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Many were terrified. ‘If they can do this, what will they do next?’ asked easily frightened people. But from fear, came acceptance, came excitement; Christmas of 2014 saw ‘drones’ become one of the most popular presents. The camera-carrying, air-bound vehicles may have been a hit, but people soon started worrying about privacy. The remote controlloving geeks suddenly have the ability to hover outside your window and record back gardens, in essence, spying on people. Obviously most people aren’t buying these drones in order to check out their neighbour’s upstairs decorating, but the fact they have the ability to do that? Pretty scary…
• Would you want to own a drone?
• What would you do with it?
• How do you feel about other people owning them?
In the same way that peering through windows isn’t the most frightening thing that drones can do, drones aren’t the height of society’s concern about privacy. Recent news stories in America have revealed that government departments use a variety of methods to find out what their citizens are up to. The reason given for this is to protect their country and population; if they know what everyone is doing, they can stop them attempting anything they shouldn’t be.
Ironically, at a time when fears about snooping have never been higher, we’re putting more and more personal information online – our habits, our social lives, photos of eating cereal, the works. So where does that balance lie? Should we opt out of the internet, or accept that the government knows best?
• How much information are you happy to put online?
• How much could someone learn about your life from your social media presence?
• Do you worry about the government spying on you?
• How much does the government have the right to know? Do you trust them to make the right decisions?
We talk a lot about our ‘right’ to privacy, or our ‘rights’ to lots of things. Jesus didn’t really talk about rights. In fact, he talked far more about giving up our rights along with everything else, than about clinging on to new ones. Read Matthew 19:16-30.
• What surprises you in this passage?
• Does the call of Jesus seem ‘fair’?
• What might Jesus ask you to give up?
• What ‘rights’ would you most struggle to give up?
