This Douglas Wilson quote about the use of technology reminds me of how to approach the commercial brouhaha that erupts each year in December. Rejecting the abuse of a thing doesn’t mean you have to, always, reject the thing. Enjoy your eggnog and what not this Christmas. Be especially and sacrificially generous to the poor as well. But do not think that having a dowdy demeanour in some way gives you the monopoly on the meaning and significance of Christmas. The sin is not, necessarily, in your gifts under the tree, it is in your heart and will remain there regardless of how full or empty your stocking is on December 25th.
The Bible contains no warnings about technology as such, but is crammed with warnings about the bias of wealth. Which way does wealth set us up? The Bible says that the wealthy are tempted to hubris, self-sufficiency, lack of concern for the poor, oppression, and the rest of that sorry lot. Wealth is a good thing, but it brings temptations. A lot of wealth is a lot of a good thing, but it brings with it a lot of temptations.
…
We have always had worriers. Plato worried about the written word. At the birth of the modern era, others worried about the typeset word. Now we worry about the digitized word. And, let it be said, the worriers always have a point. There are always examples of folly that they can point to, and they are not making it up. But the fact that you are not making up the bad examples does not mean that you are fitting those bad examples into the right paradigm of interpretation.
…
The constant and ever present temptation in the Church is the gnostic temptation of locating sin in the stuff, sin in the matter, sin in the wealth, sin in the technology . . . instead of locating it where it belongs, in the heart of man.
Another post by Wilson summarises the matter well. Go overboard! Jesus did, for you!
One Response to Commercialism, schmercialism!