Saw a tweet last week and for some reason it just stays in my head. Basically, it was a Christian author trying to network on twitter for an upcoming book project. However, the tweet was something like: Does anyone know how I can unlock “Brand X” phone so I can use it with a different phone company? The way I received that request was as if they had asked, “Can someone please give me a link to some pirated software?” or “Help me find a link to a song on Limewire so I don’t have to pay for it.”
I’ll come clean and let you know that I have downloaded things that weren’t in keeping with licensing agreements in the past. Also, I will confirm for you that I agree it is illegal to do so. However, I wasn’t encouraging others to help in my endeavors nor did I ever publicly solicit information to help me with such downloads. Yes, I know that I still engaged in illegal practices by the letter of the law.
The thing that strikes me in the instance of the tweet looking for a way to hack a phone, is that it was very public and it was in-essence an unsolicited testimony of an illegal action. It just seemed so contrary to the mission of this person looking to expand their readership through social networking.
If other people do it, does it make it okay for us (who should be above such things) to engage in? Are we okay if we sneak in under the radar and believe that God isn’t watching? If we truly believe in our hearts that we aren’t potentially causing someone else to stumble, then it should be okay? Jesus commands us to follow the law of the land in addition to the laws of the Lord. Jesus also gave us grace and mercy in this regards. Does that make it okay then? Am I feeling a little disconcerted and a little convicted here for no reason? If it’s not a big deal to broadcast to the world that we are looking for help to break a tiny little inconspicuous law, then where do we draw the line?
I’m just from the camp that believes we should do what we can to not give ammunition to those outside of grace to try and use our own actions against not only us, but all of Christianity. I also believe that we should do what we can to not make it look like it’s okay to break the law in any regards. It just sends a message to others that I don’t want to be associated with. This is purely my perspective and I’m not trying to pass judgment on other or convince you that I am without error in this issue.
What are your feeling on this matter? I’d be interested to know if I’m the only one that takes notice of such things that some could consider to be trivial.
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Generally, my rule of thumb, if it’s illegal then don’t do it. But I will say the only reason I haven’t hacked my iPhone is because I’m afraid I’d ruin it. :-) Otherwise I’d already have video on it.
Todd, thanks for sharing honestly :) If it’s illegal, I know we shouldn’t do it, but was wondering how others felt about posting things encouraging the illegal activity on social networking sites like twitter. Like, would you post: “Hey, can someone tell me if they were successful hacking their iPhone so I can do it and not worry about ruining it? By the way, I am a disciple of Jesus. Thanks.” Well, maybe not that literally :)
I have had quite a few debates on this subject matter. The conclusion I reached is that none of us are wise enough to discern whether our compliance to local laws and authorities are honoring to God or dishonoring to God on our own. In the case of hacking a phone and asking for help publically, I can only say, it’s a pretty petty request. God seems to deal with those things with natural consequences more often than law enforcers.
What about believers who gather illegally to worship God? What about smuggling bibles into a country that by law does not allow such things to exist in their country? The bottom line is, God is our sovereign authority. I would consult the Holy Spirit on a case by case basis. No matter what our choices end up to be, God is still in control.
That said, there are laws I do not abide by. I pray out loud in schools, I feed homeless people home made food, and I am walking on God grace whenever I break these laws. You know, Jesus said he who has no sin cast the first stone… yeah that grace. When in doubt, I let my relationship with God help me make the choice. His peace usually confirms when I made the better choice.
Sambi, wow! That comment blew my socks off! You offered a perspective that never even entered into my mind. Disobey the law for the glory of Jesus…I get that, but you made it powerful offering examples of giving homemade food to homeless people and gathering illegally to worship God.
As I mentioned in my original post, I was not writing about this as a way to pass judgment, but for some reason the petty cell phone tweet stuck in my head. I’m thinking maybe it was so that you could reply and cause me to look at things from a different point of view. Thanks for taking the time to share this…awesome!
All I’m gonna say, is – “Dave – I Love you man!” :-)
This is a great post and right no. I concur with the first comment with the exception of hacking the Iphone of course. I have a Blackberry anyway! Peace bro!
I’m sure Ted Haggard and his pastor buddies wouldn’t hack their Iphone!
Richie: Thanks for your comments man! Much love back at ya!
Sam: The main point wasn’t about doing something outwardly that was an issue within the Christian faith, but something that is kind of under the radar and commonplace, such as hacking a phone illegally. It seems everyone does it, but just because it is almost culturally accepted as okay, should Christians be okay with overtly breaking the law in small things like this? Thanks for visiting the blog!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/24/know-your-rights-is-it-illegal-to-unlock-my-iphone/
Dave, I think one of the disadvantages of putting yourself out there online is that you get obnoxious posters. Much respect for being out there still and biting your lips :)
The DMCA is complex and relatively unsettled in application even though it’s been around for a while now. It’s not the average person’s daily practice to dig through all the interpretations and clarifications of the DMCA. Theoretically, I should be studying 24×7, and even then I never get around to visiting the Copyright Office website. So the accuracy of the interpretation of it in one narrow instance of unlocking a phone really has no bearing on the kind of discussion that this post invites. Instead, I think whether to circumvent a particular preventive measure implicates not only its legality, but also the ethics behind it by going from “Can we do it?” to “Should we do it?” Additionally, because this post seemed mainly to serve as a springboard into a discussion among those who are trying to respect and uphold the laws of the land, the validity of a discussion of this nature ought not to be relegated to Christendom only, but to the whole of US as well.
Since some aspects of the law aren’t as simple as “Do this” and “Don’t do that,” the issue among individual Christians has more to do with the degree of effort you ought to put into figuring out what’s expected of you as a law-abiding citizen. Some people honestly don’t have the time or the resources to know the exact law on a matter. And if you shell out the big bucks to have a lawyer to do the research for you, you might end up having him tell you in a fancy way that the answer is, “Maybe this or that.”
So again, it comes down to this I think: If you don’t know what the law says about something, there probably needs to be an individual determination of how much effort should go into figuring out the law. And presumably, after that step, you take the other necessary steps to ensure compliance with what you know. Sometimes, having been so deeply entrenched in illegality, becoming compliant might take a few planned phases instead of one fell swoop. For instance, when I decided to get rid of a bunch of pirated movies, I first went through a long phase involving complicated, ancient Near East mourning rituals which partly consisted of eating locusts, but not honey.
But beyond that, the individual decisions and the motives behind them really do belong to God, and my job is to zip my lips when it comes to calling individuals out on whether they are doing the right thing or not. However, I will say that when I’ve discovered that I was on the wrong side of right on any particular topic, I found that being in that situation exposed a lot of selfishness in me that I never had the opportunity to consider before. In that sense, something seemingly trivial as deciding whether or not to decrypt a DVD can lead to a non-trivial self-realization and an ongoing struggle about what I’m willing to do in order to be obedient to God.
Dave–good points. When we launched our church we said we’d be above board on everything from CCLI or ASCAP or whatever we needed to do to license music/video or even making sure we had multi-use license for any software. Sometime it’s hard because the lines can get blurred, but I really think if we try to stay above reproach, it’s honoring to God, and to the ministry He has entrusted us with.
Brett
Louis: Thank you for bringing your perspective as a law student to the blog! I agree that the main issue isn’t “can we do it?” but rather “should we do it?” I also agree that it is not our place to judge others. In particular, when some things would be hypocritical and I would be pointing out the speck in their eye and disregarding the plank sticking out of mine. There are however some things that should be addressed with rebuke when the Scripture is clear on them. When it comes to matters such as unlocking a cell phone to circumvent the intended carrier and obtain service from an unauthorized carrier, that has to be an individual issue–especially if technically it isn’t illegal to unlock the phone as some have posted in their replies.
This post has drawn attention more to the secondary issue than the main one–should one encourage and solicit help from others when trying to engage in something wrong even if it is culturally acceptable. Like when you mention bypassing encryption to burn DVDs. This is clearly an illegal act with FBI notices warning of prosecution at the beginning of each DVD, yet if someone burns copies of DVDs most others will not care in the least. Some may even offer to burn copies of DVDs for others that don’t have the ability to do it on their own. How much disobedience to God are we willing to endure just because we won’t be prosecuted or because it is culturally acceptable to the world? Thanks again Louis!
Brett: Thanks for taking a stand on licensing and copyright issues! I for one appreciate the blessing of ccli and therefore strive to do my part to use the songs under license and comply with documentation for royalties. As the church, I think we are required to live to a higher standard so that by our actions no one can point to God unjustly for our shortcomings when we knew better and could have complied from the start.