Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.
Don Draper, Madmen
I’m free!
There is nothing like being free, is there? What a joy it is to do what you want to do when you want to do it. This is what we are told makes America great. We can live in any city we want, sleep with whoever we want, and work a job in whatever career field we want. I am the captain of my ship, the lord over all I survey, the dreamer of the dreams…you know the rest. And most of all, no one owns me! Along with having personal autonomy, as the opening quote says, we also want to be “free from fear.” That means we want to be able to make choices without having to face the negative consequences of those choices. And no matter what we choose to do, we want to know that we are still O.K.
Is this not the most desirable part of being free?
Not so fast. If you want to be a mature adult, you have to look at life as it is, not as we wish it to be. And truth and experience tell us that life plays by a certain set of non-negotiable rules and freedom from consequences are not included in those rules. The way reality has been designed is summarized by the well-known phrase, “We all will reap what we sow.” And logically, the demand for freedom from the consequences of my choices does not give me an exemption from this truth.
Take the character from where the opening quote of this post came from, his name is Don Draper and he was the main protagonist on an old popular television series that aired on AMC from 2007-2015 called Madmen. Think tailored suits, thin ties, a lit cigarette and a glass of Scotch. Don Draper embodies the handsome image of self-made successful American man of the 1960s. In fact, this character is who I wanted to be before I knew Christ, the successful advertising director. The writers who conceived of Don Draper wanted to portray a perfect portrait of the male achieving the American dream: someone rich enough not to struggle, sophisticated enough to be glib about what matters, had enough free time to explore his lust-filled fantasies, and successful enough not to care about your neighbor because you are too important, too busy, too talented to scrape along with the rest of the common man. His job was in advertising and he sold freedom. And he was the embodiment of that freedom.
One television critic summarizing his character writes,
“While everyone has been sidetracked by tortured-soul vampires and loveable werewolves, Don has been quietly taking over the world, one manipulative half-truth at a time. Think about it. In the three years we’ve known him, has Don Draper done one single thing that wasn’t driven by rabid self-interest?
Don lies to everyone all the time. And unlike TV’s many other antiheroes, he manages to look Dorian-Gray-great doing it.
He cheats on his wife, he cheats on his mistress, he has no problem lying to the public, even if it means negating medical evidence that smoking can cause cancer. And the idea that his behavior needs to change does not seem to cross his mind — ever.
Yet still, he makes us swoon, in his white shirts and Cary Grant hair. Because Don (and this is a testament to the creative power of Hamm and creator Matt Weiner) is one of those guys who manages to seem as if he’s trying to do the right thing when that is not his intention at all.
In other words, the Devil.”
And that is it! This type of freedom is being peddled by the devil for suckers like you and me. Freedom not just of choice, but freedom from consequence. This freedom encourages us to lie, cheat and steal promising no blow-back. And if there is, we say that true freedom allows you to cry “foul!” Judge not lest ye be judged, the favorite Bible verse of the Devil’s ever-vigilant Revolutionary Guard. This is what is sold as the real American dream of today. Don and the Devil offer people the freedom to sin and still look good doing it.
But in real life the consequences of this kind of freedom actually destroys people. Through the course of the show, Don Draper had everything: A beautiful blond wife, a prominent office in Manhattan, and a lovely family. But what he didn’t have was satisfaction. His one night stands left him empty, his copious amounts of money left him bored and his success kept feeding an ego that never was content. Don Draper ultimately was miserable, a tragic tale told in a dapper thin black tie. The Devil’s freedom leads you to misery because he hides the truth that there will always be consequences.
Recently I was listening to a podcast where the host of the show was a liberated feminist who championed a free lifestyle of sex, gender fluidity and spiritual experimentation that included everything from crystals, new age yoga, to astrology. Her backstory was very familiar because she grew up with my niece going to a strong evangelical Christian school in California that encouraged family values and living a pure life for Christ. But she didn’t like the moral constraints on behavior that the school taught. She felt that Christianity had too much control over a person’s life, so she decided to break free and live life on her terms.
This podcast was her chance to promote her newfound freedom. She was going to show the world that she was her own woman. But if you were to listen to her story she discussed how after she left the church she felt used and abused by men when she would engage in the hookup culture, how she needed to have a therapist to help her overcome a lot of guilt and shame, and how confused she was contemplating if anyone could ever really know God. As I listened to her she forced a sarcastic tone and tried putting on a good front, but underneath her mask of the in-control progressive adventurous set-free from the patriarchy girl, she seemed extremely lost and was still desperately looking for answers and peace.
Sadly, under the deadly lure of the Devil’s freedom she left the one place one that holds for her true peace, she left Christ. The Devil’s freedom always comes at a steep price. As I was thinking about it I came to this realization: When I freely sin it initially keeps God away from me – – but after a while of sinning and the consequences start coming I begin to blame God and it keeps me away from him. Why do you think people get so angry when their sin does not satisfy? They want to do what they want and still be O.K., but that is not how life is designed, and so they rage! (Psalm 2)
But that is the lie. As 2 Timothy 2:26 declares, freedom from consequences is the Devil’s trap, and he is getting ready to snare you.
