If “activist” means striving to force a change in government policy, then I am not one of them.
It seems I often have to explain why we are not supposed to participate in democratic government: It’s fundamentally immoral. Democracy is a blunt rejection of biblical morality, specifically a rejection of Noah’s Covenant of Laws. Actively supporting any democratic system violates God’s moral character. There is a level at which we can get involved as required by contextual mission necessities, but in general we avoid it on principle. Activism presumes to support the concept of democratic government, a concept invented to counter the biblical standard under Noah’s Covenant, which covenant requires tribal government and tribal social structure (see previous posts about leverage and domain). We operate under democratic principles only when forced into it by the context.
That has nothing to do with our mission to convince folks in general to change their behavior regardless of government policy. Government is people in power and they might change, too, but it’s not our concerted aim. We work to change minds as the pathway to the heart. Indeed, it’s a part of our fundamental mission; it’s how we give God glory. There is only a hair-breadth separation between informing and convincing in this context. We inform in such a way as to make it enticing, as it were. By living our convictions, we portray the blessing of simple awareness of God’s moral character. In the full mixture of our failures and God’s grant of successes, we show an orientation that most people won’t understand or accept. That has little to do with our persistence, because God always touches folks with our living message whether we know it or not.
You would think any means of communicating that message is of grave concern to us. The whole purpose of computers is information processing, and a critical element in that for most humans is transmitting that information. Computers connected to the Internet are critical to the broader mission of anyone who follows Christ. While God can destroy the whole thing today, so long as He permits networking, we use it. Not all of us to the same degree, but as a whole.
My individual calling and mission relies greatly on networking, so I invest a lot of time and effort in how it all works. It’s my mission in part to make sure God’s servants have optimal use of what’s available. So you would expect me to promote computer use and networking as a means to glorifying God. Since the very nature of networking prevents computers being restricted to good moral behavior, I have to promote the whole thing as a single idea. That you can use a computer for evil does not prevent me using one for God’s glory, any more than walking or breathing air can be restricted to evil moral purposes. The most important thing I can pursue is the user’s control over how the whole system works.
Thus, in that sense I am quite active in convincing people to keep the channels open. Governments will do what they do, but the collective individual motivation of those governed can restrict bad government behavior simply by refusing to obey immoral restrictions. So I openly advocate for an open Internet and Open Source software and open this-n-that to prevent God’s people being silenced. That part of activism I do. I strive to remain fully aware of government threats as well as private and corporate threats, and I’m sharing what I see. I advocate some level of that awareness necessary for people to pursue their own mission, along with measures they can take to counter any hindrance.
That makes computer networking a significant part of my religion.
