One might say it's a case of fighting technology with
technology or perhaps one could view it as a type of counter espionage. While
most of the public willingly surrenders their information to the state and/or
the corporate entities which exist in a symbiotic relationship with it – some
of us are more than a little concerned.
There are those that would say as Christians we should be
fully transparent. Others appeal to authenticity. Some of this rhetoric is
built on the mendacious foundations of the Silicon Valley moguls who have
preached this ethos for the new computer age. And yet, they mean we're to be
transparent – not them and not the members of the ruling class with the
political connections, coverage or money to hide their tracks and protect their
information.
We're constantly reminded that we have little to fear if
we're not doing anything illegal. Well, maybe we're not at the present but I
don't expect things to stay that way and the recent tensions over the Covid-19
pandemic have brought some of these questions to the fore. As Christians we do
not set out to be lawbreakers but rather we are called to submit to every
ordinance of man and to be obedient to the powers that be.
That said, there are clearly times when we must violate the
law – not the law of God but the forms of legislation that cause us to sin or
would hinder us from our service to God and our Kingdom callings to live as
Christians.
These questions are confused in our day by syncretistic
heresies and false meta-narratives regarding the Constitutional law, rights and
other such issues. This is not what we're speaking about. We make no appeal to
such concepts and in terms of New Testament doctrine and ethics they have no
hold on us – and are constructed on humanistic foundations.
We have no interest in the law, the courts, the police – nor
do we seek justice from the state or call upon the state to defend our rights.
We are to suffer ourselves to be defrauded and we would rather die than take up
arms to defend ourselves. This is of course radically at odds with the common
thinking that dominates the Evangelical scene. Indeed on these points the
movement is not even on the same page as the New Testament or even remotely
within its spectrum. It has traded one form of false Christianity (Roman
Catholicism) for another (Magisterial and now Enlightenment) Protestantism.
Our resistance to the state (or state-corporate entities) on
these points has nothing to do with these movements or their narratives. Our
purpose is not to promote criminality even though such resistance may be deemed
as 'criminal' by a Bestial state. Our resistance is not political – that is it
has no political goals but is merely an expression of nonresistant defiance and
refusal. It's also a witness and a warning of pending Divine Judgment.
More could be said about the moral aspects of technology, a
point our modern generation has seemingly conceded. Wowed by the latest
gadgetry and seduced by the glitter and glamour of narcissist dreams and
aspirations the new tech/social media age is a strange one indeed to previous
generations that grew up without it. I say this noting that many of the
previous generations have readily given themselves to this new zeitgeist. And
yet for those of us who have not embraced it we cannot but blush and feel embarrassment
for a generation that posts their every doing online and plasters pictures of
themselves on the screen for all the world to see.
Decorum, restraint and even dignity are lost concepts at the
present hour and terms that possess little meaning in today's lexicon. This is
not likely to change any time soon. History tells me there will be a reaction
to all of this at some point but it may be that day is more than a generation
in the future – as we have not reaped the full and bitter harvest quite yet.
But we shall, that much is certain.
During the coming social crisis Christians will face
difficulties. Mind you, were the Dominionists of our day to fulfill their
dreams and take over society – the fascist apparatus they would erect would
come down hard on their enemies but perhaps with especially great bitterness on
the Bible-wielding Christians opposing them at every turn – labouring to
subvert them by using the Scriptures against them. Again, there is significant
historical precedent for this and I have to believe the history will repeat
itself in some capacity.
So from my standpoint whether we New Testament or Remnant
Christians face a secular materialist Beast or a Dominionist one – we are nevertheless on a trajectory that will result
in spiritual conflict and certain trial. And technology is going to play a part.
Thus, while I eschew, reject and repudiate the
survivalist/gun mentality that is common enough in Right-wing and Christian
circles – at the same time I do entertain thoughts of prudence and am willing
to consider the implications of actual underground life – a full application of
the pilgrim ethos as it were.
Just as Christians are right to ignore restrictions on
worship or the production and distribution of Bibles in other countries –
likewise we are right in refusing to restrict our Christian activities due to
legislation or forms of restriction even in supposedly 'liberal' societies. I
am not speaking of an out and out rejection of protective measures due to
Covid-19. I am not a hoaxer or one who doubts the existence and viable danger
the virus represents. And yet I believe we've turned in page in that the Church
having largely sold itself out to the sacralist-state framework was quick to
capitulate and rather than wrestle with the salient questions in terms of
Biblical doctrine – the questions were and are largely reduced to legalities.
This only further demonstrates the compromise and even apostasy of the Church
at large – even the bodies that profess to submit to Biblical authority and are
presently being championed as 'stalwarts'. When put to the test they quickly
showed their true colours and it was clear – the Bible was not their authority.
They turned to the courts – to the state and its coercive powers. This is
warning, a preview of what is coming.
And so like the colporteur and missionary we too can take
precautions and while we submit to Providence and will not resist arrest or
punishment – we nevertheless can with clear conscience seek to evade the law
when it comes to these gospel related issues.
Again, this can be misunderstood as many are confused over
the distinction between not just the gospel and civil law and rights in general
but in other cases many have confused the gospel with a 'right' to profit and
property. We are not talking about protecting our gold or our goods or any kind
of social privilege. This 'lawbreaking' and evasion is simply in reference to
the gospel.
So what am I talking about? I'm saying for example that if
Christians are trying to meet in violation of the law – I have no qualms in using
encryption or jamming communications. As our society increasingly turns toward
an Orwellian scenario of mass surveillance we ought to start thinking about how
to evade it – for I believe we will need to consider such questions soon
enough. We can be certain the Chinese are facing it even as we speak.
Mobile phones are both a blessing and a curse. I believe they
possess a value in terms of communication but at the same time they have been
misused and abused by the corporate world and increasingly by the state – as a
means of tracking and surveillance. They have also degraded communication. I
realise for many parts of the world Smartphones are the primary means of
computer-internet usage and thus I understand why they are so appealing to
some. As many readers know I do not and will not own a Smartphone and I say
this knowing that in the near future (indeed already in some instances) a
refusal to capitulate on this point will result in various inconveniences and
even restrictions.
Owning one is not worth it to me. I carry a flip-phone of the
burner variety and that's all I will carry. It's something that can be
dispensed with easily enough and replaced or not. While 'dumb' phones can be
tracked, the ability to track them and the user's activity is certainly of a
lesser order. Consider the following article:
I do not believe the data is anonymised or rather that it is
anonymised in an absolute sense. There have been too many leaks regarding
classified programmes to believe these claims. At risk of sounding utterly
paranoid, I will simply say that this reporting is either knowingly false or a
case of a media outlet echoing a press release or public statement – which have
repeatedly been demonstrated to be misleading if not simply false.
You cannot trust these companies as they are compromised and
in many cases function as arms of the state – sometimes willingly and sometimes
under coercion and appropriation.
The great irony is that most people are giving up their data
voluntarily. They want the gadgets and the apps – which they wrongly believe to
be free. As others have pointed out the apps are not the product – the users
are. You are the product and your data is being sold to companies, marketing
firms and states.
I don't want my data sold. I believe in privacy. As a
Christian I don't believe all of my life is part and parcel of the society I
live in. From the standpoint of the Church 'they' are 'outside'. If politicised
(let alone radicalised) this sort of thinking can become dangerous and so I
labour once again to emphasise this is not about politics or a desire to
control society or protect my rights or property. I neither want Caesar's sword
nor his coin. What I want is to survive and be left alone (1 Timothy 2.2, 1
Thessalonians 4.11) so that I can pursue the holy calling of being a citizen of
the Kingdom, so that I can wage the spiritual war in which I am enlisted as a
soldier – a war the world knows nothing of, cannot see let alone comprehend.
I am not going to willingly 'share' all aspects of my life
with the world no more than I would cast pearls before swine. Will my life, my
choices, my reading and my finances make sense to the world? Will the world
deem me a moral person or perhaps an evildoer? I realise the compromised world
of Evangelical thought will not easily follow this line of thinking – as they
are by inclination and even intuition geared toward the mainstream of society.
I live as a sojourner and my data, privacy and even how I function within
society reflect that. I live among them but I am not of them. I answer to
Christ – not a society guided by the ethics of Wall Street, shaped and framed
by Silicon Valley and monitored by Washington. I live among them and if they
arrest me and kill me then praise be to God – but I'm not going to participate
in their pursuit of their Babel and I'm not going to let them judge and
evaluate me with their Babel eyes – at least not willingly. I'm not going to
help them build their case against me, my family and the congregation I'm part
of.
I am no threat to their order. The Kingdom I serve is not of
this world but of course they won't see it that way – all the more as the
myriad other 'professing Christians' are engaged in other activities that
destroy the testimony of the faithful.
At the very least I urge readers to think through these
issues – the ethics surrounding Kingdom and pilgrim life and how this interacts
with technology. Covid-19 is just the beginning. It's hardly profound or
prophetic to suggest the next episode will take things to the next level and
indeed the frog in the boiling pot comes to mind.
The time may come when we want to use technology to counter
technology. Consider this device:
Or
the time may come when the answer is to eschew technology – not as the Amish
who have idealised a point in time and in fact don't actually live out their
profession. They reject ownership but not use and thus play a Pharisaic game –
well meant and intentioned perhaps, but not principled and in the end their
inconsistencies subvert whatever testimony they seek to maintain.
And we would do well to follow some of the news with regard
to these questions. An innocent but deemed subversive tract may indeed leave an
inadvertent fingerprint.
These technologies are always defended in the name of
fighting crime and the most heinous examples are always invoked. The truth is
there are those out there who have realised there is money to be made in
selling technology to the military and police. Others are literally inebriated
with power and its possibilities. They think in terms of advancing their own
power, their own careers and their own bureaucracies. The price paid by the
larger society – doesn't even enter their thinking. The public goes along with
it and the next thing you know you've crossed a line and entered an
authoritarian and then totalitarian society. We're only a 9/11 away from a new
nightmare and many of the old tools and tricks utilised by underground
movements aren't going to work anymore.
Even if it doesn't come to this extreme and dark scenario –
we (or at least some of us) ought to be thinking about these questions.
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