The UN wants the Internet – should Christians care?

You may have heard that the UN is trying to gain control of the internet. Given the reputation that the UN has earned, this is no good thing for freedom of expression and a tax free, unregulated internet. They are also somehow unconscious of the irony of holding the summit to discuss (among other things) how to wrest control of the underlying systems from ICANN and the US Department of Commerce, in, of all places, Tunisia. I guess it could be worse, they could have held it in Beijing.

Let’s take the worst-case scenario and say that somehow the UN gains control over the internet – a technological feat that I don’t think they can accomplish anyway, even if the US cooperated. After all, the internet is not exactly in a building they can send their little blue-helmeted sex offenders into to take over. But lets just imagine that it happens… the same UN who sees fit to allow China, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, and Sudan on the Commission on Human Rights somehow gets hold of the Internet and starts deleting or blocking Christian and other “dissident” blogs, and jailing or executing the authors. What of it? Persecution never hurt anyone – that is, when you consider it with an eternal perspective. On the contrary, we are advised repeatedly to expect it and welcome it. Matthew 5:12; John 15:20; 2 Corinthians 4:5-10; 2 Titus 3:12; Revelation 12:13, and my favorite, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

The European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance was bemoaning, way back in 2000, that that can’t do anything about “intolerance” on the internet.

Recalling that, in its general policy recommendation N° 1, ECRI called on the governments of Council of Europe member States to ensure that national criminal, civil and administrative law expressly and specifically counters racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance…Stressing that, in the same recommendation, ECRI asked for the aforementioned law to provide in particular that oral, written, audio-visual expressions and other forms of expression, including the electronic media, inciting to hatred, discrimination or violence against racial, ethnic, national or religious groups or against their members on the grounds that they belong to such a group are legally categorised as a criminal offence, which should also cover the production, the distribution and the storage for distribution of the material in question; …. Aware of actions and initiatives taken in this field by the United Nations, the OECD, the Council of Europe and the European Union; … Regretting nevertheless that, for the time being, the draft Convention does not include provisions on racist, xenophobic and antisemitic crimes committed via the Internet;

A movement to control the political content of the internet is already underway in the United States; and if you think that religion would not be similarly regulated, you are kidding yourself. But again, what of it? I believe God can get His message across without using the Internet; he did so for 2000 years prior to it. In other words, even if this happens, it is not the tragedy you may think it is.

Watchman Nee, a great house church leader in China who was martyred for his faith, once preached a sermon without using any words at all.

There is an unverified story that he was scheduled to address a meeting of church leaders at a time when China was in an uproar. Churches were being closed and pastors slammed into jail. Because Watchman Nee was such a wise and strong leader, many pastors and Christians were looking to him for counsel… If he spoke at this meeting, he was certain to be arrested by government spies in the congregation. He would probably never be able to finish his remarks. But if he didn’t speak, he would disappoint those who most needed his courage and wisdom.

Standing in the pulpit, he looked out over the packed hall. The place fell to a hush. He picked up a glass of water and hurled it to the floor, smashing it. Then he surveyed the broken pieces of glass with a smug, arrogant expression and spent the next five minutes walking around, crunching the glass under his feet. Then his expression changed to one of horror. Stooping down, he began trying to pick up the pieces of glass. He put the shards on the pulpit and tried to reassemble them into a drinking glass, but it was impossible. Finally he threw the pieces into the air. They scattered everywhere, and Watchman Nee walked away, his sermon finished.

The spies didn’t know what to make of it, but the pastors understood completely and they left the meeting greatly blessed. Forty years later, a pastor in Shanghai explained the parable. He said, “Nee himself represented the state, and the glass represented the church. He was telling us that the state would try to smash the church, and for awhile it would look as if they had succeeded. But soon the state would realize it had made a terrible mistake, because in smashing the church it had not destroyed it, but dispersed it.”

The parable proved prophetic. When missionaries were forced out of China in 1949, there were less than one million Christians, and the Communists were determined to wipe them out. But in the years since, China has seen the largest and greatest revival, numerically speaking, in the history of the world. The last 50 years in China have been like the book of Acts all over again, and today there appears to be well over 50 million evangelical Christians in China with thousands more being added every day. So a healthy church is one which, whether in affluence or under persecution, takes its mission seriously and seeks to make disciples. It shares its faith, it grows, it multiplies.