Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will no become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.
Is this a good thing? Should all that is secret be revealed? Who should reveal it? Does everyone have the "right" to all information?
Technological changes are often disruptive. Information is power and the Internet has exploded our capacity to relay information inexpensively. This subject is a generational project for us much in the way that the harnessing of nuclear technology was a project for the builder generation. We have only begun to pursue communal wisdom in how to handle this. Wikileaks in the political world and Facebook in our personal lives, perhaps like the Bikini Atoll are our first stumbling steps at realizing what we've created and the havoc we can wreak with it. State departments and military forces around the world are going back to the drawing board about how to manage information. A therapist I know told me that she'd love to see Facebook banished because of how foolish use of it has complicated and destroyed relationships. We have few settled, communal conventions for this power.
Probably the best way to process this is for us to have a discussion about it. I'll just offer a few initial thoughts and we'll see where you want to take the discussion.1. We've long known that the print and television media filter distorts and flattens stories. A picture of Elian Gonzalez removed from a Miami home is evocative but hardly the whole story. All tellings of a story must rely on editorial selection and are received through reader/viewer biases. Are Facebook and Wikileaks postings really just flat "facts"? How does the medium of the Internet filter and distort information?
2. Is the pillaging of private space a good thing? We've long thought that it is healthy for a democracy to have an active press to disclose what powerful people want kept hidden but we've also known that they must exercise wisdom and discretion in that disclosure. Has the lure of potential monetization of private information tempted us beyond wisdom in this area? This is essentially the business model of the world's youngest billionaire.
3. Part of our difficult relationship with God is in fact His refusal to disclose. In some ways the Arminian/Calvinist debate over unconditional election is a debate about disclosure. Does God act upon history's disclosure of human agency or is God in control of salvific outcomes? The Bible consistently asserts that God alone can judge the heart and God's decision making process is inscrutable for us. Part of our thirst for knowledge and disclosure is our lust for mastery. In that way our quest for information reveals an idolatry in our hearts.
What do you think?
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Comments (9)
Although the case can be made for news skewing, etc. The Bible can also be used as an example. Think of all the cults and false teaching, and evil, that have arisen out of misinterpretation of it's passages. Without the Holy Spirit as our Divine Translator, so to speak, we are open to all sorts of interpretations which may or may not be downright wrong.
If we don't seek a "divine translator" to filter all the lies and half truths we are fed hourly, we leave ourselves open to all sorts of things which may destroy us outright in a single action or cause an erosion which will end the same way.
"G-d's refusal of full disclosure", as you put it, is a model for constantly seeking the His will. Yes, we are given commandments which are hard to misinterpret - but we are not told what career we should seek, who we should marry, how many children to have, how big of a house is appropriate. These are things that are revealed in His time.
Phillipians 4:8,9 seems to answer your question. If more people followed it there would be a whole lot less to filter and since they don't, it gives me, as a christian and as an individual, a practical way of knowing which information to seek.
simply by saying that everyone should 'seek a divine translator' won't really help anything. i think that the problem is that we all seek this 'divine translator' and think that our personal revelation of truth is right and that others perception of truth are simply wrong [because my translator is divine, who can argue...]
i think the brand of hyper-individuality marketed to us all is what is behind facebook, the unique 'divine' translations, and the need to possess all 'information' -- at once -- without context.
combat that multi-billion industry [marketing] and you will go along way to restoring community, spiritual health, and physical well-being.
and - i think you [paul] are spot on when you say that "Part of our thirst for knowledge and disclosure is our lust for mastery." humanity and humility should go hand in hand. part of humility is not needing to knowing all the answers.
just my two cents.
John 14:21 and Matthew 7:7-21
As to your second paragraph: Deuteronomy 4:29 and Isaiah 66:1-3. Christianity has never been about "personal revelation" but Divine revelation. Matthew 7:7-21.
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"He should, however, beg leave to remind the conductors of the press of their duty to apply to themselves a maxim which they never neglected to urge on the consideration of government —" that the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility."
Thomas C. Hansard ,1817 - British Parliament
Now, I suppose, all of us in regards to our lives on the internet, need to be so reminded.
I think this statement is dead-on. The Information Age has empowered us with knowledge but it also corrupts us into imagining that we have the full scope of reality under our control. Very insightful post. Thanks Paul!
The larger problem with the secrecy discussion is how much is NOT revealed. People can get upset without having the full picture, and even worse an understanding of the context of the where the data originated.
People can reveal truth from a motive of injustice, malice and/or slander, and hide under the guise of revealing truth. How, then, does this injustice get corrected?
I would say that any answer to this question has to be "timely" as opposed to "timeless." Which way we lean between privacy and disclosure needs to be in relation to what is happening in our world or our neighborhood. I'd have to say that my gut feels as though governments have been trending toward unhealthy secret-keeping in the last 40-50 years and I'd like to see a fair bit more transparency. Where personal information has leaned toward TMI in a big way and things like identity theft tell us we're paying a high price for that kind of indiscretion.
Beyond that however, I love your thoughts on how this relates to God and Christ. Having and keeping secrets is obviously a part of the way He operates so we can't conclude that secrets are "bad" in some generic way. Your comment that knowledge is power seems to be right on target. We long for control and information is a way to get there.
Well Spoken.