Sometimes platitudes are difficult to apply to actual daily life, because we almost want to hear them reworded. We might hear the above with our ear, but our heart might instead hear "If any one I personally know is not free, my personal freedom might be shaky."
I know this is a somewhat loose rewording, but it illustrates the fact that if something is not personally apparent, it might not seem real.
The fact is that we live in a global world and the original statement makes perfect sense if we evaluate globally and if we consider all persons as brothers and sisters regardless of gender, pigment, citizenship, language, circumstances, etc.
When a couple in the Middle East is caught inappropriately alone, for instance, and the woman is sentenced to be stoned and the man is not judged, am I at risk? Is it personal or is it just the distant and somewhat abstract brother or sister that is at risk?
Ultimately, if we think globally, we can see that someone that would create and condone a society where the woman can be stoned might want to spread that society to my land. As unlikely as that possibility coming to pass might seem to be, it is still somewhat a threat to me. And in degrees of separation, I may have gone to college with that woman's brother, father, or cousin. Or her accuser or judge.
Please try not to get to wrapped into depending on a circumstance of unjust stoning. Try to understand a larger schema. The statement "If any man is not free, no man is truly free" actually means that if tyranny, slavery, or other injustice is present, it does threaten everyone. If a man in that distant country can use the logic of injustice to enslave someone, the same calculus might be adjusted and applied by a man in this country against me.
I could use all of the above for the basis of many statements. But I want to make a statement to folks identifying themselves as Christians and I will base it on the above proposal. I want to frame the statement with two precepts for motivation. Christ gave us two overriding laws, first, we are to love God with all of our heart, and second, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. With these in mind, I suggest that Christians are called to bring about a community that is the Kingdom of God on Earth.
In the Lord's Prayer, we pray 'Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven...' Let us live to that prayer. Let us live to the needs of all God's children throughout the world.
Vote. Vote for the candidate that best helps you be a Kingdom builder.
-jb
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