A Freedom that Lasts

July 4th Reflection inspired by Elton Trueblood

July 4th Reflection inspired by Elton Trueblood

“The crucial feature of our troubled world is its tragic division.”
—Elton Trueblood, The Declaration of Freedom

So wrote Quaker philosopher Elton Trueblood in his brief but piercing work The Declaration of Freedom. Decades later, his words still ring with unsettling clarity.

I studied with Trueblood in the final years of his life—not in a classroom, but as a personal student who lived just a few miles from his home. His books shaped me, but his presence shaped me more.
I received no diploma or certificate from my study with him. I got something more important: a formation. I learned to think, to ask questions, and to open my life to the spiritual roots of life.
And every 4th of July, I think of this book in particular—not because it's patriotic, but because it's prophetic.

The Declaration of Freedom reminds us that freedom is more than a political slogan. It is a moral vocation. And in an age of division, distraction, and distrust, that calling matters more than ever.

In the book, Trueblood argued that the most dangerous threat to liberty wasn’t military or political. It was spiritual. A society cut off from its spiritual root, he said, is like a bouquet of cut flowers: it may bloom for a while, but it cannot last.

He quoted Lenin to show how socialism rejected any notion of eternal morality:

“We repudiate all morality derived from non-human sources… We do not believe in eternal morality.”

But Trueblood didn’t let Western democracies off the hook. He was equally clear-eyed about the spiritual vacuum in cultures that love the fruit of freedom while ignoring its root. Freedom, he insisted, is not self-sustaining. It withers without character, responsibility, and moral grounding.

I learned from him that freedom isn’t just a political issue—it’s a formation issue. Without deep roots in God’s truth, love, and justice, liberty becomes unmoored—and eventually unravels.

This week, as we celebrate our nation's independence, I hear his voice still:
True freedom is never just freedom from something. It is always freedom for something.
And unless we return to the spiritual root that gave liberty its life in the first place, we will lose the bloom—and the soul—of the whole bouquet.