Implant a Microchip; Bury Freedom

Scrolling through the news recently a headline caught my eye: “River Falls company to embed RFID chips in fifty of its employees.”  Like most people my first reaction was horror. My dismay has only deepened as the days pass.  The Bible tells us that “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”  Implanted RFID chips destroy freedom. First, let’s not make a mistake about something basic: The RFID chip was no “option” offered by the company.  When the boss offers you something, and you decline, you may find that your next performance review doesn’t go so well.  “Offering” to implant a chip in your employees ought to be illegal. Moreover, consider what happens when a small group of people acquiesce to tyranny; it’s a threat to everyone’s liberty. There’s a reason that the law prohibits slavery for instance, without such a law, a few people would inevitably sell themselves into slavery, perhaps to pay off a loan, perhaps for other reasons, and soon slavery would be mandated rather than voluntary. But third, and most importantly, many people say, “I carry a smartphone, that’s way more intrusive than a chip.”  A smartphone is indeed intrusive, it can be used against you as a recorder and as tracker; it can be turned on without your knowledge, it can be and is used in a variety of nefarious ways, but a smartphone is not implanted in the body. We think of our bodies as a husk or a shell.  That’s a lie.  Jesus died for us body and soul together.  The Bible tells us that what we do to our bodies we do to our spirit, “Do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own; you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body.” (I Corinthians 6:19) Some counter: “We replace knees and hips and even ankles, why not implant a chip the size of a grain of rice?”  It is one thing for a doctor to ease our pain by replacing a worn out knee joint, but it is quite another to become a walking debit card.  This is not the vision of humanity that the Bible teaches.  This is not the humanity that the righteousness of God has brought about and is bringing about through the Lord Jesus. God frees us, God heals us, God gives us dignity and honor, he gives us the gift of love and mercy.  In the Lord Jesus we can indeed, “guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride,” just as the song says. And 32Market can do the right thing too.  They can require their employees to remove the RFID chip. In so doing, they would truly be visionary, because they would be falling in line with God’s vision of and future for humanity.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.”