That’s what many think, right? Christianity is just a straitjacket.  In his book The Reason for God, Tim Keller responds:

“Christianity supposedly limits personal growth and potential because it constrains our freedom to choose our own beliefs and practices…Freedom to determine our own moral standards is considered a necessity for being fully human.

This oversimplifies, however.  Freedom cannot be defined strictly in negative terms, as the absence of confinement and constraint.  In fact, in many cases, confinement and constraint is actually a means of liberation…

As fish, because it absorbs oxygen from water rather than air, is only free if restricted and limited to water.  If we put it out on the grass, its freedom to move and even live Is not enhanced but destroyed.

In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions.  Those that fit with the reality of our nature and the world produce greater power and scope for our abilities and a deeper joy and fulfillment.” (Reason for God, 45-46)

As Christians, we hold that the Scriptures do just that – they provide the right limitations, thus liberating us to a deeper purpose and joy.