The Technology That Changed the Family, the World, and the Church

THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CHANGED

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FAMILY, THE CHURCH, AND THE WORLD

Dan.12: ⁴ But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

There are some of us whose life has seen many significant changes in this world. This is no nostalgic sentimentality, nor is it a “life used to be better in the 50’s” opining. But so many things have changed over the last 50 years including attitudes, morals, the family, wealth, and yes, the church. Like lightning things have been ushered in that altered our perception of reality, and certainly our perception of truth.

These changes have not just chipped away at our understanding of life itself, but these changes have set in motion a colossal metamorphosis of the mind, the soul, and the spirit. And even though it was a day by day process, still the transformation was remarkable in its velocity and revolutionary it its cultural alteration. In essence, in a little over fifty years technology has been leveraged to completely capture the masses and lead us away from what we knew and practiced and into a dramatic realm which increasingly rejects that which seems old and demands that which is new.

And so the culture became fluid and exciting. But in the midst of all this revelry certain things began to be seen as too intransigent and thereby must give way to the rising tide of the new way. And as the culture changed and moved on, so did the world. And as the world changed, so did the church. Sometimes the change was gradual, but sometimes it was overnight. But no one could deny that change had not only come, it was now a continuing way of life.

And as the title of this post indicates, certain technologies were instrumental in leveraging this change. Yes it was electricity, and yes it was radio, and yes it was the automobile, but perhaps the greatest and most profound instrument of change has been the invention and the proliferation of the television. It is this invention which many thought would soon die out that has taken hold of the minds and hearts of men and guided and formed their thoughts and opinions with subtlety and creative genius until everything had been impacted by its alluring and persuasive communication.

And it wasn’t just the communication itself, but it was the communication along with the consumption of time which made television the life changing force it is today. It is the supreme taskmaster which cries out like a multitude of Geek sirens and imprisons all who turn to listen. There is nothing that has changed the culture like television, and nothing like television has dictated what people think and believe. How clever to concentrate on the eye gate and add the ear gate and add the element of time. We now could do almost anything while watching television. And advances in color and clarity and sound only made it that much more alluring. And at the beginning it was at least a time where the family gathered together, but soon with more and more channels more television were scattered around the house which separated the family and even allowed teenagers to watch things they should not. Yes, what was probably an innocuous piece of technology had now become a full blown source that divided families, mesmerized minds, and produced the perceptions and truth which the producers themselves hold. And it all made sense. In fact it was so persuasive that many times you were affected most by what you watched last.

Well this phenomenon continued for decades, and at first the church resisted, but eventually the church crumbled under the weight of this technology. And late in the 1940s some evangelists used television to preach the gospel. It was expensive but souls were saved. But somewhere in the 1950s there arose a phenomenon called “Christian television” when evangelism was no longer the motivation, but now speaking to believers was the focus. And that phenomenon continued to grow until some professing Christians actually purchased entire stations and by suggesting to onlookers that God wanted them to help “spread the gospel” they raised incredible funds to purchase these stations. Today there are scores of Christian stations and hundreds of Christian programs. And millions upon millions of dollars are raised whereby thousands of men and women have become unbelievably wealthy. It has become a lucrative business where a small portion goes to helping people and the portion that does is recorded and shown in order to raise more. Sadly, the unsaved world’s assessment of Christian television is painfully accurate.

But through this portal we call television the church has been deceived and led astray from truth and the Person of Jesus Christ. And the secular part of television has stolen time from believers until prayer is a lesson in history and Bible meditation is embarrassing. The spiritual lives of believers have dwindled down to a convenience if in fact most even have a spiritual life. The time and dedication to television has drained the life and power from the church, and the preachers are complicit in the plan. Truth lies in the streets and the demands of a hedonistic lifestyle have allowed any spiritual practices to wither on the vine.

And not only do believers watch television asif they were worshiping an idol, but millions upon millions of evangelical church members watch what obviously must displease the Lord and offend the Spirit. Professing believers open their eyes and hearts to almost unbelievable violence, cursing, and sex on television or the movie theatres. There are all kinds of excuses and rationales that are presented, but none can hold up to Biblical scrutiny. And all this has come through the technology of television. Yes now pornography has come alive through the internet, but the church has been readied through the systematic brainwashing of television and the demands of time through the same.

And if we can see these changes with an overall view of the past fifty years we must see how devastating and prolific they are. And words like these seem so outdated and archaic. But yet the church and its hirelings continue to drum up new ideas and new activities and new and innovative sermons that at least engender a Sunday morning’s hour long interest. And with the creation of the half hour sitcom and the hour long reality programs along with the age of the remote, the attention span of the average believer has been reduced to minutes. And now with being trained to multi-task believers can sit and listen to the preacher while doing mental assessments of an assortment of other things.

Slowly but ever so surely the depth of the Christian faith once delivered to the saints dripped away until the shallowness we now see is embraced as orthodox. And the compromise has been so dramatic that many caricatures of Jesus are taught and embraced throughout the evangelical community. And in almost every congregation people have their preacher/teacher heroes they have seen on television or have been pulled in by their attractive books and teaching guides. But how many believers pray more than they watch television? How many read God’s Word more than they watch television? How many witness more? In fact how many of us do anything more than we watch television? Quite an indictment on us all.

So what should we now do? What should be our course of action? Perhaps more penetrating is what would the Spirit have us to do? That which could have been used for good has become an idol and has been brought right into the church. And most of what is on “Christian” television is comical, worthless, carnal, and many times bizarre. But even if there were no Christian television at all, and even if believers did not subject their eyes to inappropriate programs, the television still shapes people’s minds and instigates hatred and hubris in people’s hearts. So many believers walk with disdain and even hatred in their hearts for liberals because they have lent their ears to unwholesome words coming from the television or sometimes the radio.

And I do not believe the church has the spiritual tenacity to seek God with all our hearts and to allow the Spirit to break up the fallow ground. In fact, I do not believe the church even desires to change at all. The road we now walk is way too comfortable and self affirming to elicit any desire to seek a change. Let all things remain as they are and continue to go down the path called apostasy. And at the end the fallen angels will sing our requiem complete with upbeat music and colorful overheads and large debt ridden buildings. Perhaps they will make a CD of that event and give it to professing believers for a seed faith gift.