In 1753 when the Pennsylvania Assembly commissioned the founding of a bell to be rung for all Philadelphia to hear on important occasions, no one in that assembly was interested in independence from England. In fact, Pennsylvania was one of the last few colonies to fall into line for liberty 23 years later. Yet the broader Quaker population of Pennsylvania was about as spiritual a population as could be found in the American colonies at that time. The Quakers practiced listening inside to the voice of the Holy Spirit and one cannot help but wonder if it was the Holy Spirit's voice which ordered the bell's inscription: "PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND, AND TO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF."
The bell's inscription seems to have proved prophetic as the American colonies eventually used the Declaration of Independence to proclaim liberty in a way that liberty had never before been proclaimed anywhere on earth. Unfortunately America's experiment with liberty continually weakened and cracked during the tenure of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall who in a series of decisions opened the way for an ever expanding federal government and an ever increasing interference with the natural freedom of the American people. By the time of Marshall's death, the Liberty Bell had become so cracked that it could no longer proclaim anything to the world.
Yet the Holy Spirit doesn't give up that easily, wouldn't you say? Could it be that the coming of A Course in Miracles has also given us a new and prophetic proclamation of liberty?
When Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford joined Jesus to bring into existence A Course in Miracles they were certainly not in touch with their deepest inner desire for total freedom. Both having been educated in an era of rampant government-worship, according to the preface of A Course in Miracles: "they were anything but spiritual." By their own account, all they wanted was a little inner peace.
As with Helen and Bill, so with many who use A Course in Miracles. For many who read the Course, as soon as their circumstances improve and their lives are a bit more peaceful, they are satisfied to "pay taxes to the ego without complaint," so to speak, because they have simply not yet started feeling the much deeper desire for a freedom they cannot even begin to imagine.
Of course one who has achieved a reasonable level of inner peace would be living a contradiction in mind if he or she did not also wish to see peace in the world. There is no difference between the inner and the outer. "As above, so below." A peaceful mind dreams up a peaceful world and a peaceful world helps one to choose a peaceful mind.
But despite the fact that Helen and Bill could only see the Course as an instrument for bringing about a semblance of inner peace for people, the Course itself is much more focused on a total freedom state of mind. Therefore a few users of the Course, those who really allow the Course to work on them (maybe call them "advanced teachers of God"), literally become physically aware of their deepest inner desire ... the desire for total freedom.
For these few users of A Course in Miracles who come to be extremely in touch with their desire for total freedom it is no longer possible to be supportive of coercive systems of control whether they be organized religions, strict moral systems, governments, united nations, or ego-vested cults. The spiritually opened ones very literally and physically need freedom in the outer world in order to move as their spirit freely moves and accomplish what their spirit would accomplish through them.
Advanced teachers of God find that their default state of mind is remarkably like what is called "libertarianism." Even if they have never heard of libertarian philosophy they might say, much as libertarians say: "I would not force others to comply with my values or threaten others with force to get them to comply with my values. Neither do I support the initiation of force or threat of force by any organization."
Even if they have suffered years of indoctrination in the worship of government, ultimately it dawns on such teachers of God that there is only one organization whose advocates argue that their initiation of force or threat of force is legitimate. That one organization of course is government, whose members will always attempt to justify having a monopoly on legalized force. Finally the teacher of God hears the voice of the Holy Spirit inside himself or herself saying much the same as libertarians have heard inside themselves for years: "that government is best which governs least."
Just as those who have achieved a slightly peaceful state of mind begin wishing for peace throughout the world, so those who have begun to feel their deep inner desire for total freedom begin desiring to see the reflection of the freedom state of mind in the outer world. They not only wish for, but sometimes find themselves guided to work for, political freedom.
Likewise, just as those who have used A Course in Miracles to newly rediscover inner peace can be seen everywhere praying for peace in the world, so the same dear brothers will eventually learn that their deepest inner desire calls them to pray with all their heart and soul for political freedom in the world, for the downsizing and maybe even someday the elimination of government in the world, enabling more people than ever before to listen inside to their spirit and do as their spirit directs without being stopped in their tracks by laws made by ego and enforced by government.
Because our deepest inner desire is for total freedom and because the outer and inner are one and the same, users of A Course in Miracles ultimately will become the greatest advocates and producers of political freedom. And there may be no better place to start than praying for the success of the
Free State Project, a brand new American experiment which hopes to attract thousands of freedom lovers to their chosen state of New Hampshire where they will work to create in one state a political freedom such as the world has never yet seen, which would then serve as an example to men and women everywhere, an example which the people of other states and nations cannot ignore.
Once the American Liberty Bell cracked, it became very unlikely that the political system in place would ever reverse itself and move again in the direction of individual liberty. The Holy Spirit would have to start over again inspiring a new era of men and women to create a circumstance where maybe true freedom really had a chance to catch on and be secured for all time. Free Staters are feeling just such inspiration and need all the help they can get to build trust in their endeavor.
Can Free Staters pull it off? We'll have to wait and see what happens. Do they need spiritual opening to really be successful? That goes without saying, wouldn't you say? Do you personally feel guidance to help them open spiritually with your prayers? Only you can tell by listening inside in the way the old Pennsylvania Quakers once listened inside. Can the Liberty Bell ever become uncracked? It would be a wonderful miracle, wouldn't it?
But the Holy Spirit's goals may not require that the Liberty Bell become uncracked. It may only be necessary for A Course in Miracles to spread as never before and a freedom state of mind to be established far and wide.
This month in the service of the Holy Spirit, let's keep in mind and on our lips a constant mantra of freedom:
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