Surveillance

In light of the administration’s recent admission to collecting phone records from millions of Verizon customers (a group to which I, myself, belong), I thought I’d throw out an excerpt from Chapter Two of my book for your reading pleasure.

“In a prayer-drenched society, led by leaders covered with prayer, you and your fellow citizens abide by the law and have no need to be spied upon. Your privacy is a given because both citizens and leaders typically do what is right within a structure of fair laws with just consequences for violating the laws. In a quiet, privacy-respecting society, you have freedom to work, buy, sell, communicate, travel, and assemble without need for surveillance. As prayer decreases, however, temptation within the nation—for everyone—becomes more and more difficult to resist, and crimes of all kinds increase. Sweeping lawlessness gives rise to the idea that infringement on individual privacy in order to safeguard society at large is the only solution. This is one reason why communist governments so commonly violate the privacy of their people; they don’t trust them to do the right thing. Why not? When there is no absolute God to whom individuals are accountable then traditional values of right and wrong are meaningless, discarded along with the concept of Creator. External coercion and intimidation become the only methods to ensure order. When your right to a quiet, private life is violated on an ever-increasing scale, you can bet that prayer coverage for your nation has diminished.”  (Excerpt taken from pages 46-47; First of All, Pray: Prescription for a Nation in Crisis;  © 2013–Dorothy Frick)