SENTINEL WATCH June 21, 2010 Issue

PRAYER DEFEATS CYBERWARRIORS

MAYA DIETZ

THE EVIDENCE IS DAUNTING. Experts say that the US faced an "electronic Pearl Harbor" in 2007, when unknown hackers broke into a number of highly sensitive federal agencies and successfully downloaded roughly the equivalent of the Library of Congress (12 terabytes). According to security firm McAfee's 2007 annual report, 120 countries are actively engaged in developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon. High-profile attacks by the Chinese against private companies like Google have compromised the security of one of the biggest information systems in the world, on which many economic, political, and social transactions depend. These cyberwarriors appear to have all the advantages, including stealth, anonymity, and unpredictability.

Sounds scary, doesn't it? And it would be, if we were really helpless. But prayer is an active force in the world, one that can bring to light evildoing before it can actually do harm. Prayer also makes people alert to new ideas, such as innovative ways to protect Internet systems. When we align our thoughts about ourselves and others with the one divine Mind, God, we can expect harmony of purpose and action to result.

Cyberwar, on the other hand, is based on the principle of disharmony. It suggests that we are at the mercy of evil, that there are multiple minds working against each other. Cyberwar uses fear, which acts like an opening in thought that can be exploited, just as cyberwarriors use bugs in computer code to access and control computers. Resting our prayers on the power of divine Love, which knows and does only good, we can be confident in the power of Love to drive out fear and restore harmony. As the Apostle John wrote, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:18).

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