‘EU Digital Identity To Impact Christians’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BRUSSELS (Worthy News) – The European Union reportedly tests a digital identity program for its citizens this year that critics fear could lead to the continent’s “Chinafication,” where Christians suffer.
Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s chief executive, says digital identities planned for September next year give citizens control over their data and help stop identity theft.
Yet, European Parliament Member Cristian Terhes, born in Communist Romania, fears “Chinafication,” saying the EU already made COVID passports mandatory. He recalled that COVID passports had been used to ban the unvaccinated from public transport, entering bars, theaters, or grocery stores, and even going to their jobs. They have also helped fuel Europe’s most violent protests in decades.
“Clearly, we are witnessing right now the ‘Chinafication’ of Europe,” Terhes told the U.S.-based Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN).
“Because we see what is happening in China right now with the ‘social credit score’ where the government is monitoring … all the people from the beginning to end. Everything that they do, everywhere they walk,” he stressed.
“They [Beijing] control everything and watch everything. This is an example of tyranny,” the legislator added in published remarks.
In Italy, the cities of Rome and Bologna have begun social credit programs that reward citizens for behavior that officials think will fight climate change, CBN reported. That includes using a bike instead of a scooter. A social credit system could be easily incorporated into digital identity, critics say.
CATHOLIC ACTIVIST
Austrian Catholic activist Alexander Tschugguel of the St. Boniface Institute told CBN that in any European social credit system, Christians would lose. Many believers oppose issues like abortion, which the EU views as a human right.
“Therefore, I do not want the European Union to have the possibility to look into everything I do, everything I say, everything I have and how I move and where I am at any time,” Tschugguel told CBN. “Those systems are pushed by people who are highly anti-Christian.”
There are warned that the EU’s new digital ID is the next step in a process in which the government in Brussels will micromanage every aspect of people’s lives.
He said, “This is what makes the difference between a tyranny and democracy: When you know everything about what your government does, that’s democracy. When the government knows everything about you, that is tyranny.”
Brussels isn’t worried. An animated EU video with a lively introduction claims that the EU’s digital identity program will make citizens’ lives easier while keeping them safer online.
“The European Digital Identity wallets will allow us to store and exchange documents and legal information. While fully controlling which data we want to share with whom.”
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