In Defense of Anonymity – In Christian Cyberspace and Beyond

There are calls on both sides of the Atlantic to eliminate Internet anonymity. The arguments are made on the basis of social discourse, the preservation of democracy, legal concerns and questions of security. Once again the Establishment is indicating that the Internet project has gotten away from them and has spiraled dangerously out of control.

And it's not just in political circles. There are growing numbers of forums and groups that wish to eliminate anonymity altogether. Christians will often appeal to concepts of accountability. I know of Presbyterian elders that are driven near mad over the fact that they can't go after people for saying certain things online. I recall years ago when interacting with an OP pastor, he grew enraged when I shot down his 'membership' arguments and on a connected note spoke ill of the OPC and its corrupt culture. He wanted to know who I was and where I went to church. He was quite insistent and I know why. He was eager to make trouble for me. I had committed a thought crime and spoken heresy... even though I argued from the Scriptures and from experience. Ultimately he had no answer and got angry with me. My heresy and thought crime were not against the Scriptures but against his faction and its extra-scriptural claims and authority. That was my crime and he wanted his pound of flesh.

Was I wrong to counter him? Perhaps but you see, he's not my elder and I don't recognise the bogus claims of the Presbyterian system. Others might recognise him as an elder but there are all kinds of offices and positions within the Presbyterian system that are contrived and I don't recognise them because they're tied to some kind of bureaucratic position or placed in the context of a denomination. A building with a sign doesn't mean much. Is he part of the larger Church? Perhaps. Is he an elder in the larger Church? Perhaps but I could just as easily argue against a need to acknowledge that. Should I show regard and respect for a Catholic priest? How about a pastor within the PCUSA?

In the case of Confessional Presbyterianism their factionalism won't allow them to extend sacramental fellowship to those beyond their sphere, beyond those who submit to their polity constructs and thus I have very little regard for their self-serving conceptualisation of the Church. If for example, your geographical situation means that you have to attend a Baptist Church but you want your child to be baptised will the fine men in the OPC or PCA help you? Dream on. Since you're not a 'member' at the Baptist congregation (which as a paedobaptist would be impossible anyway) they won't help you. No, their bureaucracy and canon law (aka the Book of Church Order) trumps the Scripture every time. They'll leave you out in the cold. They're not pastors. They're mercenaries and bureaucrats for hire. They don't labour for the Church but for a system which grants them a nice living with benefits and retirement.

Am I sowing confusion? No. They are. They have blurred the lines of what the Church is and isn't. And then we're all supposed to kow-tow to this and submit to it? I don't think so. Especially when they abuse their power, teach error and work to destroy those who oppose them.

And by destroy I don't mean through legitimate forms of rebuke or Church discipline. Their silly polities have all too often tied their own hands. No, they go to the gutter and make trouble for you at work or stab you in the back and wait until you've invested a lot of money in a big move and then once you get there, they move to sabotage your plans. Once again I have two OP ministers in mind. A couple of scoundrels in my book and one of them nowadays holds a pretty important position in their denomination. It makes me sick every time I see his picture in one of their publications.

The truth is anonymity has a long and venerable tradition. It becomes an issue only for those in power. When the Founding Fathers did it, it was heroic, a form of guerilla warfare by pen. When the Reformers did it, it was understandable given the times. But when done today and against them, it's subversive, cowardly and sinful.

Anonymity can certainly be abused and there are those who do it with impure motives, in order to say outrageous things... things they wouldn't say to the person's face. There are people who do it just for kicks or to make trouble. Others like me are genuinely working to expose error and hopefully rescue some from the grips of an erroneous system, and one (may I add) that is ever slipping into more perilous domains.

In other cases anonymity provides a degree of protection. Those who hold power have money and access to bureaucracies and lawyers which they can (and will) employ to decimate those who would challenge them. There is great wealth in Evangelical and Confessional circles, sometimes bordering on the obscene. These leaders have little empires to protect and I think people would be surprised of just what they are capable of. At this point I can say in all honesty, nothing would surprise me. Nothing.

Writing anonymously or under a pseudonym affords a way to circumvent their threats and yet still get the message out. And if you think Church officials wouldn't use that kind of power, then you're both naive and mistaken. If you've grasped my overall assessment of our modern situation you will understand the gravity of my words, the nature of what I'm combating and just how dire (humanly speaking) the situation is.

In my case I am not fully anonymous but I have put a small barrier between my online projects and my actual identity. You can figure out who I am in about five minutes if you try. For that matter email me and ask me if it's that important to you. I'm not hiding but as one who has to make a living in a rural community I don't necessarily want my articles on say, the evils of American Empire to come up when someone looks up my name. Those discussions are for those are interested in hearing or for those who are ready to hear.

I'm often asked why don't I just leave the United States? I'd love to and would tomorrow and would never look back. But I can't afford such a move. I live on the edge of poverty... not American middle class poverty, actual poverty. My stomach is full to be sure but beyond that my net worth is less than a lot of people have invested in their kitchen cabinets or their living room set. If I could I would happily relocate to Eastern Europe or South America and renounce my American citizenship but I doubt that day will ever come.

I do get the occasional email requesting more information about who I am but interestingly I find that the inquirers are not willing to reciprocate and tell me who they are and why they really want to know. They may simply be curious or they may be looking to make trouble for me. I certainly have my enemies, people that have either harmed me personally or have tried to. So if you email and just want to know who I am... I will certainly ask you why.

But as I've said before my identity is a moot point anyway. I am literally nobody. I have no standing and so unless there's some kind of mutual friend or acquaintance there's no reason to know who I am. I'm not part of any institution and though I was once a member in both the OPC and PCA I'm not any longer. I'm part of an independent congregation and by God's grace I have no denominational affiliations. Truly I thank God that I am no longer a Presbyterian.

Am I at war with Presbyterianism? I am most certainly at war with Dominionism and the ecclesiastical bodies that are part of the Sacralist heritage. There aren't many of us but we do what we can to bear witness to the Truth and expose the lies and errors that have built the Pseudo-Zion of Western Christendom and have as a consequence generated centuries of apostasy. Due to the fact that we represent a tiny minority, the war we wage is a type of guerilla conflict.

In terms of the larger question of society, despite the horrific abuses, detestable language and conduct of people on news websites and social media I would still rather see the discourse than see the government eliminate it. If individual sites want to pull comments, that's completely understandable but let the individual sites do it... not the government. A registry would be an unfortunate development but it's one I expect will happen and I have a feeling that without a phone, one won't be able to activate such an account.... in which case people like me may be done... or I will (along with others) go deep and operate illegally.  Or maybe we'll go back to the good old days of snail mail and underground newsletters.

Government sponsored censorship will always stray into the political and hypocritical. Just recently I read a report that Matteo Salvini said that anyone celebrating the Strasbourg attack will be arrested and the interior ministry is scouring the Internet, looking for just such expressions. He said he wants to 'find the heinous people who are celebrating someone else's death'. It is heinous to be sure but is it okay to celebrate when the Carabinieri gun someone down? What about when NATO drops bombs and people die as a result? When I was in Italy that's exactly what was happening. Was it okay to celebrate the deaths of Serbs? Is that not heinous?

I know one thing, the denominational folks will happily cave in on this issue. Though the Christian Right pretends to stand for liberty it is actually an advocate of censorship and repression. And it would take a great deal indeed for them to give up access to the money-making machine they all depend on.