When Freedom Erodes

A Biblical Call to Defend the Vulnerable

by Christopher C. Thompson

A tattered American flag, ripped and frayed at the edges, flies on a flagpole against a white background, symbolizing distress or a loss of freedom.

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he Bible warns us that the misuse of power always comes at the expense of the vulnerable. From Pharaoh’s enslavement of Israel, to Nebuchadnezzar’s demands for worship in Babylon, to the Roman Empire’s persecution of the early church, Scripture shows us that when governments and rulers exalt themselves, freedom is threatened.

We are seeing echoes of that same story today. Across our nation and the world, there is a rising tide of nationalism. Nationalism is defined simply as a loyalty to country or culture that elevates one group above others. While love for one’s nation can be healthy, nationalism narrows belonging, defining “true citizens” in terms of race, religion, or ideology. Those who don’t fit, be they immigrants, minority faith groups, individuals who are LGBTQIA, or other marginalized people are bound to be left vulnerable and ultimately as targets.

Our nation was actually founded on this practice. The U.S. Constitution delineated that citizenship (and thus the full rights) only applied if you were a white, Christian, heterosexual, male, who owned land. And thus, it excluded women, blacks, poor whites, and native Americans. This is made manifest with the vicious brutalization of the native people, the scourge of chattel slavery, and innumerable injustices against women.

Have We Learned Nothing?

Here’s what our nation’s history has taught us: when the rights of one group are trampled, it’s only a matter of time before others lose theirs as well.

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The prophet Amos thundered against Israel’s injustice, declaring that God despised religious ritual divorced from righteousness:

“Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24, NIV).

Justice is not optional in God’s eyes. It is central to His kingdom. Nationalism and government overreach are dangerous because they erode justice piece by piece. History teaches us that oppression never stops with the first group targeted.

Nazi Germany didn’t begin with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, or even the invasion of Poland in 1939. It actually began with the suspension of constitutional rights and targeted exclusion of Jews in 1933.

Once the highest level leaders begin to manipulate the levers of power to decide whose rights matter, no one’s rights are secure.

Gerrymandering shouldn’t decide whose votes count. Then there are the other methods of rigging the legal process. Filing frivolous or baseless lawsuits that have no legal or factual merit, simply to harass an opponent or drain their resources. Then there are the endless motions appeals, discovery requests, petitions, and more to complicate the process and overwhelm those who lack resources.

And here is the sobering reality: freedom is not lost all at once. It erodes gradually, one compromise at a time. That means the responsibility rests with us. In our communities, our churches, and our homes, we must insist that justice and mercy remain at the center of our public life. We have to speak up when vulnerable people are being mistreated because when we protect the liberty of others, we are also protecting our own. And when we embody love for the least of these, we reflect the heart of Christ Himself (Matthew 25:40).

Come Out of Babylon, Again

Daniel and his friends in Babylon discovered the results of the overreach of the state firsthand when they were commanded to bow to an image in violation of their conscience (Daniel 3). Their courage reminds us that faithfulness to God sometimes means standing against the pressures of society and the empire.

Pharaoh started with a misinformation campaign against the children of Israel long before he started throwing baby boys in the Nile. This is why Christians must be vigilant. If laws limit the rights of immigrants, silence dissenters, or restrict freedom of conscience, we cannot shrug and say, “That’s not my issue.”

Paul reminds us that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers (1 Cor. 12:26). To turn away from injustice against our neighbor is ultimately to endanger our own freedom as well.

The pattern is painfully clear:

Societal pressure builds against minority groups.

Government enforces conformity in the name of unity or security.

Freedom erodes, and those who resist are punished or excluded.

Overcomers Unite

The book of Revelation portrays this cycle vividly, with Revelation 13 warning that worldly powers will ultimately demand allegiance that violates the conscience.

But Scripture also calls us to courage. Revelation 12:17 tells us that Satan’s efforts in Chapter 13 were being launched against the remnant—“the rest of her (the church’s) offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

Also it says in 12:11 that, “They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”

So what did they do? They spoke up!

As followers of Jesus, our calling is clear. We must defend the vulnerable, stand for liberty of conscience, and resist systems that crush the least of these. Our loyalty is not first to a political party or nation, but to the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom is not built by restricting the access of any undesirable group, but rather with love, justice, and truth.

1619: The first enslaved Africans arrived in Point Comfort, Virginia, marking the beginning of chattel slavery in the British colonies.

1640: When three runaway indentured servants were captured, the General Court of Colonial Virginia gave the white servants additional years to serve while John Punch, a black man, was sentenced to servitude for life. Punch was the first African in Virginia to be enslaved for life.

1662: New Virginia law established that the status of the mother determined if a black child would be enslaved.

1705: The Virginia Slave Code was enacted, which further defined the status of enslaved people as property and limited their rights.

1740: In direct response to the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the South Carolina legislature passes a new, comprehensive slave code known as the Slave Codes of 1740 that significantly tightened control over enslaved people by: prohibiting assemblies, restricting movement: banning literacy, increasing penalties, and institutionalizing chattel slavery

Late 1700s: Slavery was legal in all Thirteen Colonies but became concentrated in the Southern Colonies, which developed large, slave-based plantation systems.

1776: The Declaration of Independence is adopted.

1787: The U.S. Constitution is drafted.

1830s–1850s: The Indian Removal Act led to the forced relocation of Native Americans, known as the Trail of Tears, resulting in significant loss of life.

1857: The Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court decision declared that Black people were not citizens and had no rights.

1861-1865: The American Civil War took place, with the Union defeating a confederation of rebelling slave states.

1863: The Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free.

1865–1870s: The Reconstruction Amendments were added to the Constitution, including the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which aimed to abolish slavery, grant citizenship, and ensure voting rights, though their implementation was flawed.

1882: The Chinese Exclusion Act banned the immigration of Chinese laborers, marking the first time the U.S. restricted immigration based on race.

1896: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld “separate but equal” facilities, legitimizing racial segregation for decades.

1900: Women gained the right to keep their earnings and hold property.

1907–1939: The American eugenics movement led to the forced sterilization of women of color and low-income women.

1910-1920s: The suffrage movement culminated in the 19th Amendment (ratified in 1920), granting women the right to vote.

1910s–1970s: The Great Migration saw millions of Black Americans move from the rural South to the urban North, but they faced housing discrimination and redlining, which created segregated neighborhoods and wealth disparities.

1921: The Tulsa Race Massacre involved the racially-motivated destruction of the prosperous Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the deaths of many Black residents.

1922–1924: Court cases like Ozawa v. United States and United States v. Thind, along with the Immigration Act of 1924, restricted Asian immigration and denied citizenship based on racial criteria.

1924: The Snyder Act granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans, but voting rights continued to be denied until a court decision in 1948.

1932–1972: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved the U.S. Public Health Service withholding treatment from Black men with syphilis to study the disease’s progression.

1942–1945: During World War II, the U.S. government interned over 100,000 Japanese Americans in prison-like camps.

Christopher C. Thompson is an adjunct professor in the School of Religion and Theology at Oakwood University. He serves as the Executive Director of Thumbs Up, Inc., and pastor of Lighthouse Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.

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