[governance] Conservative activist: Bible, Ben Franklin, Pilgrims all opposed to net neutrality

[Michael Gurstein]

Hmmmm....

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/20/conservative-activist-bible-ben-frankl
in-pilgrims-all-opposed-to-net-neutrality/

Conservative activist: Bible, Ben Franklin, Pilgrims all opposed to net
neutrality
By Eric W. Dolan

The idea that all Internet traffic should be treated equally is against the
teachings of the Bible and America's Founding Fathers, according to
evangelical Christian minister and political activist David Barton.

During his radio show on Tuesday, he said that net neutrality violated the
Biblical principle of free markets, a principle upheld by Benjamin Franklin,
Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.

"That is part of the reason we have prosperity," Barton said. "This is what
the Pilgrims brought in, the Puritans brought in, this is free market
mentality. Net neutrality sounds really good, but it is socialism on the
Internet."

"This is really, I'm going to use the word wicked stuff, and I don't use
that word very often, but this is wicked stuff," he added.

Barton was a co-chair of the Texas Republican Party for eight years, is the
founder of WallBuilders, an organization dedicated to "America's forgotten
history," and a lecturer for Glenn Beck's online Beck University. TIME
magazine has named him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the
United States.

As TalkingPointMemo noted, Barton has also appeared as an expert witness in
Texas Board of Education textbook hearings and argued that homosexuality
should be regulated by the government.

"This is the Fairness Doctrine applied to the Internet, and I'll go back to
what I believed for a long time is: fair is a word no Christian should ever
use in their vocabulary," Barton continued. "Fair has nothing to do with
anything. What you want is justice, you don't want fairness. Fairness is
subjective, what I think is fair, what you think, what happened to Jesus
wasn't fair. That's right, but we needed justice so God did that for us."

New net neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in
December banned Internet service providers from blocking lawful Internet
traffic, but allowed them to "reasonably" manage their networks and charge
consumers based on usage.

The regulations are meant prevent corporations that own the physical
infrastructure of the Internet from acting as "gatekeepers" by allowing
faster access to certain content and slower access to other content.

"I mean, this is crazy stuff," Barton said. "This is redistribution of
wealth through the Internet and it really is redistribution. This is
socialism on the Internet."

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