Technology Danger: Proceed with Caution

Hello Home Schoolers, 

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something.  Now that things are quieting down around Basic Skills, I do have something.  The cultural shift we’re seeing is huge. I don’t think it’s something we’re going to see change as much as we wish once “the other guys” are in office politically. The issues we’re facing that are impacting all of us as well as our children go deeper. Technology is playing an undeniable role.  

Below is an excerpt from a new Christian who previously was known for his social and environmental activism. As a writer, his ideas have received extensive distribution in both the UK and internationally. He’d probably fit nicely in to the progressive category if you’re into categories.  

As a new Christian, his perspectives and concerns may seem to be a little over the top. Jarring.  I would say that as a new Christian, he’s looking at the world through a fresh lens. If we’re put off by what he says, it could be that we have simply become accustomed to the way things are. The shock of what is going on has worn off.   

From an interview he did with Mere Orthodoxy Paul Kingsnorth says the following:

I’m quite passionate in a quite fanatical way about the fact that technology is quite demonic at this point— I mean in a literal sense. Things are coming through these screens that are not good things. And you can see that particularly when you see the way that children are addicted to technology — but not just children, so are their parents. You can see the stuff that pornography is doing to kids, and indeed adults. 

This is quite dark stuff, and it is quite literally from realms we shouldn’t be messing with, in a Christian sense, I would say. So what’s the Church going to do about that? What’s the Church’s attitude, and what is generally Christianity’s attitude? Because it’s not just an Orthodox question, it’s a Christian question. What is Christianity’s attitude to this quite Luciferic technological web that we have around us now, that tempts us with all these good things and then corrupts our soul in really significant ways? 

I think a lot of the madness in our culture has come directly from social media, it’s come directly through people’s smartphones. We wouldn’t have this kind of insane culture war that we’ve got going on if it wasn’t for smartphones — guaranteed, it would not be there, or at least it would be there at a much lower level. It wouldn’t be anything like as crazy as it is now. 

And we wouldn’t have some of this really dangerous stuff going into the heads of children. Children in this generation are so confused — they don’t know what their gender is, they don’t know what they’re supposed to think about anything, they have access to all sorts of stuff that they should absolutely not be seeing on phones. My kids don’t have [smart]phones, and neither do I, and you know, and if there’s one thing a Christian could do to resist the trend it would be to throw their smartphone in the river. Although that would not be good for the river, so maybe just burn it or something. 

You know, it’s a serious point. I think that that’s the question for me now: What are churches going to do, what are Christians going to do about where technology is going to take us? What do we start doing when artificial intelligence really comes online, and the metaverse becomes a bigger thing than it is now? What do we do about that? What’s the spiritual attitude, what does that represent symbolically in Christian mythology? Is that just okay? Is that just the wonders of science? Because it seems to me it’s like eating the apple all over again every day. It’s following what the serpent tells you; it’s Cain rather than Abel. As I say, it’s quite demonic. And I don’t really know what to do about that. But there’s a sense, in my mind, that if anybody’s got it right, the Amish have got it right, in their intelligent attitude to technology — not that I’m an expert on the Amish, but just from what I know of them, that kind of critical attitude. And you mentioned Wendell Berry — he’s probably the best example of a Christian thinker who knows about this stuff. He’s thought about it for a long time, and so had Ivan Illich, so had Jacques Ellul, whom I’ve written about recently as well. So it might be time to start rediscovering these people, because it’s not like this critique hasn’t been made, but it’s getting more urgent now. And I think that’s the big challenge for Christians so that they don’t get sucked into this dark thing pretending to be light. 

Whatever you think about all the details of his point of view, at the very least he makes one thing very clear. The era of neutrality is over. Time to take a stand for our children’s sake and be willing to express it to them and those who will listen.

Curt Bumcrot, MRE