Religious Right embraces innovation and competition on the Net

As the Senate argued about the hypocritical "network neutrality" proposals before it recently, some members of the Religious Right spoke out in favor of killing those proposals to preserve -- gasp! -- freedom. And not just their own. Instead of demanding that their folks on Capitol Hill clamp down on the Net and jettison objectionable websites "to save the children," as one might imagine they would, these socially conservative groups -- Abstinence Clearinghouse; Center for Moral Clarity; Faith 2 Action; and Tradition, Family Property among them -- stated that filtering and monitoring tools enhance their use of the Internet as a teaching medium with their children. The Net also serves their needs as a grassroots organizing tool like none other: "Any legislative action that could prevent or impede our use of the Internet would certainly be damaging to our efforts," the groups said. They went on to tout the positive effects of competition. Providers will continue to offer better service with more potent filters and higher speeds if the Internet remains basically unregulated. Look at that! Homeschoolers working to protect personal freedoms in a way that benefits everybody. Amen to that.