Retro: Voices of Freedom

In 1970 I was editor of Collegiate Challenge, a campus evangelistic magazine.  It was the height of the student revolution, and literature, flyers, pamphlets and newspapers were everywhere proclaiming the messages of the day.  We began each issue of our magazine with a photo feature speaking to a hot issue.  I wrote the copy, and Bob Cording did stellar photography.  The objective was to help open conversation with students.

So today, and maybe in days ahead, I will publish my (very youthful) copy for one of the features.  I don’t have usable photos from our publication, so I have found a few from historical files.

VOICES OF FREEDOM by Judy Downs

“I want to be free

just like the wavesout on the blue sea.”

That’s what the song says—I’ve got to be free to find me.

Hear the voices of liberation.

Loud.

Demanding—freedom.

Insisting--follow us!

We’ll liberate you.

“Let our people go.”

That’s the plea of the black, the brown, the red.

“We want freedom.  We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community,” proclaim the Black Panthers.

“We demand an end to discrimination—in education, in employment, in every area,” cry the Brown Berets.

“Give back the land you took from us,” plead the Native Americans.

Self-actualization the women call it.

They want to be free from male supremacy.

“We’re tired of being underpaid, underused, under promoted and under challenged.”

“I want to be more than a housewife drudge or a beautiful sexmate.”

“I’m John’s wife and Kathy’s mother, but I want an identity of my own.” Love has been liberated too.

Freed--“from the restraints, restrictions and hypocrisy of puritanical tradition.”

“Go ahead.  Enjoy sex—so long as you mean well and don’t hurt anyone.” There are other voices.

They are the voices of the hearts of people—People crying:

“I want to be free—Free from the loneliness that never leaves me alone.

Free from the desperate need to be accepted.

I don’t want to hurt you or to hate you.I don’t want to be a phony masquerading to please you.

I want to be free from the frustration of failing to be what I think I want to be.

Free from the fear of dying.” Who will set me free? There is another voice, clear and certain, strong and tender.

It is the voice of Jesus:

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

“You will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free.”

“So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.”

“For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.”

WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS LIBERTY!

What about you?  Where do you need to be liberated?

C 1970, 2013 Judy Downs Douglass