Can we have a real conversation about civil liberties now that the government is spying on white people too?

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 2:13 pm by Morgan Guyton

Can we have a real conversation about civil liberties now that the government is spying on white people too? 2014-07-17T14:13:23-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s quite the ideological whiplash to transition from the outrage over the Boston marathon bombing (Why didn’t the FBI do more to prevent this horrible tragedy?) to the NSA outrage (How dare you mine our private data from Google to spy on suspected terrorists? There are white people who use Google!). You can’t have a world in which Benghazis are guaranteed not to happen and have your civil liberties too. Well, unless you make the law officially racist and ban Muslim foreign students from getting visas while exempting white people from things like taking off their shoes at airports…

First of all, yes, I think it’s a problem that the NSA is spying on our emails, blog posts, and whatever else. I also think it’s a problem that 86 detainees who have been cleared of the possibility of ever having been remotely involved in terrorism nonetheless remain at Guantanamo Bay.

I also think it’s a problem when undercover agents go into mosques looking for impressionable, unemployed, disaffected young men to recruit for a fake terrorism plot that sends them to prison for the rest of their lives even if the agent actively manipulated and entrapped the wannabe terrorists.

And also when Muslim charities have their assets frozen by the federal government because the government has played the six degrees of separation game and a friend of a friend is employed in a completely non-militant capacity by Hamas, which employs most of the people living in Gaza.

And also when drones kill people in “signature strikes” because they shop at the same stores as terrorists or drive the same model of Jeep and whatever else is in the algorithm the CIA uses to determine that someone is a “combatant, unspecified” for whom there is no actual evidence of terrorist involvement.

And also when millions of undocumented immigrants who are recruited by farmers, meatpacking plants, and independent contractors to come to our country and work often for less than minimum wage while the federal government looks the other way rather than issuing enough legitimate visas for temporary workers since it’s easier to do that and “discover” that people are here illegally when they try to organize a union or when the local sheriff’s deputies take matters into their own hands and stake out the parking lots of Hispanic churches to deport people over broken tail-lights.

Brown people have been dealing with mountains of bullshit and injustice from our government for many, many years. It was a lot worse in the “good old days” when the government supposedly “respected the Constitution” (and black people stayed on their side of the tracks and women stayed in the kitchen). Ever heard of COINTELPRO? What about the Crack Importation Agency?

The CIA’s use of crack cocaine as a fundraising tool for supporting the Nicaraguan Contras is documented in an official government report which the mainstream media had the “discretion” and “decency” to completely ignore. Just because it seems as wing-nut and ridiculous as selling weapons to the Ayatollah Khomenei and Saddam Hussein at the same time and teaming up with Osama Bin Laden to create a radical Muslim mujahadeen for overthrowing the socialist government of Afghanistan doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

So now that white people are getting spied on, will we pay attention to the problems that brown people have had to deal with or will we try to reestablish our false security that our country is a perfectly fair place where people can raise themselves up by their bootstraps and nobody in law enforcement has ever treated anyone unjustly and blah blah blah? I’m not sure what the right balance of privacy and snooping for terrorism is. I do have a general sense, rooted in my faith-based naivete, that taking an enforcement-only approach to terrorism without any interest in researching and seeking to address its root sociological causes is misguided.

I wish I could say that I was hopeful that the NSA scandal will provide a wake-up call that will result in intelligent conversation about reexamining government policy. But our world is too full of people who make money off of outrage and people who are trying to opportunistically leverage it for their partisan political gain (e.g. people who were all about the PATRIOT Act when a different party was in the White House and are “outraged” now about NSA). So as much as I believe in Brian Zahnd’s call to belong to the world and resist the temptation of nihilism, I do wonder sometimes if God just needs to hit the reset button on this sucker, understanding that I have no concept of what that would look like.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 6, 2013

Is yoga Satanic? E.W. Jackson and Al Mohler think so.

Next Post

June 7, 2013 Journey to Eternity: our next sermon series

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In the Gospel of Luke, how does the Virgin Mary learn of her pregnancy?

Select your answer to see how you score.

From Elisabeth From the Angel Gabriel Joseph From the wise men