The World Gives No Quarter: Vigilance for Christian Families

 

[Image courtesy of Nadine Doerle, open source]

There was a time when American Evangelicals thought it would be possible to run our institutions parallel to their secular counterparts. We have established Christian schools, Christian universities, Christian businesses, Christian banks, Christian health shares, all in an effort to live in ways that align with our values and commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

But modern technology renders it nearly impossible to reduce or eliminate the influence of the world on Christian families. Your children can spend every waking moment inside of Christian institutions, but if they have an internet connection, they will be assaulted by the world. That assault will come through channels we've considered before, such as TV programming or music. But much more likely, and far more spiritually (and at times physically) dangerous, it will come through social media. 

For worse, social media today is the single greatest influence on our country, on the social and moral formation of our children, and on cultural development. And that influence is profoundly negative and depressing. 

Now I am aware of the irony of this situation. I write this on a blog, and most of my readers will read it by following a link shared via social media. Such is the reality of modern life. You have to fight the battle on the battlefield where the fighting is taking place. 

The point is it is nearly impossible to shelter your children. Yes, you can restrict what they watch (and you should do so). You can limit the places where they spend time. But unless we prohibit entirely their contact with social media, we cannot eliminate the worldly influence that WILL come through it. 

By "worldly influence" I don't predominately mean popular movies, music, or even advertisements. I mean social media culture. Social media culture is a distinct subculture, if not the dominant subculture, of American life. And it will enculturate you and your children into an irrational world of emoting, randomness, superficial relationships, and disconnectedness. It will give the illusion of emotional connection to others while making the reality of such connection impossible.

I write this based on experience. I routinely have young men tell me they have "girlfriends" they have never met, and are in "relationships" mediated entirely over social media. And I think these relationships are substantively different than the long-distance relationships of the past carried on via letters. Neil Postman famously argued you cannot separate the medium from the message. We are trying to use the medium of social media for messages it is incapable of truly conveying. The result is a severe disconnect between intent and reality. The more people depend on social media to convey messages it is not capable of conveying, the greater that disconnect becomes and the more harmful to our psyche the result. 

Social media, in its essence, is a denial of the human soul. It effectively says the message can be divorced from the person conveying it and the person to whom it is conveyed. It says there is nothing more to the message than what is written or filmed or photographed, and it says this by promising a level of connection that it simply cannot deliver. Remember that websites like Facebook are designed, and they are designed for certain purposes. What is that purpose? According to Mark Zuckerberg, “We want to help 1 billion people join meaningful communities. If we can do this it will not only reverse the whole decline in community membership we’ve seen around the world… but it will also strengthen our social fabric and bring the world closer together.” This stated purpose, however, is self-defeating; social media doesn't reduce social isolation and may actually increase depression and anxiety. 

I'm not saying that you should never let your kids on the internet or use any form of social media. Being conversant with technology is necessary to function in our broader society. I am saying we need to exercise careful vigilance with respect to how our kids use social media, what apps they have on their phones and other devices, and how much of their life is mediated through a screen. Further, we must carefully watch what effect all of this is having on their heart. Jesus said where our treasure is, there our heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). 

What I am really saying is the most concerning impact of social media is how it enculturates us. What does it teach us to think about relationships, about communication, about entertainment, about what really matters in life? Social media is answering those questions for your children, and the answers it is teaching are not good. Social media lies to us about human nature, about what it means to relate to one another, and about what is ultimately important in life. And it doesn't tell this lie with explicit banners or nihilistic memes (though those exist). It tells this lie by teaching us to behave in a certain way, by teaching us to crave likes, notifications, and attention. It tells this lie by consuming time that should otherwise be spent in vigorous activity, in face-to-face relationships, and in true communion with God and with one another. 

My parting thought is this:  Social media often makes us think it is the most important thing in our lives. Yet it provides no means of relating to God, and indeed it *cannot* do so. If we aren't careful, unmitigated and thoughtless social media use leads us to practical atheism. 

Fortuitous Friday - Communism as a Failed System

 

[Photo of a mural in Havana, Cuba; C/O Yerson Oliveres, open source]

President Joe Biden is making headlines for calling communism a universally failed system. He further noted that socialism is not an attractive substitute.

This is just too delicious to pass up. On the one hand, many of Biden's critics and supporters view him as a stepping stone on the path to socialism. For Biden to say what he did will no doubt delight conservatives who see the gaping fracture within American liberalism. It will also isolate the far left of his own party, including the so-called "Squad." 

However, we should not take this commentary with too much optimism. Biden was none too quick to strongly denounce the repressive and tyrannical regime of Cuba and his denunciation now is undoubtedly a political calculation. It has taken the near-collapse of the Cuban regime for US Democrats to awaken to the reality they need to stop flirting with communism. And so far many Democrats still have not recognized that reality. Bernie Sanders and AOC seem to think the US embargo on Cuba is to blame for the suffering of Cubans. This is a firm reminder that the people screaming most loudly about oppression have no idea what it is, where it comes from, or how to deal with it. 

This is also a real opportunity for us as a country to transcend political division and re-articulate the principles of government for which the people of Cuba now protest. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves and our fellow citizens of the natural law. The people of Cuba are created equal, equal to their government officials, and equal to all other people. The people of Cuba, like all people, are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Those rights have been infringed upon by a tyrannical communist government for far too long. In other communist states, like China, the rights of even more people continue to be brutally infringed upon. And the specter of communism or socialism remains a grim possibility of our own political future in the USA. We must remind ourselves that our republic is not self-sustaining, it must be purposefully maintained. We must know our principles and ideals, and we must deliberately pass them on to each new generation. We have too often failed to do this, and the result is a generation that doesn't know if we should support the Cuban protests or why we should do so. 

At the end of the day, it's nice that a Democratic president called communism a universally failed system and Cuba a failed state. But it's not enough. The real work is to be done in raising each generation up to fulfill its civic duty; and as Christians, we must do that in a way that honors Christ above all. We are watching the failures of communism before our very eyes, let us not waste the opportunity.