Privacy in an Age of Digital Piracy

Privacy or    Piracy?

Almost every day, I get a Facebook “Friend request” from someone who is already my friend. I generally try to the let them know they have been hacked. It has happened to me. Much more serious forms of digital piracy have happened to many of you. Chris Ridgeway, in a thought-provoking Christianity Today article, asks what should the Christian—Christ-like, or God-pleasing—response to digital privacy issues be? Here is one of his many questions: “So does the Christian reject privacy? No. But in sight of our sinful default to run from God and each other, we may have to rethink it.” A takeaway I had is to focus less on keeping some things secret and more on being open with those things I should share. Don’t worry, I’m not about to post any nude selfies, though in my case such a picture would likely be more a matter of humor than prurience. Like you, I spend a good bit of time reading and sending emails, meeting friends near and far on Facebook, and plugging into good articles, like this one, that the internet makes available to me. “Whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do—including surfing the web—I am to do all to the glory of God” (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 10:31). The article is the cover of the September 2018, Christianity Today. The author is Chris Ridgeway. If you can't get at it, let me know. I can share with a friend (I'm not sure how many friends I'm allowed to have.) It's Something To Think About.

A Happy Anniversary

A Happy Anniversary:

August 12, 1972, I said "I do" and "I will" to the lovely woman who became my wife and has now become my even lovelier wife. For almost all of those forty-six years, Kathy and I have been in ministry. During the first nine months of our marriage, while I finished college, we were youth leaders at a small rural church in Northeast Pennsylvania. Then for forty-two years we worked at Covington Bible Church in a mill-town in the Alleghary Highlands of Virginia. Unexpectedly, this is now our second anniversary celebrated on Guam, where we are privileged to serve at Pacific Islands University. One way or another, everywhere we have been, not only were we doing marriage for ourselves, but we have sought to model Christian-family, and teach people how to build homes that honor God. Now, working with young adults whose culture is as far from the one we grew up in as this island is far from rural Virginia, that is harder. Still, using the truth of God's word as our guide we are giving it our best shot. While we were out on a date this evening, I asked Kathy if she ever thought she would be doing what we are doing, where we are doing it, when she said "I do." back in '72. "No." was her answer, and for my part, I agree. The fact is, not only this last turn in our road together, but every step of our journey, has been unknown to us until we got there. Which brings me to an important truth about doing marriage right. Some of you readers, for whom I performed a marriage ceremony will be surprised to hear me say this, but the fact of the matter is, there is just no way you can be prepared for marriage. I'm still a believer in premarital counseling. I'm involved in a couple of versions of it, now, in my role at PIU. Bluntly, what I mean, though, is this:   There is nothing you can do before you are married that will ensure that you have a lasting, satisfying, God-honoring, people-blessing, good-child-raising marriage. Sure, starting well with good principles will make that more likely, but the bottom line it is not so much what you did before your marriage that brings success, it is what you continue to do. On this day that I celebrate saying "I do," I am committed to keep on doing. That concept is really quite liberating because it means there is hope. You can start now. Earlier this evening Kathy looked at me with those pretty green eyes and asked, "Are you happy?" I am. It's Something To Think About.