Technology: Keep Watch

We need to prepare for tribulation, which will include a vicious rise in censorship on the Internet. Here in the US, various government agencies have long practiced limited forms of disinformation and squelching those who told the truth. Now they are becoming more active in blatant silencing of select groups.

We’ve always had political conflicts; now each party is becoming more determined than ever to “take back the country” from the others. There’s less and less talk of compromise for the sake of preserving the system. But nowhere is the battle more nasty than in cyberspace. Recent information warfare fired by partisan agendas has seen the rise of actions that will spill over to those of us not directly involved. Many of the most popular services used by millions, even billions, of ordinary clients have begun silencing voices that dared to go where politically correct censors don’t want anyone to go. The changes in how these various services handle this endeavor have come so frequently that it’s hard to keep track.

If you take the time to contemplate this in your heart, you can discern a very disturbing shift in the moral realm. Some of us saw this coming a long way off, but now it’s quite close upon us. I can’t offer a timetable of any sort, but this is going to get worse. Your elders here at Kiln of the Soul virtual parish have taken steps over the years to reduce our reliance on the more dangerous services. For example, several of us who were previously on Facebook closed our accounts some time ago. We sensed the futility of trusting such a service to keep open the channels of communication for us there.

While that did mean reducing our exposure, it also meant reducing liabilities. I’ve elected to pay for the service on this blog to improve our chances of keeping it open as unseen forces work to shut down messages like ours. We’ve opened the Radix Fidem forum as a place for you to interact without having to worry about having your own blog. We still hope to see more of you join us there. Jay is hosting this for us and there seems for now little likelihood his provider will pull the rug out from under him.

But things are very unsettled on the Net. There are several simultaneous efforts to squelch freedom of expression from different angles. I’ve warned that we are headed for a genuine bloody civil war here in the US, and we have already seen how most of the early battles have been on the Net so far. This is going to get worse with each side seeking fresh advantages to silence the other. In the process, their huge and clumsy weapons could fall on us without them even noticing.

One of the biggest threats right now is one you don’t hear much about: blocked access at the consumer level. There are several ways different actors may deny you the freedom to read this blog or even visit the forum. This could remain up and running, but that doesn’t mean your local ISP is going to allow you full access even if you keep paying the bill. This is just one way things can go bad for us all. Try to understand that almost everything we do right now is via the Internet; we are a virtual parish. If this community of faith means anything to you, be aware that its existence is currently fragile.

This is in part why I’ve been trying to teach in such a way that you can keep going on your own without my daily blather. This is not about me keeping you on a leash. I’m not a cult leader seeking to control others. This is about you reading and learning enough to stand on your own. Our current level of ready contact could disappear without warning.

I remain firmly convinced that God changed things sometime ago, so that we are on a different track than before. I called it a “shift in reality.” Instead of a truly apocalyptic experience, we are simply in for some tribulation. It’s still tribulation; it still means human suffering and governments collapsing, along with the failure of many non-government institutions upon which we rely. His wrath is falling on America right now. But I feel certain the Lord has promised it will be bearable for us, if we seek His face on what it takes to be ready.

We’ll keep an eye on things and do what we can to maintain open lines of communication. If something happens on your end to make it difficult, we’d like to know. I still have five email addresses, one of which is posted in the right column on the blog interface here. You can also click the big icon for the Radix Fidem forum and post a comment there. Jay keeps an email address in plain sight on his blog (look at the top line). Try to get hold of either of us if things start getting blocked on your end. Maybe we can help you get around it for awhile at least; we’ve learned a few tricks over the years of messing with computers and software.

Still, understand this: As the world around us gets crazier, it also gets more open to hearing our message. If God permits you to be isolated from us, it’s likely because He’s preparing to build a literal church around your faith. Keep watch.