{"id":1097,"date":"2012-07-18T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/fearofwhales\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2012-07-01T17:32:31","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T22:32:31","slug":"luddites-for-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2012\/07\/luddites-for-jesus.html","title":{"rendered":"Luddites for Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you heard about the recent study about how people are increasingly disconnected from each other because of the Facebook and txting? Or how traffic accidents are up because people are Twittering while driving? And attendance at church is down because the kids these days can\u2019t tear themselves away from Worlds or Warcraft.<\/p>\n

Our lives today are filled with noise, we are constantly stimulated with our phones and out computers and our GPS devices, we are becoming disconnected from the spiritual world and from one another because when we are always tied in to the digital world we lose the ability to be fully present.<\/p>\n

We need to find ways to \u201cunplug\u201d from out electronic idols. And escape from our digital addictions so that we can reconnect with God in nature.\"Unplug\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s where God is, right?<\/p>\n

In nature?<\/p>\n

God\u2019s not on the internet.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to deny that there are people who have legitimate problems with technology replacing social interaction, or who worship their iPhones, or who have legitimate addictions to computer gaming. But its my opinion that fro the most part, those people would be screwed up anyway<\/em>. It\u2019s not technology\u2019s fault<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I also won\u2019t deny that it would be deeply transformative to people to live without technology for a while but argue that many of the more escapist and distracting technologies are actually older. Clocks for instance only became so prominent and accurate as they are now because of the Railroad industry in the US. They are not inherent to the spirituality of the ancient near east. Date books are not new, but neither are they inherent. And escapist fantasy stories predate WoW by eons.<\/p>\n

If you are having difficulty connecting with Jesus. It\u2019s because you are sinful fallen and broken, not because you have a smartphone. And the missional call of God is not to run away from it\u2019s secularness but to redeem even this new technological space, <\/p>\n

Genesis 28:16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard about the recent study about how people are increasingly disconnected from each other because of the Facebook and txting? Or how traffic accidents are up because people are Twittering while driving? And attendance at church is down because the kids these days can\u2019t tear themselves away from Worlds or Warcraft. Our lives…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":391,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLuddites for Jesus - A Fear of Whales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fearofwhales\/2012\/07\/luddites-for-jesus.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luddites for Jesus - A Fear of Whales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you heard about the recent study about how people are increasingly disconnected from each other because of the Facebook and txting? 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