It’s graduation season. Cue “Pomp and Circumstance!” Sing with me…daaa…da da da daaaaa daaaa. Ok, maybe don’t…but seriously, when I taught high school, this was my favorite day of the year….and no, not because I wouldn’t see my students anymore. Rather, it was a sacred celebration of what they had accomplished. I was so proud, and they were so grateful. So many hugs and photos! 

I remember later in my tenure when the administration switched from faculty volunteering to student voting to determine which faculty would be on-field chaperones during the ceremony—I seriously considered running a get-out-the-vote campaign. 

Well, here we are at a different kind of graduation: this is my final Free to Teach column….I’ll explain more below. But in recognition of the occasion, please allow me to offer a graduation message around the theme of Free to Teach…

My dear colleagues, as you “graduate” from another school year, you are witnessing the corruption of freedom in modern America. Our culture’s current understanding of freedom would be foreign to our founders, and certainly foreign to Christ. The combination of radical personal autonomy and anti-religious leftism has birthed a whole new set of counterfeit “freedom from’s” and “freedom to’s” that run rampant in our schools and universities, as well as our media, politics, and, well, everywhere. 

Let’s take a minute to briefly examine three “fake” freedoms: 

1 – Freedom from Biological Reality

First, I have long documented in my Free to Teach columns the efforts of confused individuals to be free from their own biological reality, and free to invade private spaces and opportunities of the opposite sex. Just a week ago, Saturday, a 15-year-old male athlete won the West Virginia girls’ state championship in the shot put, outdistancing his closest competitor by over two feet. In California, male competitor AB Hernandez won repeat state titles in the girls’ high jump and triple jump this weekend. Ironically, even in California the absurdity can’t be hidden, as he was forced to share his titles with the top female—they actually placed two competitors on the first place podium! 

Thankfully, the issue of whether states can ban opposite sex athletes from competing in categories according to their claimed gender is currently before the Supreme Court, with a favorable ruling expected this month. But even if the court rules to protect these prohibitions in 27 states where they exist, progressive states like California, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota will still allow gender-confused athletes to unfairly displace other competitors—potentially robbing them of earned success and future opportunities. And of course, subjecting them to increased risk of injury…including being knocked unconscious. 

2 – Freedom From Offense and Discomfort

Second, we have all experienced the rise in people believing that they are entitled to freedom from offense, as evidenced by the “cancel culture” debates of the 2010s. But now, more and more seem to be operating from the concept that they have a right to be free from being uncomfortable, a cultural phenomenon researchers call “safetyism.” Case in point: at Christian Educators, we are seeing more calls from educators who seem to believe they have a right not to meet with their principal, e.g., “He can’t make me meet with him!” Obviously, this is a fear response more than a carefully reasoned argument, but nonetheless, here we are. Of course, at Christian Educators, we work effectively to protect our members’ jobs and support them through the entire process, but no one has the right to avoid meeting with their supervisor. And what an opportunity these meetings are to let the One who lives inside of us shine through! 

Of course, many who are most sensitive to being offended or made uncomfortable often clearly feel the freedom to offend others. I will always appreciate this classic interaction between Jordan Peterson and British journalist Cathy Newman, in which Peterson exposes Newman’s one-sided understanding of the freedom of speech and collapses the intellectual house of cards upon which much of modern secular culture is built (the key exchange starts at 22:10). Peterson expertly points out that Newman feels absolute freedom to offend him and make him feel uncomfortable, all the while accusing him of violating the rights of others in essentially doing the same. 

3 – Freedom From Religion

A third counterfeit freedom that often surfaces in our schools is the belief by some that they should enjoy the freedom from religion. This misunderstanding is so widespread that it’s even codified in the name of a prominent advocacy organization. Thankfully, attempts to create “religion-free zones” in our public schools are almost always slapped down by the courts. Public schools are required to be neutral with respect to religion, not against it. 

The Oakland Unified School District in California just experienced such a slap down last week. They were hit with a permanent injunction by a federal court allowing Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) to host Good News Clubs in their schools. When CEF attempted to restart Good News Clubs after the pandemic, OUSD responded to their applications with denials at various schools, some of which explained that CEF was not a “good match” or “we are not in support of Evangelism on our campus.” Oops…that’s blatant religious discrimination. Our friends at Liberty Counsel helped OUSD see the light, and were awarded $120,000 in legal fees as a result. There is no freedom from religion, or freedom to bar religion from public spaces. 

So what is true freedom?

If these concepts of freedom are counterfeit, then how is freedom properly understood? How did Jesus explain it?

One of the most commonly cited statements by Jesus about freedom is “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). But set us free from what? Jesus explains in the following verses, including vs. 34: “Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’” Furthermore, Jesus’ own mission statement, which he famously read aloud in the synagogue in Nazareth, adds that he had come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners,” and to “set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18). The Apostle Paul adds that in Christ, we are set free from the condemnation that comes through the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:1-2), and empowered to walk in freedom through the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Biblically, true freedom is freedom from sin and its effects, and freedom to live the abundant life by abiding in Christ. 

The American founders applied these Biblical concepts to political realities, positing that if we are God-designed to live in freedom, then we should also be free from the tyranny of oppressive government. 

Princeton Professor Robert P. George combines these thoughts beautifully:

True freedom consists in the liberation of the human person from the shackles of ignorance, oppression and vice…A free person is enslaved neither to the sheer will of another nor to his own appetites and passions. A free person lives uprightly, fulfilling his obligations to family, community, nation and God. By contrast, a person given over to his appetites and passions, a person who scoffs at truth and chooses to live, whether openly or secretly, in defiance of the moral law is not free. He is simply a different kind of slave.

Amen, Professor George. Rather than rejecting God-given biology, true freedom lives in the invitation to embrace our God-given identity as His fearfully-and-wonderfully-made children. Rather than demanding freedom from offense and discomfort, true freedom lives in becoming unoffendable. And rather than any kind of freedom from religion, true freedom lives in knowing that when neutrality is respected, the truth has the advantage.

On this 250th anniversary of our nation, let’s recommit ourselves to both modeling for and passing down to our students the gift of true freedom. 

Faithful Free to Teach readers, the last three years of monthly columns have been a gift to me (and hopefully to you), as they forced me to stop and think more deeply about the issues affecting education today. I joyously experienced what Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, famously explained: “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass over the lips and through the fingertips.” I hope I have fulfilled the high calling I laid out three years ago in my first Free to Teach column. I’ve certainly been so blessed by the many emails and comments I have received in response. And let me take just a moment to express my deep gratitude to our team here at Christian Educators, who helped edit and occasionally and courageously push back when necessary. It’s hard to tell your boss that he’s wrong (or just could do better). 

So, what’s next? 

Well, I am proud to announce that we are launching a podcast! We will cover much of the same content as Free to Teach in an effort to keep you informed. But the podcast medium will better enable us to help you be up close and personal with those who are courageously living out God’s calling to serve as ambassadors for Christ in our public schools…and that may be some of you! I encourage you to add watching or listening to the Christian Educators podcast to your 2026-27 routines!