Has It Occurred to You?

 

Has it occurred to you that the Statue of Liberty is a pagan goddess? Most of my life I never gave it much thought.  She is an iconic symbol of the United States.  She was a gift from the counrty of France in 1876, the 100th anniversary of American independence, as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.  She stands on Liberty Island in the Upper New York Bay. She is 305 feet high, she holds a torch in her right hand, and a tablet in her left. Growing up in the 60's-80's, I was taught that this statue represents our country and the USA is a Christian nation. But that's a problem. How can a pagan goddess represent a Christian nation? 

I was serving as a Youth Pastor when I came to the realization that Lady Libery is a pagan goddess. I asked my senior pastor if he knew,  he did indeed know this and was not bothered by it.  But I was.  How can we, a Christian Nation, embrace a pagan diety as our representative, our mascot? A statue of a pagan goddess is an idol, right? Our whole faith is centered on the One True Elohim(God), and He warns us multiple times in His Word about idols.  Why is Lady Liberty OK for most Christians? 

Let's go deeper.  Who is this Lady Liberty? Libertas is her name as the Roman goddess. Britannica says, "Libertas is worshipped as the female personification of liberty and personal freedom. Free will" In Greek culture she is known as Eleutheria. She was also known as Astarte, Ashteroth, and Ishtar. Under these names she's connected with fertility,  temple prostitution,  sexual freedom,  and love. Makes me ponder where our country is spiritually and morally...We willingly place this pagan goddess of freedom, over our nation. Perhaps it's connected,  just saying.  

I am not against liberty. I want freedoms too. My Yah is freedom,  Yahusha came to set the captives free. Free from sin, free from bondage to man made doctrine and rules, free to follow Yah and to walk in His ways,  and folks have the freedom not to choose Him.  But they're not free from the consequences of going their own way.  Seems to me,  if we consider ourselves a Christian nation,  a pagan goddess shouldn't be our representative to the world. 

A work in progress 

Teresa