There is no place for absolutism in this world.
I’ve already stated often enough that I am not a political activist of any stripe. It’s not that my actions have no political meaning, but politics is never the point. The real meaning of passages like Romans 13 is that we don’t directly interfere in God’s plans regarding human governments. He’s in charge and the only human government that ever had a chance of working directly with Him executed His Son. So His covenant with them died on the Cross. While the Laws of God expressed through His Law Covenants still apply to all human activity, there is no covenant nation on this earth. From the standpoint of divine justice, no government on this earth pleases Him. They might be useful to Him on a limited basis, but not a one can claim any special favor from Him.
We have been adequately warned that our mission on this earth will surely get us in trouble with human governments sooner or later. While governments these days tend to avoid openly labeling us troublemakers, that’s not the point. Serving Christ cannot avoid pissing off someone who serves Satan, whether they serve knowingly or otherwise. That’s the way it is in this world. Even if they could scarcely care less that we love Jesus, we cannot obey divine justice without coming into conflict with human government at some point.
Consider again my post on the fiery furnace ordeal. Remember that death is just a circumstance.
While we are here, we defend only our mission. Even then, we give no thought to changing how government acts, but doing as much as we can to ensure the mission is not hindered. The fundamental mission for all of us is communicating the truth. In my world, that currently requires Internet access. If there is one thing in this life wherein I’ll most seem an activist, it’s the Internet.
For the record: I am not anti-government; I am deeply cynical. Despite my complete cynicism about government institutions, I still regard life in the US Army as my “home.” It’s where I would still be most comfortable today, but I can’t imagine how I could return to that without radical changes in the current system, not even as a civilian employee or contractor. So I am not particularly interested in tearing down the US government or any of the institutions. But I’ll be the first to tell you don’t ever trust them to do the right thing, particularly regarding the Internet.
Not that I would imagine forcing anyone to keep their hands off of it. This is not a question of imaginary rights, because I have no financial or legal interest in the vast collection of wires, servers, etc. Leverage is a very slippery thing here, but while it’s available, I do have a lot to say about how I access it. As with all things in meat space, I can’t control the reality in which I live, but I can control me and my actions. In virtual space I’m a force to be reckoned with.
Right now, there is no distinction between the actions of the NSA and any cyber criminal. The same goes for all the other spying services, but the NSA is getting all the attention right now. They operate with a criminal negligence of human property and safety and any claim to serve our interests was blown away long ago. It’s not as if I could pretend that any government is going to put their spies back in the box, but I will not be told I can’t treat the spies the same as crooks.
And while I am hardly expert enough to fight them on equal terms, I can most certainly raise the cost of messing with me. If they target me individually, they’ll win. So long as I am just another source of packets on the Net, you can be sure they will gleefully run over me and you and anyone else. It has gotten to the point that they refuse to be accountable to Congress or anyone else, so screw `em.
Remember: We have a mandate from God to communicate, and when their activities hinder ours, they cannot claim a priority. That’s not at all what Romans 13 is about. They are already in defiance of God, so the angelic protections are on our side, and the demons are on theirs. They serve Satan. That doesn’t mean God will save us from the fiery furnace necessarily, but He would be inclined to support His own message. It’s a factor in His inscrutable and ineffable calculus of things.
The issue is not absolute control over their naughty activities, but reducing the threat as much as possible. More on this tomorrow.
