AT the heart of a religious faith is the conviction that in the end there will be no hiding place. In an ancient Christian prayer, still often used at the beginning of worship, God is described as the one to whom all hearts are open and all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hidden.

Christ warned that there was nothing that had been done in the dark that would not be revealed in the daylight.
Religiously it is clear enough: there are no secrets from God.
But what happens when we leave the realm of religion and think about our relationship with the state.
It looks as though it will not be many years now before our biometric details are held on a national database.
The support of our parliamentarians was gained with assurance that this information was being held for our good.
This meant that the data would be used for limited purposes, only under supervision and for the purpose of resisting terrorism and reducing crime and fraud.
Now, however, a debate has opened up. Government is saying that the purposes have not been widened; opposition parties are not so sure, making much of the fact that recent speeches have opened up further ‘benefits’ (and therefore opportunities) that can be derived from holding this information.
And there, precisely, is the problem. Once the information is held, it will become attractive to use it in some new context and for some new purpose.
Indeed, it will arguably become the state’s duty to use the material to combat some new menace, real or imagined.
Uses that are off limits now will become the duty of those whose task in Government is to protect the citizen from crime or terror.
Describing God as the one from whom we can have no secrets does indeed say something very important about God, and about the judgement we shall all face.
But describing God in that way is also saying that God is uniquely the one to whom secrets are known, uniquely to be trusted with knowing us totally.
In God’s hands such data is used only for our good and God’s loving purposes; in human hands we cannot be sure what use will be thought of next.
So take care: what people know of you may be used against you.