By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

I am sitting in the Holiday Inn in San Clemente, Calif., on Tuesday evening, July 4, anticipating that, soon, a brilliant display of fireworks will be launched from the pier that juts out from the beach into the magnificent Pacific Ocean. I should easily be able to see the festivities since the beach is just a few blocks away.

In this community just a half hour north of the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton, a quiet, but palpable, patriotism permeates the citizenry. Today, Marines, sailors, and other service personnel and their families were in abundance in this beach community, enjoying a rare day off and savoring the freedom they are sworn and committed to defend.

Yet, with all the unfurled red, white and blue banners, the fireworks, and the aroma of the barbecues wafting through the air, I am a bit troubled. More than a bit, if the truth be told. I am troubled because, little by little, bit by bit, the freedoms being celebrated here and throughout the United States are slowly being eroded. Oh, not in dramatic, frightening ways, but in small, almost imperceptible, tiny little instances.

I am not a smoker, nor a friend of smoking. My father died of lung cancer and I generally believe that smokers who persist on filling their lungs with toxic tar and waste by-products ought to find a quicker and less painful manner of committing suicide. However, smoking is legal and tobacco may be lawfully purchased.

In California, all smoking in public places (according to a friend who lives here) has been outlawed. When one of the members of our party requested a nonsmoking table at a restaurant, the host snorted and said with a sneer, “What state are you from?” It's an unpopular habit this days and those who smoke in the Golden State are likely to be shunned. But to pass a law to restrict a lawful action, one that has been legal for over 200 years?

In San Juan Capistrano, the locals have decreed that “Malibu lights,” those little lights on the ground that help guide a person from the car to the front door, need to be regulated. The maximum height of these little lights is set at 18 inches above the ground. If your lights are 18 and one-eighth inches above the California sod, you face the possibility of heavy fines and jail time.

No kidding! You can go to jail. “Hey, buddy, what are you in for?” asks the mass murderer. “My Malibu lights were an eighth of an inch too high,” answers the Capistrano Kid.

In some communities, church bells, which have rung throughout this nation's history, are being muted by newly passed laws designed to mandate silence by the threat of fines and jail. Other municipalities have passed so-called “zoning laws” designed to address the nefarious problem of people who dare to open their own private homes up to prayer meetings and Bible studies. Freedom of religion? Hardly.

Some schools have attempted to ban students from wearing Christian T-shirts while, at the same time, permitting outrageous, obscene and socially destructive messages to be displayed on the shirts of others. In some schools, students may wear symbols of ethnic pride but they may not wear clothing that portrays the Confederate “battle flag” as a symbol of their Southern heritage. So much for “freedom of expression.”

In Peachtree City, a friend of mine was slapped with a $50 fine. His crime? His grass was too tall. In Fayette County, an unsuccessful effort was mounted to restrict the number of American flags that a business could display in public. One man in a south Atlanta suburb was given a citation because, in his rush to park his car, he accidentally parked partially on his own grass in his own front yard. Again, the grass police levied a fine. When will it ever stop?

Even in the Bible Belt, zoning restrictions for churches have become so burdensome that many churches have moved out of the city limits into the unincorporated counties only to fine that their county counterparts are also zealously protecting the community from the influence of the church. Freedom of assembly? Freedom of religion? Don't bet on it.

This is still the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” It's just that we aren't as free as we used to be. And that is a sad and frightening situation.

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church in Peachtree City. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or www.ChristTheKingCEC.com.]

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