Ban the Anons

I read some time ago that Mexico abolished its Federal Police due to out-of-control corruption. It has since replaced the Federal Police with the National Guard, which has similarly demonstrated that it too is indistinguishable from organized crime. For example, 150,000 Guard servicemen defected from 2000-2016 in order to work for the Gulf Cartel. Indeed, it would not be hard to make a sturdy case that the Mexican government is itself indistinguishable from organized crime.

Accountability is the inherent enemy of sinners. If accountability is lost in a government, the officials devour the populace. If accountability is lost in a church, the churchman creates a fiefdom. If a police department has lost accountability, the policeman becomes a tyrant. And so we expect and depend on accountability in most contexts to curb the evil proclivities of men. However, contexts that treat accountability as optional invite optional trust. Thomas Paine once quipped, "A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." If the Mexican nation is ever to establish the rule of law, it must first establish accountability.

I have frequently heard "integrity" defined as "Doing what is right even when no one is looking." This definition does not quite capture the term, since one might begrudgingly do what is right out of fear of being found out. Rather, integrity requires far more than the looming threat of discovery. It requires personal blamelessness (Ps. 25:1; 101:2) and is derived not from the fear of punishment but from loyalty to one's covenant Lord (cf. Gen. 17:1; 1 Kgs. 9:4; Job 1:1). While accountability is required for a civil nation, integrity marks the citizenry of heaven.

While integrity is a benchmark of Christian character, anonymity, in conjunction with the Adamic nature, is a convenient shield that defends from consequences. Anonymity invites disinhibition, and thus, the keyboard warrior's courage rarely leaves his parents' basement. Whistleblowers and other such exceptions aside, social media anonymity is about as virtuous as the narco-national guardsman. But here we are, in a social media-sphere full of Christian anons whose Hyde-side finds regular exercise in the public promotion of every kind of evil. If any of this legion of evildoers attends a local church, they do so in the regalia of full hypocrisy.