The following post is adapted from my book Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age. You can order the book from Amazon, Crossway, and anywhere else books are sold. Evangelical Christians in the West today sense that the ambient culture has changed dramatically over the past few decades. The moral language that was commonplace in schools, workplaces, and town halls just fifty years ago is not only absent but considered hateful, even treasonous. We know this, and our preaching, teaching, writing, and evangelism often reflect a sober awareness of our post-Christian situation. At the same time, however, many evangelicals struggle to understand how the situation has been transformed so quickly. Ideas about gender identity that were strictly the domain of far-left bastions in higher education just a decade ago are now topics of conversation among pastors and parents in middle America.
Spiritually on target as ever! As a Christian teenager who by God's Grace did no drugs, I actually remember the 1960s! (Remember the slogan: if you remember the 60's you weren't there...) I even remember the Whole Earth Catalog! We are now living with the consequences of that era, but thank and praise God He is still Sovereign Lord!
My father used to subscribe to the Whole Earth Catalog. I thought it was a benign, earthy, do-it-yourself magazine. I had no idea it spoke directly to using technology to be gods. For most of my life I would have loved that idea. Today I am horrified. The pastor of my church has never recorded his sermons for the internet. People in the church keep telling him he needs to stop resisting the times. Now I have a clearer understanding of why I love his choice.
Thank you! I appreciate your thoughtful take on these subjects and agree this has been reacted to in the church much more than responded to. Keep it up!
"The primary medium through which we encounter most of the world" is a bold claim.
But I certainly think you're on to something by identifying technology as a catalyst for our disembodied perception of what it means to be human, and our culture's elevation of "gender" over "sex" is a good example.
The printing press helped bring about the Reformation 500 years ago People were able to read the bible themselves and other Reformation propaganda, and that was a good thing. Not all effects of technology are negative, if you look at it from the long historical point of view.
Spiritually on target as ever! As a Christian teenager who by God's Grace did no drugs, I actually remember the 1960s! (Remember the slogan: if you remember the 60's you weren't there...) I even remember the Whole Earth Catalog! We are now living with the consequences of that era, but thank and praise God He is still Sovereign Lord!
My father used to subscribe to the Whole Earth Catalog. I thought it was a benign, earthy, do-it-yourself magazine. I had no idea it spoke directly to using technology to be gods. For most of my life I would have loved that idea. Today I am horrified. The pastor of my church has never recorded his sermons for the internet. People in the church keep telling him he needs to stop resisting the times. Now I have a clearer understanding of why I love his choice.
Thank you! I appreciate your thoughtful take on these subjects and agree this has been reacted to in the church much more than responded to. Keep it up!
"The primary medium through which we encounter most of the world" is a bold claim.
But I certainly think you're on to something by identifying technology as a catalyst for our disembodied perception of what it means to be human, and our culture's elevation of "gender" over "sex" is a good example.
Great analysis. The Internet has also brought porn into easy reach for all, including kids.
This is brilliant. I would love a part two on how we are to stay vigilant in our faith.
The printing press helped bring about the Reformation 500 years ago People were able to read the bible themselves and other Reformation propaganda, and that was a good thing. Not all effects of technology are negative, if you look at it from the long historical point of view.