“The Efficient Gospel”
The way technology works now means that the younger generations cannot work outside of this efficient and immediate needs. These values are completely contrary to what the Gospel teaches. These social “virtues” makes it harder to relate to God because God requires patience. With the technology progressing to rapidly into faster and faster ways of communicating.
Ironically, this rapidly progressing communications actually breaks down what we really need from these electronic means of communication. Most of the communications made face to face actually lasts. However, when communication came from e-mail, it broke down much quicker than the relationships that were made face to face.
This is very clear in the way that people talk and communicate today. Instead of calling someone, I can text or facebook them easier and when I do that I do not even need to spend the time waiting for an answer. I can go about my day, and if they message me back, that's great. But if they do not, it is not a big deal.
Technology can be completely ruining everything that we have worked so hard on. The main problem with technology is that it is a great resource. However, we cannot rely on technology to get us everywhere we need to go. When it comes down to it, it is the face to face communication that bring us closer to the ones around us and also helps us to follow the Gospel.
The Gospel of Society is that if it is easy and quick and makes you feel good, then it is good for you and you should continue living that way. However, nothing in the Gospel of Christ points to life being quick, easy, or even efficient. The Gospels teaches us that we must be patient in order to reach a more perfect goal than the ones we set for ourselves. The Gospels teaches us that love is more than just feeling, it's an expression of self-giving life that cares more about the person you love than of yourself.
In order to live out Christ's Gospel then is to understand that technology is great when used properly. Technology can be an amazing resource to have, when used properly. However, it is when technology is all we use that we lose what it means to be human and to have people around us actually be with us emotionally and not just physically sitting next to you and yet not having any interactions with each other. Texting and e-mails have given us a whole new way to communicate because it requires significantly less emotional involvement. I could easily text someone something and not expect for an opener or a closer or any depth other than the question they are asking. However, if you call or actually take the time to meet with someone face to face, then there are many social customs that you have to follow in order to not be rude.
Links to Podcast that I listened to that this post was written in response to:
http://thirdway.strangeidealabs.com/audio/Efficient%20Gospel.mp3
feed://thirdway.strangeidealabs.com/audio/podcast.xml Episode #17
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