic in a fallen world. This is clear when we look at the long span of history. But it is equally clear when we read the daily newspaper and see half the world locked in totalitarian oppression.
The Reformation not only brought forth a clear preaching of the gospel, it also gave shape to society as a whole—including government, how people viewed the world, and the full spectrum of culture.…This is not to say that the Reformation was ever a “golden age” or that everyone in Reformation countries were true Christians. But it is clear that through the Reformation many were brought to Christ and that the absolutes of the Bible became widely disseminated in the culture as a whole. The freedoms which grew out of this were tremendous, and yet, with the forms grounded in a biblical consensus or ethos, the freedoms did not lead to chaos.
But something has happened in the last sixty years [Schaeffer’s statements were published in 1984]. The freedom that once was founded on a biblical consensus and a Christian ethos has now become autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age—autonomous Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and spiritual truth which God has given. Here is the reason why we have a moral breakdown in every area of life. The titanic freedoms which we once enjoyed have been cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming a force of destruction leading to chaos. And when this happens, there really are very few alternatives. All morality becomes relative, law becomes arbitrary, and society moves toward disintegration. In personal and social life, compassion is swallowed up by self-interest. As I have pointed out in my earlier books [these statements come from the last book Schaeffer would write], when the memory of the Christian consensus which gave us freedom within the biblical form is increasingly forgotten, a manipulating authoritarianism will tend to fill the vacuum. At this point the words “right” and “left” will make little difference. They are only two roads to the same end; the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force form on society so that it will not go into chaos—and most people will accept it.
The freedom that once was founded on a biblical consensus and a Christian ethos has now become autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age—autonomous Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and spiritual truth which God has given.
—Francis Schaeffer—
A Type of Freedom that Leads to Bondage
In Session 2 of our Bible study on “Principles of Liberty Embedded in the Declaration of Independence,” we discussed the difference between what Dr. Schaeffer called the
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- “freedom that once was founded on a biblical consensus and a Christian ethos” and a radical or
- “autonomous freedom.”
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With definitions from Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of the English Language as a backdrop, we used the words freedom and liberty to refer to the former and autonomy to refer to the latter. You can read our discussion here.
Here’s a summary. Liberty and freedom both refer to a type of independence that allows one to pursue his or her own happiness and goals while at the same time respecting the rights of others and operating within reasonable guidelines conducive to an ordered society. This is not a type of independence that seeks to cast off all restraints in favor of doing whatever one has an urge or compulsion to do.
By contrast, autonomy is self-rule, without restraints. Autonomy refers to the pursuit of precisely whatever one has an urge or compulsion to do. Today, unfortunately, many Americans believe everyone has a “right” to act autonomously.
Just as Francis Schaeffer warned, we refer here to an
autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age—autonomous Man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and spiritual truth which God has given. Here is the reason why we have a moral breakdown in every area of life. The titanic freedoms which we once enjoyed have been cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming a force of destruction leading to chaos.
I call this radical autonomy.
Why Society Is Unraveling
Let’s consider just one example of radical autonomy and its effects. Note that this is but one example. Many other examples of radical autonomy exist and are equally as destructive to societal order as is this one. To what am I referring? I am writing about men who are identifying as women and participating in women’s sports. Ironically, in our crazy, upside-down world, a significant number of people consider these men victims rather than predators.
In our crazy, upside-down world, men can identify as women and participate in women’s sports — and a significant number of people see them was victims rather than predators.
Lia Thomas is a man who identifies as a woman, and he2 is being allowed to swim on the women’s swim team at the University of Pennsylvania. Writing on the Family Research Council’s blog page, Joseph Backholm notes the the extreme irony, as well as the injustices, arising from the situation.
You might have heard about Lia Thomas, a swimmer for the University of Pennsylvania who, after swimming on the men’s team for three years as Will Thomas, now competes on the women’s team. The results have been predictable. As of December, Thomas had recorded the fastest times in women’s college swimming in the 200 and 500 freestyle and won a 1650 meter freestyle event by nearly 40 seconds. It turns out men are very fast women.
The reaction has also been predictable. Yes, a few see it as a sign of “progress,” but most people instinctively recognize the injustice and insanity of it all. The crowds have been known to sit silently after Thomas completes a race and wait for the first female swimmer to finish before applauding. Although the NCAA insists the emperor’s new clothes are beautiful, it seems the onlookers aren’t buying it.
Those who are most frustrated might not fully appreciate how this all came to be. One female Penn swimmer has expressed her frustration anonymously out of fear of retribution. She told The Daily Wire that “I am typically liberal, but this is past that. This is so wrong. This doesn’t make any sense.”
Apparently, she sees no connection between her “typically liberal” values and what she now experiences on her swim team. That’s a mistake.
Thomas’ teammate likely equates being “liberal” with being “tolerant” and “nice.” She probably grew up encouraging people to live “authentically” so they could be happy. But now, those chickens are coming home to roost.
Not surprisingly, there’s more. Lia Thomas uses the women’s locker room. Even though he has undergone hormone replacement therapy to transition, Thomas still has male sexual organs, is attracted to women, and has exposed himself on numerous occasions to his female teammates. Naturally, they find this extremely awkward. One member of the swim team spoke anonymously to the press, saying that several members of the team have objected
multiple different times. But we were basically told that we could not ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that we basically have to roll over and accept it, or we cannot use our own locker room. … It’s really upsetting because Lia doesn’t seem to care how it makes anyone else feel. The 35 of us are just supposed to accept being uncomfortable in our own space and locker room for, like, the feelings of one.
The school was so focused on making sure Lia was okay, and doing everything they possibly could do for her, that they didn’t even think about the rest of us. It just seems like the women who built this program and the people who were here before Lia don’t matter. And it’s frustrating because Lia doesn’t really seem to be bothered by all the attention, not at all. Actually she seems like she enjoys it. It’s affected all of us way more than it’s affected her.
Off to Court
If you’re angry, I don’t blame you. This is more than an injustice that needs to be righted. It’s also oppression, extreme discrimination, and abuse. Thankfully, Alliance Defending Freedom is going to court to protect women’s sports. In this short video, listen to Chelsea Mitchell, a female athlete and ADF client, as she explains what has happened to her in Connecticut — and what she, several other female athletes, and ADF are doing in response.
Before moving on, there’s something else you should know about this case. Chelsea’s freedom to speak out about the unfair treatment she and her fellow female athletes have received has been hindered. On May 22, 2021, USA Today published an opinion piece by Chelsea in which she explained how the athletic playing field has been effectively titled in Lia Thomas’s favor. Guess what the editors at USA Today did three days later? In places where Chelsea referred to Lia as a male athlete, they changed the word male to transgender! Then, adding insult to injury, they slapped a disclaimer on Chelsea’s article. It reads, “Editor’s note: This column has been updated to reflect USA TODAY’s standards and style guidelines. We regret that hurtful language was used.”
So, it isn’t just on the athletic field female athletes are being treated unfairly, but also in the marketplace of ideas. ADF has since published Chelsea’s opinion piece as she wrote it initially.
In addition, Alliance Defending Freedom is working to defend women’s rights in other similar court cases. Reflect on this and let it sink in: We are seeing an increasing number of men who have transitioned or who are transitioning to become women and who are competing against women in athletic events! Respectfully, I dare say that if you sincerely believe these men are victims, you are woefully out of touch with reality. Of course, they are as well.
Getting to the Root of the Problem
As we have seen, radical autonomy is not authentic freedom or liberty, but a force that will totally obliterate freedom and liberty unless it is successfully curtailed. To do that, we have to first understand just what has led to the kind of insanity we now are seeing — with men on women’s swim teams as merely one expression of the societal ills now plaguing us.
Radical autonomy has been a problem in America for many decades now, but only in the last few years has it gone into hyperdrive.
Next time, we’ll talk about the incident that gave it a supercharged boost. Stay tuned!
Copyright © 2022 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Photo by Adnan Khan on Unsplash
Notes:
1Pastor Sam Jones, 5 Steps to Kill a Nation and How to Stop the Bleeding, (Newport Beach, CA: The GK Publishing Company), 23.
2While politically correct protocols call for a writer to use female pronouns to refer to a man who identifies as a woman, I have too much respect for the natural order of things, and for the women he’s abusing, to do that — so I’m using male pronouns.
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