Reference no: EM133338708

Case: The legislation the U.S. government has passed over the past few decades affecting the use of telecommunications and computers.

According to the GAO, over 200 federal agencies now have data-mining initiatives designed to collect and analyze personal information about U.S. citizens. Many of these projects use data purchased from commercial database sources. Agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security defend such actions as part of the war against terrorism, but civil rights organizations contest such activities, partly because the accuracy of the information is not known and because citizens do not trust the government's use of that information.

I think we could have a healthy debate on whether the government in overstepping its right to know and infringing upon personal privacy. I think we can all acknowledge that these actions make us very uncomfortable. They feel like an invasion of privacy. To some it seems like the beginning of George Orwell's over-controlling government in his book, 1984. Such practices leave ample room for the potential that the information will be abused.

However, I would like you to look through the lens of a biblical worldview. In Romans 13:1-2 it says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."

With all of this as a backdrop, please answer the following questions:

Do these actions go against anything we read in Scripture?
Is it part of God's design that we would have a right to privacy?
How do we mesh our personal feelings of discomfort with the above verse in Romans?