more on the church and state

two quotes to follow up on the Church and State question I raised a while back...both these quotes define Liberty not as that which gives permission to do whatever we please, but rather as a Higher Way (here Christian and Jewish, respectively) which calls us out of the slavery of sin -- a slavery that infects our reality with swelling and reddening insecurities, mistakes and fears -- and into a life in which we are healed from these insecurities, mistakes and greatest fears and empowered to pursue goodness, righteousness and sanctity.

...still more to come...

'Liberty is the highest political end of man [but] no country can be free without religion.'

~Lord Acton

Is liberty alone, regardless of what we do with it...the highest good? Is liberty an empty concept -- the ability to do what we please? Is not the meaning of liberty contingent upon its compatibility with righteousness? There is no freedom except the freedom bestowed upon us by God; there is no freedom without sanctity.

~Abraham Heschel