Free Agency

2 Nephi 2:26- "because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon"

2 Nephi 2:27- "men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life,"

2 Nephi 2:4- "salvation is free"

Too often in the Church we get too nit-picky and lose sight of why we are taught certain things. One such example is the obsession some people have with the difference between "free agency" and "moral agency." This alleged difference is not scripturally based (as can be seen in the previous verses Nephi had no problem saying we are free to act). Today in Elder's Quorum someone sitting behind me felt it necessary to mutter under his breath a correction when the teacher mentioned the importance of "free agency" by stating that its not "free".  This is a problem, especially since David O McKay (amongst others) was fine with calling it "free agency".    I realize that some have spoken against that term but this should be intended only to help people avoid misunderstanding "free agency."  In other words, for some people the term "free" is a problem because we know that "there is no such thing as a free lunch".  For these people, it is a cardinal sin to say "free agency" because it can't be free, somebody had to pay for it (as evidenced by the war in heaven). I admit that it is a true principle that agency wasn't "gratis", it was paid for and so we cannot call it "agency without price" but free has multiple meanings other than just costless.  A simple study of latin languages would show that the word used in "free agency" is not the same word used in "salvation is free."  In free agency it is "libre albedrio" where libre has the same root as liberty, while salvation is free uses "gratis" which comes from the same root as grace (so in a sense we could even say agency is free because its due to grace [but grace came with a price as well], but then some people would really have issues with this).  

So it is not necessary for us to correct everyone that its not "free" agency as long as we remember that it's not that type of "free" agency.  It is free because we are liberated and allowed to act for ourselves.  Agency comes from "agir" which means to act.  So one way to look at it is that rocks and such don't have agency because they are "acted upon" but animals have agency because they can act. However, only humans have "moral free agency" (as Daniel Ludlow calls it) because they can choose to act morally or immorally.  So the next time somebody calls it "free agency" think to yourself "liberated to act" instead of assuming the speaker doesn't understand the meaning of the word "free".