Some years ago I read a book by Neil Postman on the good and bad of technology. Our society has become so saturated and dominated by technology that now our quiet times are often interupted by the cell phone as our young people talk and text message a friend at the same time they are supposed to be talking to us. Life is a hundred times faster with lightening speed from the computer to the microwave. Keeping busy has become a virtue and if one slows down before our fast paced culture, one may very well get run over by everyone else.
Families stay a part longer and communicate face to face less. Our lives have become monopolized by technology or what I call technopoly. It becomes less and less clear whether man controls techonology or technology controls man. One group of people I thought very peculiar and strange as a young minister were the Almish.
If some people think Christians are crazy, how about those who refuse to enter the modern world of techonology, dress in black, and ride in a buggy or horse drawn carriages? What seemed bizaare and crazy to me as a young minister seems more stunning and powerful now as an older one. The Almish sense of tight community, strong families, divorce is unheard of, and faith and life coincide together in a ways we see no where else!
Who would of ever thought that techonology can corrupt our morals and character? Wasn't techonology supposed to be nuetral? But we all bought into the lie. Because of techonology we sleep less and do more. We are only now coming to terms with a media driven world and a television dominated society. We more and more are listening to the seductive voices that use technology that tell us constantly to go to places we should not be going to, buying things we do not need, and listening to people we should not be listening to.
Even the church has transformed worship into a media form of entertainment. It is becoming more common for churches to reduce doctrine to sound bites and Christian worship transformed into a media production. If the medium is the message, what kind of faith are we passing on in our media saturated church culture? Does our media driven life contradict the gospel and at this point, do we even care?
Families stay a part longer and communicate face to face less. Our lives have become monopolized by technology or what I call technopoly. It becomes less and less clear whether man controls techonology or technology controls man. One group of people I thought very peculiar and strange as a young minister were the Almish.
If some people think Christians are crazy, how about those who refuse to enter the modern world of techonology, dress in black, and ride in a buggy or horse drawn carriages? What seemed bizaare and crazy to me as a young minister seems more stunning and powerful now as an older one. The Almish sense of tight community, strong families, divorce is unheard of, and faith and life coincide together in a ways we see no where else!
Who would of ever thought that techonology can corrupt our morals and character? Wasn't techonology supposed to be nuetral? But we all bought into the lie. Because of techonology we sleep less and do more. We are only now coming to terms with a media driven world and a television dominated society. We more and more are listening to the seductive voices that use technology that tell us constantly to go to places we should not be going to, buying things we do not need, and listening to people we should not be listening to.
Even the church has transformed worship into a media form of entertainment. It is becoming more common for churches to reduce doctrine to sound bites and Christian worship transformed into a media production. If the medium is the message, what kind of faith are we passing on in our media saturated church culture? Does our media driven life contradict the gospel and at this point, do we even care?
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