Why, when the Bill of Rights promises Americans protection from unreasonable search and seizure without a search warrant, are so many Americans meekly accepting the widespread surveillance of their most private online interactions and cell phone calls by the National Security Agency?
Could it have something to do with their Christian upbringing?
Christian churches across the United States have tried to control the behavior of their members and neighbors with “Jesus is watching you” campaigns. At the Trinity United Methodist Church, Reverend Norman Tippens delivered a sermon titled “Jesus Knows More About You Than The NSA”. The message is clear: It’s a great thing for authority figures with absolute power to conduct dragnet surveillance against everybody – in fact, such constant spying by divine powers is the only reason people aren’t completely wicked. If Jesus spies on everybody, the argument goes, why shouldn’t the NSA do it, too?
This religious justification for authoritarian Big Brother surveillance is mocked by blaspheming supporters of the Bill of Rights, including the satirical Landover Baptist Church, with messages such as “Jesus is watching you touch yourself”, and “Jesus is watching (and probably touching himself”.
Like J. Edgar Hoover, the deities of Christianity turn out to be lustful voyeurs.
