Private Lives
What happens when privacy becomes a value?
Privacy is a live topic and one closely fought over. Recently highlighted by the rise of social media and the Facebook phenomenon, privacy is now deemed essential for our digital, and not only our physical, selves.
Increasingly, privacy is seen as both a right and a necessity. Think about the heightened language privacy occasions when we think of life without it. Privacy is 'lost', 'invaded' and 'threatened'; words we normally reserve for anxiety about that which we hold dearest. We may begin to wonder whether our obsession with privacy borders on a desire for secrecy.
Novelist Ayn Rand mirrors much of our culture's feeling about privacy: 'Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.' Privacy has come to be understood as proof of our independence, freedom and true identity.
However, privacy is a relatively new concept and primarily a Western one. Few, either historically or in the majority world, have experienced the luxury of the privacy we claim necessary today. So, is privacy really a desirable end, a cultural ideal?
The Bible does not suggest that we hold our lives open to prurient observation (some acts are not for public display - sex, prayer and conflict resolution, for example), but it comes close. Christians are called to be comfortable in the public sphere, letting our light shine, living our lives before others (Matthew 5:16). Indeed, the call of the apostle is uncomfortably public. As The Message translates 1Corinthians 4:9, 'We're something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street.' Although Jesus frequently has time apart from his followers, this is space to engage with the Father, not escape. The Christian life is determinedly public and not just a matter of private conscience.
Ultimately, this is demonstrated in the cross of Christ, which reveals that the public space has no fear for the Christian. The cross, like any execution device, intends to turn death, that most private of acts, into a shameful, public event. Death becomes a warning and a humiliation. But in the cross of Christ there is a reversal. Instead of Christ being shamed, the powers and authorities are turned into a public spectacle (Colossians 2:15). That which is intended to shame becomes that in which we glory.
The cross, which seeks to rob privacy, becomes a call to live openly, fearlessly in all places before all people.
Ben Care
Links
For an interesting blog series on privacy and God, click here...
Comments
I found this article very helpful, as it touches on an area I am very involved in. As always - you hit the spot. And of course yesterday and today we have the revelations in the Guardian about phone voicemail hacking by journalists. Large powerful commercial organisations, and governments, would like to track our movements online. The commercial organisations (such as those who provide internet services to consumers), want to monetise our internet behaviour and target us with advertising. Governments, on the other hand, seek every opportunity available to enhance their security and control over the citizen. Some of this behaviour is carried out, even in our own country, both covertly and illegally - it is indeed "dark", in every sense of the word. Protecting privacy might actually involve shining a bright light on it. Christians may find themselves called to go into the public square to oppose such activity because of their concerns about how it will impact on the weak and the vulnerable, both economically - in a debt ridden society - and politically - in an increasingly authoritarian state. Such activity is costly and difficult, but should not be interpreted as a desire to walk and live in the shadows - rather - to ensure that there is righteousness and justice, for the vulnerable, and oppressed - in all areas of life. It is no coincidence that some of the countries in which the church experiences persecution, are also those in which the state seeks to deprive citizens of privacy, in their homes, on the internet, while using their phones, and as they travel. And where Christians have to protect their privacy very carefully - not loving the darkness - but being discreet and circumspect as they redeem the time and walk in wisdom towards those who are outside the kingdom. I agree that individual disciples of Christ should not be hiding their light under a bushel, and their lives should be capable of being lived in the light, not in the dark. But there may also be a discipleship call to oppose those forces who want to exert either commercial or authoritarian control over the vulnerable, and who use the (usually covert) insidious destruction of privacy to further their aims. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and was changed by the experience, surviving to make an open commitment to him later, at the time when it was most dangerous to do so. One's view of privacy from the secure standpoint of liberty and wealth, might be very different from that from the point of view of the oppressed and economically weak. Jesus withdrew to a quiet place at vital moments in his life, and of course, certain acts of religous observance are carried out in private rather than in public, like Passover in an Upper Room (hopefully without CCTV or bugs in place!) and of course the giving of alms (who IS monitoring your online donations? - are you confident about the privacy of your online banking?). The popular mantra of companies and governments when these things are discussed, is usually, "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." It is of course, bunkum. Ask Mary and Joseph as they flee to Egypt, because someone evil found out more geo-location details about their baby's birth than was healthy for him and his family! Jesus Christ's first coming was private and secret - noticed by almost no one - because that was part of the divine plan - just as his return will be open and public, and every eye will see him, and his light will shine. You are right. It's complicated. Keep up the thought-provoking work.
'The cross, which seeks to rob privacy, becomes a call to live openly, fearlessly in all places before all people.' claims Ben Care. That may be so, but unfortunately for many LGBT Christians among others, the church where they worship is the last place where they feel they can be honest and open about their lives. While one might feel and believe oneself to be in the full light of one's faith, right with God, there will be many fellow Christians who would think the complete opposite. My own experience as an unmarried believer at an evangelical church was to know that the only way I could remain was to keep my mouth shut. Thankfully, I was able to leave for a more inclusive church where I was valued regardless of my marital status and/or sexuality. I have lost count of the number of single Chrsitans I have known who ended up turning their backs on God altogether.
Date:
2010-09-05 16:39:15
Author:
Catherine von Ruhland