Independence: Is the dream of freedom ever completed?

The talk of a constitutional crisis concerning the issue of Scottish independence gives me a déjà vu moment, going back to 1965 when I was a youth growing up in Rhodesia, and the Rhodesian government under Ian Smith, himself the son of a Scotsman, declared independence from Britain.

The prevalence of entrenched political attitudes on both sides has meant that the history of that period will most likely never be conveyed with objectivity and accuracy, but there can be little doubting the genuineness with which the architects of independence couched the historic wording which spoke of their “humble submission to Almighty God who controls the destinies of nations”. The distinction between independence from rule by Westminster and loyalty to the British Crown was also made clear as the declaration concluded with the words “God save the Queen”.

The longing for independence springs inevitably into a nation’s consciousness as the natural corollary of a people’s growth, development and progress. Sadly, however, in most historical examples there seems to be an inexorable shift in the liberation struggle from the pursuit of justice to the pursuit of power. The Zimbabwean nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo himself came to acknowledge, “The hardest lesson of my life has come to me late. It is that a nation can win freedom without its people becoming free.” The recent history of Zimbabwe is a sad testimony to that truth. Certainly, in much of Africa, history shows that independence has all too often turned into a nightmare that has ushered in new and repressively enforced forms of dependence, both economically and politically.

Indeed, does any truly independent nation exist anywhere on this planet? The functionality of our global village which is based on human greed sells us all into various degrees of servitude, whether to bodies such as the IMF or OPEC, the policies of the European Union or United States, or to ideological beliefs of the left or right.

The reason that this is inevitably the case can be attributed simply to what we refer to in old-fashioned terminology as Original Sin. The Bible’s undeniable message is that our wish for self-determination and independence is not confined to the political sphere. It is no less evident spiritually in humankind’s desire to seek independence from God and what are perceived to be his oppressive laws. The desire to do what we please, when we please, to make our own rules and decisions in life, asserts itself in every generation, whether on an individual or a national level. It’s no surprise that one of the most popular requested music pieces at funerals is Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way”. The result for the human race is not freedom, but greater bondage.

Marxist philosophy propounds the dogma that if you change the structure of society, then new people with new attitudes will result. On the other hand, the Christian gospel proclaims that you need to change the people first, and then a fairer and more just society will emerge. We are all rebels, having declared our independence against God, so that, in the words of the poet Henley, we can be “master of my fate and the captain of my salvation”.

As with Rhodesians a generation ago, Christians in Britain today will be divided in their opinions as to whether independence in the case of Scotland is the right option. But ultimately, the hope for Scotland doesn’t lie merely in political independence or rearranged structures of government, but in recognising the need for “humble submission to Almighty God who controls the destinies of nations”. In Christian terms, loyalty and allegiance to our monarch, Jesus Christ is reflected by forsaking our own self-seeking independence and acknowledging that “the government will be on his shoulders” and that “of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9: 5,7).

Tony Ward is a Bible teacher and evangelist who was ordained in Zimbabwe. He currently lives and ministers in Bristol