I'd be worried if I was you too.

You may want to start covering up your tracks.

Oh yes of course, because only the guilty need fear punishment.  Sorry, but last I checked, the law was run and interpreted by fallible, biased humans.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

It's all covered in Romans 13.  A chapter GeoFee dismisses with the wave of a hand.

Right...

I'm pretty sure a large reason that Christianity is so big nowadays is exactly because many people paid that verse no heed...

Regardless, I'm not a well-off Christian, so unlike the privileged of this country, I actually ​do​ have something to fear.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

Saul,

Does Romans 13, and especially Romans 13:3, not presume that the powers are not acting against the will of God? Or are you suggesting that it is always and in every circumstance wrong for Christians to resist rulers. Was the Confessing Church wrong to oppose Hitler? Should the underground church in China give itself up since the authorities consider it illegal? Does Romans 13:3 require unthinking obedience to the state and its rulers or are there times when Christians must in good conscience oppose the state and its rulers?

Just wondering how far you take your interpretation of that passage?

He'll take it as far as it's convenient for him, of course.

But when the govt starts doing something he doesn't like, such as preventing him from proselytising to school children without their parents permission, allowing other religions to have the same rights as Christians, or letting women have control over their own bodies..... well then he takes a very different view of that particular passage.

I see you've returned to roll in it again.

the spy agencies already keep an eye on all types of groups and they will continue to do so.

no surprise here

Well the passage does suggest that it is God who places governments in power. Jesus even told Pilate he has no authority but that which God has given him.  Whether a government is good or does evil in the eyes of the Lord, it is still placed there for God's purpose. And whether a government is good or not, the advice remains sound that you will feel no pain if you do not oppose it.

As far as your comments on Hitler and China, whoever loves others has fulfilled the law, and then of course you risk the wrong end of the sword.

All that said, I believe Stephen Harper and his govt love Canada as much as the Liberals did and the NDP does. Canada is a great place, and people complaining about the spread between the rich and the poor have not looked at the spread between themselves and the really poor.  The more we have, the less thankful we are.

Could monitoring what you post on facebook be abused by government? Sure it could. Could it help to prevent a Norway style attack? Sure it could.

Is what we do on the internet already being monitored, even if it's not legal yet? Have another cookie.

The reality  is that the pressure is on Canada to make itself as fully as possible a part of the US. That means it must join in the US hysteria over border control and domestic spying.

Yes, we have always had domistic spying. But it is going to be vastly increased to match that in the US. And, like that in the US, it will be aimed at people who disagree with the government. That, alone, will be enough to justify the authorities in waiving normal procedures - like warrants.

We, like the US, will be ruled by an aristocracy of wealth, an aristocracy of about one-tenth of one percent of the population.

They will all, of course, be prominent church-goers. And I have seen no evidence that the church has any interest in opposing them.

Oh, and the one-tenth of one percent will, as in the US, need an evil threat for the rest of us to focus on.

Put Omni's link beside mine, and the pattern continues to build...

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117206368409551.html

If I were Facebook, I'd likely sue the government for enacting such an anti-capitalist law.

And then, I'd sell the company or let it go public or both.

graeme ..... how sadly true........

Rita

search facebook in-q-tel and CIA.

Or put Romans 11 beside Romans 13.  Then pick a team.

Shut up Mel Gibson.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

I have a friend who is a peace and human rights activist. His organization does letter-writing campaigns on behalf of political prisoners, calls attention to their plights, organizes demonstrations and information booths, and so on. He recently posted on his Facebook that he is making his annual request to the US government (he was an American citizen until this year) for his FBI file. He is big, boisterous, fun, and certainly not dangerous unless you're a totalitarian regime holding prisoners for political reasons or get in the way when he's bounding up to a podium to make an announcement or give a speech. Yet, he is monitored by his homeland's security apparatus because his activities may not be in keeping with their attitudes and ideology about security and who should and shouldn't be their friends. He's led peaceful demonstrations and protested wrongs by countries, some of who are his homeland's nominal allies. At least with the US system, he can find out what they are finding and saying about him. Will our system at least provide that (he actually asked this question because he'd love to see the corresponding files kept by CSIS and/or the RCMP)?

Mendalla

Oh, I ​know​ there are at least RCMP files on me.  CSIS I'm not so sure.  Wouldn't surprise me though.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

At the current time, we do not have the right to request our security files.  In fact, if we are charged as a result of security gathered, that evidence will not likely be available even to our lawyer at trial.

And in case we needed yet another example...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Feds+silence+scientist+over+salmon+study/5162633/story.html

Evidence bad.  Facts bad.  Knowledge Bad.  Ideology Good!

stomping and whining - I know it doesn't help, but damn, I'm so sick of these realities... I used to get fired up talking about it, but now I just throw up my hands and walk away.  Isn't that what Harper CSIS FBI etc are hoping for?

Yes, Birthstone, apathy is exactly what the government hopes for and they also rely on two other factors:   'ignorance is bliss' and  the mistaken belief that 'if you are innocent you have nothing to fear'.

A number of these new intrusions are being included in an omnibus crime bill.  As past practices have shown this is a great way to hide dubious laws under layers of more acceptable legislation.  As past practices have also shown it is these hidden laws that come back and bite everyone, usually resulting in very expensive court challenges that the government loses because they knew they were skating on thin legal ice, hence the need to hide the laws under layers.  This practice is repeated because power recognizes the maximum 'what they don't know, they won't fight'.

I could paste numerous links showing how innocence is not protection against bad laws, particularly if you are a member of a group that the government has deemed undesirable.  I could show that the cost of proving one's innocence is exorbitant not just to the individual but to the justice system as a whole.  However I know that I would just be preaching to the choir, it appears to me that the powerful propagandists have won and I, too, find myself falling into the dark pit of apathy. 

Ignorance is the new de rigueur and people want to live the fantasy that Big Daddy Government will protect them because they are one of the Good People in a world filled with Bad People.

Apathy and ignorance have never been good ingredients to creating a healthy, vibrant, progressive society.  They are, however, necessary to create a society where power is held by the few to the detriment of the many.

LB

-------------------------

There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery.

     Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321),  The Divine Comedy

If they flood the market - so to speak - with this kind of thing, then people become accustomed to it, and less likely to stand against it.  It's the slow creep of moss that covers any rights we have or had.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni