Big Brother or Heavenly Father

So the debate over Britain's surveillance culture continues to rage with the latest report from the House of Lords Constitution Committee. In the report, the committee suggested that growth in surveillance by both the state and the private sector risks threatening people's right to privacy, which it said was "an essential pre-requisite to the exercise of individual freedom". The report went on to say that "There can be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about us being recorded and pored over by the state."

It is true to say that no people in history have been spied on like the British public. We have a proliferation of CCTV cameras and the largest DNA database in the world per head of the population; not to mention the myriads of databases containing personal information. Now the Government wants to keep records of all out telephone conversations and emails, supposedly for our safety.

What is uppermost in most peoples' minds is what happens to this data. Government and private agencies seem to "mislay" CD-ROMS and data sticks on a regular basis. Also what happens in the future if Britain comes under the power of some extreme government? We only need to take a lesson from history to see what can happen. When the Nazi regime overrun France and Holland and started rounding up Jews, their success rate in Holland was far greater than in France - why? - simply because the Dutch kept meticulous records on every individual whereas the French did not.

Of course, Christian believe that there is someone who has always kept an eye on us. Long before there was anything like a CCTV camera the psalmist wrote:-

O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely
(Psalms 139:1-4)

Whereas I find the Government's collection of data on me a worrying thought, I cannot say the same of God. I'm pretty sue he has never lost a data stick and I'm pretty sure also that he does not want to keep tabs on me just in case I do something wrong. Whereas the Government collects data out of fear, God collects his out of love. Whereas the Government say it does what it does to make me feel safe, with God I know I am safe. Whereas the Government constantly betrays peoples; trust, God has proved himself true to his word time and time again.

Peace and all good

Dave

BBC on Lords Report