Are we in danger of being taken hostage by Internet service providers?

Last week, you will recall, it appeared as though Congress was about to clamp down on the pirating of copyrighted materials by imposing new restrictions on web sites and servers.

Major web servers responded by shutting down their sites for a day. They did not like the law Congress was about to enact, so they reacted by flexing their power, making the world pay for their discomfort. Congress immediately backed down and is "re-assessing" this decision.

Of course, this was intended as a demonstration of what it might be like if Congress had the power to regulate the Internet. But it was also a demonstration of the power of ISPs to influence the workings of government. 

And the lives of all the rest of us.

For example, what if the ISPs decide they don't like some proposed legislation relative to something other than their immediate commercial interests? What if they object to a bill which disagrees with their moral preferences? Or their view of religion?

Or what if they don't like some person who is running for office? If they get in a snit about this or that candidate, could they simply darken the web space again until said candidate either changes his views or drops out of the race?

Are we in danger of being held hostage to the economic and moral interests of the major Internet service providers?

Just one more bit of uncertainty to ponder in a world where relativism, pragmatism, and materialism provide the foundations of the dominant worldview. When justice is defined by the preferences of the powerful few, the rest of us are in danger of being forced to go along in order to get along.

But the answer to this potentially bad situation is not to empower Congress to run the Internet. You probably knew that.

The answer is to replace the existing worldview of relative justice with one that promotes a form of justice that sustains neighbor love and enforces transgressions of divine law.

But the road to that scenario must pass through revival in the churches, and revival begins in prayer and in the hearts of individual believers before it becomes a reality in their churches.

We need revival, friends. But we need to seek it first of all in our own hearts and lives.

Are you praying for revival every day?

Write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and I'll send you some guidelines for setting up a prayer group focused on seeking the Lord for revival. Revival leads to renewal, which leads to awakening and transformation. We cannot get to a just society apart from revival.

And we can't get to revival except by prayer.

Related texts: 2 Chronicles 7.14; Psalms 44, 80, 85; Matthew 21.22

A conversation starter: "Are you concerned that the large Internet service providers are accumulating too much power and influence?"

T. M. Moore