TODAY, OUR FREEDOMS ARE UNDER THREAT FROM WITHIN AND FROM WITHOUT. WHAT ARE THESE THREATS AND HOW CAN WE RESPOND IN CHRISTIAN LOVE AND TRUTH? •NATIONALISM? •SECULARISM? •TRUMP? •ISLAMISM? •’FREE’-MARKET? •CLIMATE CHANGE? •PUTIN? •ELITISM? •LOSS OF VALUES? •ERDOGAN? •BRUSSELS? •TERRORISM? •BANKERS? •TRAFFICKING? •REFUGEE-INVASION?

A PANEL OF SPEAKERS CONTRIBUTING TO THE FORUM WHICH BEGAN THAT EVENING OFFERED BRIEF OBSERVATIONS ON ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED IN MORE DEPTH OVER THE FOLLOWING 24 HOURS.

Jennifer Tunehag, Stockholm, European Freedom Network:

When need to see the influx of refugees not as a threat; these are people themselves who are under threat. Extremely vulnerable to exploitation, they deserve special attention and care from us. Anywhere that we allow the rights and freedom of people to be reduced, we create a society that is in great danger for everyone. How many of us have seen people begging? Nearly everyone. How many of us suspect that the money collected goes to someone else. How many have seen children begging, even in the middle of the day? How is it that we are aware these people are not free, yet continue with our daily lives? Any time we tolerate the enslavement of people in our countries, we encourage health threats, the growth of organised crime, and the loss of freedom.

Noemi Montes, Madrid, researcher, refugees and migration:

Spinoza, born within walking distance of where we are sitting now, said: The smaller the freedom for the expression of opinions in a state, the more violent is the government in that place. Amsterdam for example reaps the benefits of this freedom hence its growth, which all nations admire. In this thriving and favoured city state people from all nations and with all possible beliefs live together harmoniously.

Many people through the centuries had been looking for a place where they could live in peace, where they could be free. Spinoza’s Jewish family had to flee to Amsterdam from Spain.

Today we could still say that Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Europe, is a place where people come looking for shelter, for freedom, for peace. Last summer I met Mohammed, a Syrian Doctor who came to the Netherlands seeking shelter for him and his family. When I told him that I was Spanish, his first question was, “Do you know Spinoza, the Spanish Sephardic Jew who was a political philosopher?” He was so enthusiastic because he had visited Spinosa’s house in Leiden and he had even gone to the public library to photocopy the biography of Spinoza.

When we asked him why he left Syria, he told us that he ran away from ISIS, from Islamic extremism, from religious and political intolerance.

When I asked Mohammed why he had come to the Netherlands he said because he admired the Protestant Reformers like Luther and Calvin. He came looking for freedom. As I listened to him talking about the amazing freedom here in The Netherlands and Europe, where he wanted to raise his children, I was afraid because I see he is going to be disappointed. Because as we listen to our politicians, we see they believe in human rights and freedom – but only for us. Because Europe thinks freedom is only for Europeans. We talk about freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of belief, and these are important. But we need to talk about freedom of movement, because when a person cannot go anywhere we really black all kinds of freedoms: freedom of work, freedom of education… When you read Hannah Arendt’s book, We refugees, she highlights that the loss of freedom of movement is the beginning of losing all kinds of freedoms. In Lesbos, the welcoming centre for Syrian refugees has become a prison again after the EU deal with Turkey.

Stefan Waanders Den Bosch , former director, Thomas More Foundation

What threatens our freedom? Many things. One, we don’t know any more what democratic politics is about. It is certainly not running a business company. Neither is it the sum of gut feelings of unqualified opinions. It is also not pushing one’s own private preferences, but its about dealing with the common good, bonus commune. In our system of representative democracy it’s up to the politicians to come up with a solid vision of the common good and to persuade citizens of the validity of this vision. And its up to the citizens to get the right information and to judge it for the sake of the common good and if necessary to take distance from its won prejudices. European citizens should have the courage to educate in this direction.

Jonathan Chaplin: Cambridge, co-author, God and the EU

Freedom is very difficult to define because it consists of so many good things: possibilities, opportunities, capacities and potentials. Equally, threats to freedom are multifaceted, coming in many forms, some of them are easier to see than others. Obvious threats to freedom are those that take the form of physical, legal or political constraints; or serious economic deprivation and extreme poverty.

Other kinds of threats to freedom are more insidious and harder to detect, such as the West’s addiction to consumerism. We don’t tend to think of us being in the grip of a cultural addiction. And we are rapidly exporting that to non-western cultures and seeing the same pathologies springing up in those cultures.

Consumerism is an addiction to constantly acquiring new material things – more, better, latest – which occupies so much of our time, space, mental, spiritual and social experience that we often don’t realise that so much of our behaviour is oriented simply to the business of consumption.

And it has many debilitating effects on our freedom. It stifles us psychologically, weakens us relationally, separates us socially, corrupts us morally, weakens us politically. Those of us preoccupied with consumption cannot form stable strong eyeball-to-eyeball relationships. We don’t think we have the time or energy or attention to commit themselves to the kind of democratic politics.

People in the grip of that kind of consumerism are easily manipulated by politicians but also by the background global economic system in which all of us are caught up. So let’s think about the full range of threats to freedom: the visible and obvious, but also the more invisible, insidious threats that get inside us and sap our moral potency. Without that moral potency, freedom for us becomes useless.

CLOSING: EUROPEAN ANTHEM: TUNE – ODE TO JOY

Thankfully we come before You, King of nations, Lord above
Grateful for the gift of freedom, and for your redeeming love.
From the shame of human folly You’ve restored our dignity
Granted peace among the nations, Helped us find new unity.

We confess we’ve often wandered from your path of truth and light
Trusted human understanding, set our hopes on mortal might.
Lord, restore us to our senses, bring us back to Father’s heart,
Visit us anew, O Spirit, every nation, every hearth.

With the vision now before us of a true community
Of all European peoples, rich in our diversity,
Let us pray and work together for our solidarity,
Peace, equality and freedom, rooted in your charity.