I Feel Alone
I feel like I exist in my own little camp when it comes to this planet. I'm sure there are people that agree with my worldview besides the couple of people I know that do. However, it seems like it's a fairly rare view. I am a Christian. I am also someone who greatly values security and privacy. These views don't seem to intersect with many people.
The majority of Christians I know completely trust our government, big tech, and corporations when they have shown themselves to be only interested in how they can make more money or get more power. Most Christians in the US seem to bank on the fact that we have freedom of religion and speech. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for being born in a country where following Jesus isn't illegal. However, our culture in the US is moving more and more post-Christian and antagonistic towards it. Even just a few decades ago, Christianity was seen as the "goody two-shoes club". The general public saw Christian living as something we ought to do but wasn't for them. Now, Christianity is seen as the enemy in general discourse. As such, Christians should start to prepare for the time that we're persecuted. Now, I don't think Christians will be imprisoned or killed in the US in the near future. However, I do see a social credit system being put in place eventually where if you don't conform, you will be ostracized by both people and corporations. This is a big problem that many Christians ignore, especially in this digital era where everything is permanent. I'm seen as weird and paranoid because I can see where society is going, and I'm preparing by making sure my data is private. Also, while I agree with a lot of policies and actions by the political parties typically supported by Christians, I also see a lot of their actions has harmful and setting dangerous precedents. I follow Jesus, not a political party.
On the flip side, the groups of people that align with me when it comes to views of the government and big tech seem to be the very ones that are starting to censor Christians. F-Droid, the main hope for being able to use free and open source software (FOSS) on mobile, has recently started to come against the Bible and other religious texts. They are instituting a policy where NSFW (Not Safe For Work) apps are no longer going to be accepted to their repository and are going to be hidden by default because they don't want to deal with age-verification. Normally, I might agree with something like this as a Christian because I view most NSFW content as demonic. As the label suggests, NSFW is content that is not appropriate to view at work and would likely get you fired. Usually graphic sexual or violent content is what the colloquial NSFW refers to. Labeling the Bible as NSFW is asinine. In what country would there be an age-verification needed to read the Bible. The only countries where this would be even remotely applicable are countries where it's outright illegal to have the Bible because there's no freedom of religion. Also, n employer would not have the same reaction to an employee reading the Bible as someone watching pornography, so it's clearly not NSFW. Conflating the two is non-sensical and clearly an attempt to censor the Bible on their platform. F-Droid has since recanted this a bit, but the writing is on the wall.
Other than F-Droid, several projects have articulated how Christians are the enemy, even labeling them with the same label as one of the most hateful, atrocious, evil regimes in history. I'm at a point where the FOSS movement, the people creating software and systems so that we can have a safe haven against censorship and authoritarian governments and companies, are one of the very groups I fear because I don't agree with them politically regarding specific issues. I believe in objective truth as evidenced by my belief in the scientific method. I believe in creational intent by God. This apparently makes me an evil person even though my goal in life is to follow the greatest commandments, love God and love your neighbor.
Actions like F-Droid's make me fearful that those propagating the belief and ideology of freedom of speech and digital privacy really mean you only get those rights if you agree with them. This is seen in the reaction to Charlie Kirk's assassination. It's scary to me how many people celebrated his murder. Did he agree with me on a lot of things? Sure. However, that isn't why this murder was evil. It would've been just as evil of an act if it had been someone that disagreed with me completely. Killing someone because you disagree with what they're saying is murder and evil, regardless of the content.
This has kinda been a rant because I'm not sure how to completely organize my thoughts. Basically, as a Christian, I don't agree with how Christians side with authorities that propagate dangerous policies and precedents to enable authoritarianism and don't see how that can be used against them. I also don't like how I'm the enemy by the people that are supposed be the ones fighting against it because of some views I have that are biblically-based.
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