-Jail or Worse: The Possible Down-side of Internet Exposure

This blog is dedicated to encouraging folks to use blogs and the internet in ministry. It is a good time to talk about the possible down-side that some have experienced due to the world-wide nature of the internet, social media, videos, websites, and blogs.

The up-side to the internet is the possible world-wide exposure that it can bring to what you are posting or teaching about. In my case, folks have showed up and read some of my stuff over the last several years from over 160 different countries on every continent. Without leaving my family room, I have been able to touch people in some way all around the world.

Now for the possible down-side. 

Because anything on the Internet is available for anyone to read–a blog, website, and possibly even an email. Governments that may use all that stuff against you and those you write about.

A couple of years ago, a pastor that I had developed a blogging relationship with emailed me a request to erase his name from every place that it showed up on my blog. He was shutting down his own blog and was trying to eliminate his Internet presence. He had a popular blog and was active in making comments on many other sites so I would imagine that the task was nearly impossible.

He explained to me that he was going to supervise a mission in a Muslim country and for the protection of himself, his family, and his associates his Internet presence needed to be scrubbed. At the time, I thought that he was being slightly paranoid but since then have run across dozens of situations that have proven him to be right on.

Here’s a link to the story of a Christian missionary couple in Gambia who were sentenced to 1 year of hard labor in prison because of a comment made in an e-mail sent to their prayer supporters.

A man in Saudi Arabia a few years ago blogged about his conversion to Christianity, was arrested and is now facing possible death.

A few years ago I received a request for prayer and intercession from members of a missionary team our church sent out and at the top of the e-mail were these words in bold red letters:

SENSITIVE MATERIAL!!!

PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS EMAIL OR POST IT ON ANY WEBPAGE, BLOG, FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, ETC.  THANKS!

That is just several instances in the last month that I have run across. The point is, all of us should be aware of the fact that our posts and comments could well be read by folks and governments who do not share our faith and might even use it against us if they had an opportunity.

In my own case, there are several countries that I should probably think twice about ever visiting because of some of the comments that I have made over the years on my blogs. It’s a big world out there but the Internet has made it much smaller for better and sometimes for worse.