A Theology of Surveillance
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”— Genesis 3:9
This week, The Guardian reported that several U.S. government websites, such as those for passports, voting information, prescription drug pricing, and children’s savings programs, have been redesigned to send visitor data through White House-controlled systems.1 These sites now use commercial tracking technologies, which privacy experts find deeply concerning.
It strikes me: surveillance always begins with a theological claim. It is rooted in a particular understanding of what it means to be human.
Michel Foucault, a political philosopher, spent much of his career exploring how power shapes human behavior. In his well-known book Discipline and Punish, he describes the eighteenth-century ‘panopticon,’ a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham.2 Its design was clever: prisoners never knew when they were being watched because the guard tower was opaque. This uncertainty became a tool for control.
The genius of the panopticon was that guards no longer needed to watch every prisoner. Instead, prisoners started to watch themselves.
Foucault believed that modern societies took this idea far beyond prisons. Schools, hospitals, factories, bureaucracies, and governments began to focus on observation, measurement, and surveillance. The aim was not just to punish those who broke the rules. It was to shape people who would accept the expectations of those in power and learn to control themselves.
Reading about government tracking technologies made me reflect on this idea. Surveillance is based on a deep theological belief: that people cannot be trusted unless they are watched, monitored, and possibly corrected.
The biblical tradition starts with a very different view of human life.
Think about the Garden of Eden. God does not create a panopticon or set up a monitoring system. Instead, God creates a world filled with freedom and vulnerability. People are given agency, responsibility, and the ability to make choices that truly matter.
Then comes one of the most striking moments in Scripture. After Adam and Eve hide, God enters the garden and asks, “Where are you?” It seems like a strange question, since God would already know their location.
God does not ask for information. Instead, the question is an invitation to relationship, to self-understanding, and to honesty.
The God of Genesis does not begin with surveillance. The God of Genesis begins with covenant.
Surveillance and covenant show two very different ways of seeing people. Surveillance is based on suspicion, while covenant is based on relationship. Surveillance depends on control, but covenant depends on trust. Surveillance asks, “How do we stop wrongdoing?” Covenant asks, “How do we encourage faithfulness?”
This does not mean that societies can work without laws, institutions, or accountability. The biblical tradition recognizes the need for all three. Still, there is a big difference between accountability based on shared responsibility and surveillance based on suspicion.
Philosopher and theologian Ivan Illich once warned that modern institutions can become harmful when they try to replace real human relationships with systems of management and control.3 We may start out seeking security, but we often end up feeling isolated.
I wonder if this is one of the deepest spiritual challenges of our time. We are increasingly asked to live as though we are always being observed…because we are. Our purchases are tracked. Our movements are tracked. Our searches are tracked. Our conversations are tracked. Our attention is tracked.
Over time, we start to watch ourselves. We become more careful, less trusting, less free, and less like our true selves.
This leads to important questions: What kind of people are we becoming if we live as though we are always being watched? And what kind of God do we imagine if we think that watching is the best way to care?
Maybe our spiritual challenge now is to find a new way of seeing things.
A vision where people are not problems to be managed, but individuals to be met and known.
A vision where trust is not seen as naive, but as something essential.
A vision where freedom and responsibility develop side by side.
In other words, a vision not based on surveillance, but on covenant.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
In what areas of your life do you feel watched, measured, evaluated, or managed rather than known?
How has the experience of living in a culture of surveillance shaped your willingness to trust others, speak honestly, or take risks?
What would it mean for you to live more deeply from covenant than from suspicion?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For the Courage to Be Seen
God of the garden, You do not watch us as a warden watches prisoners. You seek us as a friend seeks a friend, as a parent seeks a child, as love seeks the beloved. When fear teaches us to hide ourselves, call us forth. When suspicion hardens our hearts, teach us trust. When we begin to believe that control is stronger than relationship, remind us that every covenant begins with vulnerability. Help us become people who create spaces where others can be known without fear, held without judgment, and loved without condition. And when you ask, “Where are you?” give us the courage to answer honestly. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Notice the Gaze
Today, notice the times when you realize that someone is watching, judging, or assessing you. Maybe it happens during an online conversation. Maybe it comes up at work, when you feel expected to act a certain way. Maybe it’s when you post something on social media. Or maybe it’s that inner voice wondering how others see you.
Whenever you notice this happening, take a moment to pause and ask yourself: Who am I becoming under this gaze?
Then, consider a second question: What might I do differently if I believed I was cared for and trusted, instead of being watched?
At the end of your day, take ten minutes to be with someone you trust. Share something true with them. It doesn’t have to be impressive.
Remember, people don’t thrive just because someone is watching them.
We grow when we feel truly known.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
June 30, 2026, 12:30-1:30pmET - Book Club in The Commons - FREE - We are reading our next book, The Glorians by Terry Tempest Williams. We will meet each Tuesday for 6 weeks. It’s such great fun. I hope you will be a part. All are welcome! RSVP HERE.
July 14, 11:00 - 12:30pm ET - Community Conversation on The Commons - Margaret Wheatley will be joining me for a conversation on how we build “islands of sanity” in a world that feels increasingly fragile. She has identified five pillars in the architecture of resilient community. For those of us wishing to form and be in healthy community with others in this time, you don’t want to miss this conversation. REGISTER HERE.
September 8, 2026, 7-9pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - I’ll be hosting a powerful online gathering on The Black Madonna: Sacred Wisdom for a World in Crisis with Matthew Fox, Alessandra Belloni, and Christena Cleveland. We will explore the Black Madonna as a symbol of resilience, liberation, sacred feminine wisdom, and healing in a fractured world through conversation, story, music, and spiritual reflection. If you feel drawn toward a deeper encounter with the Divine Feminine and the ancient traditions that continue to nourish movements for justice and wholeness, I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
June 29, 2026, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
My friends over at Spiritual Wanderlust have some of the coolest classes. One I am particularly drawn to is their Celtic Spirituality School where you get to learn from people like John Philip Newell, Ilia Delio, Carl McColman, Sharon Blackie, and more. Read more about their program.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/28/government-website-visitor-tracking-surveillance-fears
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), Part Three, Chapter 3, “Panopticism,” pp. 195–228.
Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (New York: Harper & Row, 1973).
Rev. Trimble, thank you for this set of questions. At my age, 80, I don't worry too much about being watched. Maybe that makes me a "normie". What feels worse is that I do feel that I have to watch. So often I have seen humans swirl and follow the man who shouts, "Follow me!", often to their ultimate regret. All moreso now with the introduction of AI. So I am wary of those who say they have answers, and much more willing and open to listen to, even eventually trust, those who say they have questions.