by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
What is spying? That word has various meanings depending the individual. The meaning seems to have broadened nowadays, what with advances in technology, internet usage, and all that. Generally, it is obtaining information for your own purposes through secretive means. This is often done illegally or at least without the subject's knowledge and approval. Because I work with protected information, my employer has cameras to help them ride herd on us. Although we know about them, some folks feel "spied on". It is legal.
Privacy concerns on the internet have given rise to encryption software for email and browsers, and even for files on your computer. Cyber security checks for and attempts to thwart spyware and malware that track your browser activity, and to keep hackers out of your system. Your smart TV is probably spying on you, and the makers do not have your best interests at heart. There is also industrial espionage, but that would make this article far too lengthy.
On a lower level, people snoop on others using social media. Cyberstalking is a crime, but I know of some sidewinders who justify their activities to protect "science" from the evil of biblical creation science. Yeah, makes sense to me, too. He's an example of Romans 1:24.
When is spying wrong?
A few days ago, the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency was sworn in. Her name is Gina Haspel. While other directors have been administrators, she has experience as a spook. Makes sense to me to have someone in charge that has experience riding for the brand.
In the confirmation hearings, Haspel was questioned about her activities in "torture", which is a loaded word used to provoke negative emotions by the likes of the leftists at the New York Times. Here's an idea: look up torture methods, and compare them with waterboarding, which left the two prisoners of which she supervised alive and well. A bit damp, though.
Were her actions, and the actions of others involved, wrong? Not to this child.
When it comes to espionage, nations spying on nations (sometimes spying on allies), a passel of questions arise. They sneak, lie, steal, kill, hack into computers, and do all sorts of things to obtain information. The spies Joshua secretly sent to Jericho used stealth and deception.
That impeccable source of information about The Circus spy stuff, James Bond movies and novels, the hero had sex with many women. In the 1965 movie Thunderball, he said, "My dear girl, don't flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for Queen and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure, do you?" She didn't believe him, and neither did I. You can only suspend disbelief for a movie just so much. Even so, sex for information is a frequent occurrence in these circles.
The point remains that clandestine operations require people to break rules that the rest of us are supposed to follow.
via GIPHY
Back to Gina's interrogation. She was asked about morality, and if something was moral then, but is not moral now. This indicates what is happening in society today: subjective morality and shifting standards. When I mentioned the cyberstalker above, he believes what he is doing through stalking, harassment, defamation are good and right. Because evolution. Because atheism. Because hatred. But there is no objective moral standard in his case, nor with subjective morality in society today!
Secularists often try to find their morality not only in shifting cultural standards and arbitrary personal opinions, but in evolution. The same shifting and vague moral standards apply to espionage. We have to protect our country, and others feel they have to protect theirs — sometimes by destroying ours. I have to admit that this is a difficult area and can lead to many long discussions on moral standards. An important question is where to draw the line.
The true moral standard comes only from God our Creator, who has made himself known in his Word.
Something that has been occurring rather frequently of late is that I have been inspired to write based on material presented by Dr. Albert Mohler. I recommend this podcast, which you can download or read the transcript.
What is spying? That word has various meanings depending the individual. The meaning seems to have broadened nowadays, what with advances in technology, internet usage, and all that. Generally, it is obtaining information for your own purposes through secretive means. This is often done illegally or at least without the subject's knowledge and approval. Because I work with protected information, my employer has cameras to help them ride herd on us. Although we know about them, some folks feel "spied on". It is legal.
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| Credit: Pixabay / Free-Photos |
On a lower level, people snoop on others using social media. Cyberstalking is a crime, but I know of some sidewinders who justify their activities to protect "science" from the evil of biblical creation science. Yeah, makes sense to me, too. He's an example of Romans 1:24.
When is spying wrong?
A few days ago, the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency was sworn in. Her name is Gina Haspel. While other directors have been administrators, she has experience as a spook. Makes sense to me to have someone in charge that has experience riding for the brand.
In the confirmation hearings, Haspel was questioned about her activities in "torture", which is a loaded word used to provoke negative emotions by the likes of the leftists at the New York Times. Here's an idea: look up torture methods, and compare them with waterboarding, which left the two prisoners of which she supervised alive and well. A bit damp, though.
Were her actions, and the actions of others involved, wrong? Not to this child.
When it comes to espionage, nations spying on nations (sometimes spying on allies), a passel of questions arise. They sneak, lie, steal, kill, hack into computers, and do all sorts of things to obtain information. The spies Joshua secretly sent to Jericho used stealth and deception.
That impeccable source of information about The Circus spy stuff, James Bond movies and novels, the hero had sex with many women. In the 1965 movie Thunderball, he said, "My dear girl, don't flatter yourself. What I did this evening was for Queen and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure, do you?" She didn't believe him, and neither did I. You can only suspend disbelief for a movie just so much. Even so, sex for information is a frequent occurrence in these circles.
The point remains that clandestine operations require people to break rules that the rest of us are supposed to follow.
via GIPHY
Back to Gina's interrogation. She was asked about morality, and if something was moral then, but is not moral now. This indicates what is happening in society today: subjective morality and shifting standards. When I mentioned the cyberstalker above, he believes what he is doing through stalking, harassment, defamation are good and right. Because evolution. Because atheism. Because hatred. But there is no objective moral standard in his case, nor with subjective morality in society today!
Secularists often try to find their morality not only in shifting cultural standards and arbitrary personal opinions, but in evolution. The same shifting and vague moral standards apply to espionage. We have to protect our country, and others feel they have to protect theirs — sometimes by destroying ours. I have to admit that this is a difficult area and can lead to many long discussions on moral standards. An important question is where to draw the line.
The true moral standard comes only from God our Creator, who has made himself known in his Word.
Something that has been occurring rather frequently of late is that I have been inspired to write based on material presented by Dr. Albert Mohler. I recommend this podcast, which you can download or read the transcript.