In tragic times, leaders must choose between allowing freedom or succumbing to fear.

This month, we have remembered tragedy after tragedy where an extremist minority has attempted to impose its fanatic will upon an institution. Columbine. Oklahoma City. Waco.

America values freedom. The Constitution would be a relic today had not its authors promised a bill in Congress’ first session that would grant, first and foremost, freedom.

Yet, such is the battle between fear and freedom that within 15 years of America’s founding, a party afraid of losing control passed a series of laws banning criticism of the government- the Alien and Sedition Acts. Fear of dissent arose again in World War I with the Smith Acts, and fear of communism led to McCarthyism, a crushing of those who espoused leftist ideology 50 years ago.

Such a battle rages not just in countries, but in communities, churches and universities as well.

Throughout history, when mankind has chosen to concede the battle to the forces of extremism, the result has been oppression, resentment and a damaging, apathetic silence from the populace.

Extremism infests, not with the bang of war-because overt aggression is met with resounding force-but with the creep of fear: a Patriot Act, or a censor, or a detention camp.

Such tactics provide evidence to extremists that they can win, that they are winning. They may lose dozens of small battles or hundreds of fighters in suicide bombings, terrorist attacks or wars. But they will gain victory through the fear they instill in the leadership of a nation or an institution.

On a Christian campus, the freedom provided by the First Amendment is the foundation of our existence. Without its principles, neither the Optimist nor the university could exist. The fear of extremism should never take that away.

When 19 men and four airplanes can change the course of a nation, choices must carefully be made. The choice today is fear or freedom. Victory exists only in freedom.

“Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”
– Psalm 46:2