There are two things which will forever be at odds with each other in terms of domestic policy—freedom and security. Security will always come at a cost to some freedom, somewhere. The important issue—in Canada and the United States—is that we bear in mind that we are defending freedom, not security.

If at any time we begin to promote security as the principal issue for society, then the only thing that has happened is that we have become that which we are fighting against. We start out trying to protect our freedom against terrorist threats and attacks, and end up sacrificing freedom for the sake of security. This may not necessarily be a planned agenda, but it is simply a pitfall to beware of when considering where to apply security in defending freedom.

The borders of a country are the property lines, and every country has the right to secure its borders. If we are truly defending the freedom of citizens within the country, then the place to apply security checkpoints is at the borders, not on your street. The simple freedom of being able to cross the border incognito is what is being sacrificed for security, and freedom within those borders is to be maintained, and I believe that is an indication that the security priorities are—at least in this case—in the right place.

Passports are now requested/required to cross the Canada—U.S. border, both for Canadian and American citizens. It is a visible, noticeable measure of security, and a visible, noticeable removal of the level of freedom our border-crossing once was. If it becomes necessary to escalate security for the preservation of freedom, that is the appropriate place. And notice that I said ‘necessary’, because it is important that we establish security only to the degree appropriate, and sacrifice freedom only to the absolute necessities.

However, as I said before, the nasty draw of degradation requires a warning that too often we become that which we fight against. What we need to be doing, and not just think we are doing, is to simply preserve freedom, and be discerning as to what really are the threats to our freedom, rather than fight against every foreign threat to our security.

Far more insidious, and far more sinister than requiring passports at the border, would be a plan to create borderless borders. (As has been done in the European Union) Such an arrangement would remove the place and possibility of establishing security without sacrificing freedom. Indeed, the only way to have security would then be to remove citizen freedom. There would need to be security in the towns, cities, buildings, streets, and country backwoods in order to have ‘freedom’ at the border. Therefore, it is obvious that in order to maintain freedom and security in the country, the established border can not be diminished, but rather strengthened.

The truth is that those rules and borders, those standards and principles, are there for the preservation of our Christian freedom. Without them, there are only two things that will happen: The world will come in until all allegiance to our Lord is displaced, or, great security and scrutiny will be required on every street corner of our life, so removing either our Christianity or our Christian freedom. The borders! Those standards are our security for the preservation of our freedom, and for the preservation of our faith!