: A Critique of the Left • By George Orwell is a book that is used as a critique of the Trumpian right, and it is more of a scathing indictment of the left than it is of the right. • Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a book that is all about the impact of TV and entertainment on American and Western culture. It predicts that politics and religion will be the two areas of society that will be the most damaged by TV and entertainment culture.
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I know I’m late to the party, and I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I just finally got around to reading 1984 by George Orwell, which was, it lived up to all of the hype. And, you know, I’ve been hearing, we’ve been hearing a lot about it over the last few years since the election, and I, my reading of it, I was shocked that it’s used as a critique of the Trumpian Right. To me, it felt far more like a scathing indictment of the left, which as far as I can tell was Orwell’s intent, a dystopian communist version of England. And one of my favorite, I say that, because one of my favorite cultural commentary books of all time don’t read this, it’s crazy depressing, and it has no hope for the future. But, is this little book from 1985 by the professor Neil Postman called Amusing Ourselves to Death, which is all about the impact of TV and entertainment on American and Western culture. Chilling Reed, fascinating side note, his two areas of society that he predicted in the 80s would be the most damaged by TV and entertainment culture was politics and religion. In politics, he predicted that TV celebrities would replace intelligentThe Effect of Smartphones on Attention Span • The average user is on his or her phone for two and a half hours over 76 sessions. • This is across the board for all smartphone users. • If you did the data and you just do millennials on iPhones, it’s five and a half hours a day over twice the time. • Harris points out that slot machines, this is a weird factoid, make more money than the entire film industry and baseball together. • The reason, which is how weird is that? Because one, it’s addictive. Once you start, you can’t stop. Two, it’s small amounts of money. It’s like a quarter here, a buck there, five bucks. • Why are you at the airport in Reno or whatever? I don’t know. Just a long time ago. I remember I was there and there was a slot machine. I was like 12. I did not do anything. But whatever. • You think, oh, it’s just a buck here. It’s just five bucks there. It’s just a few quarters there. And all of the sudden, all of your money is gone. • And Harris just makes the point that in the same way we lose so much time in the black hole of the device. It’s not just time. Some of us have time to burn. I don’t. Most of us do. But far more importantly, we lose our capacity to pay attention.
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The average user is on his or her phone for two and a half hours over 76 sessions. That is across the board for all this not iPhones. That’s just all smartphone users. If you did the data and you just do millennials on iPhones, it’s five and a half hours a day over twice the time. Harris points out that slot machines, this is a weird factoid, slot machines alone make more money than the entire film industry and baseball together. The reason, which is how weird is that? Because one, it’s addictive. Once you start, you can’t stop. Two, it’s small amounts of money. It’s like a quarter here, a buck there, five bucks. Why are you at the airport in Reno or whatever? I don’t know. Just a long time ago. I remember I was there and there was a slot machine. I was like 12. I did not do anything. But whatever. You think, oh, it’s just a buck here. It’s just five bucks there. It’s just a few quarters there. And all of the sudden, all of your money is gone. And Harris just makes the point that in the same way we lose so much time in the black hole of the device. It’s not just time. Some of us have time to burn. I don’t. Most of us do. But far more importantly, we lose our capacity to pay attention. It was Edith Wharton, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, who a century ago coined the phrase, the power of sustained attention as she was railing about the threat Of this new technology called radio and how it was destroying the West’s capacity to think well. Very few of us have the power of sustained attention. In fact, like I read one article not that long ago that said our attention span is dropping with each passing year, no surprise. In 2000, before the digital revolution, it was 12 seconds for the average American, which I thought 12 seconds.Sustained Attention: The Threat to Our Soul • Sustained attention is important for our spiritual life. • The power of sustained attention is being threatened by the complexity of the globalized modern world.
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So I’m not, I’m okay with the modern world. I love Apple music. Can you imagine a life without maps? Can you, can you just terrify it? I can’t even fathom a life without maps or how I would live if I was not aware of the weather. But a dropping capacity for attention is a giant problem. For our society as a whole, think of the political mess we’re in, the complexity of the globalized modern world, and demands the power of sustained attention just to get your head around It, much less to formulate an actual perspective that is more than an easy, lazy hashtag of slander. But the greater threat is to our soul, not just to our emotional health or to our capacity, you know, just to kind of live at ease in our own body and personality and healthy and happy, as If that’s not enough of a reason, but even more importantly to our spiritual life, which again, that’s easy to sentimentalize that language. We defined it a few weeks ago as our capacity to receive and give love in relationship with God and other people. Without the power of sustained attention, in all honesty, we can’t have a spiritual life.David’s stance on other gods • David will not worship other gods. • He respects and models his life after those dedicated to God. • David acknowledges that those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. • He will not make sacrifices to such gods or even mention their names.
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First, what he will not do, verse 3. I look at the people that are holy, that are dedicated to God. They are the ones I respect, I look up to, I delight, I model my life after. Those who run after other gods, the opposite, they will suffer more and more compound interest over a lifetime. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods. That means make a sacrifice as was the custom. I won’t even take up their names on my lips. First, David says he will not go after the gods of his day and age. He’s smart enough to realize that those who do quote will suffer more and more. Notice he doesn’t say will suffer at the hand of God. Careful not to read that kind of a view of God into the text. Could be what he’s saying, but I would argue it’s far more likely they will suffer more and more at the hands of the very gods, the people worship. I think of David Foster Wallace’s line from his commencement speech at Kenyon when he’s talking about that famous speech, if you know it, he’s talking about how there’s no such thing As atheism, how we all worship, follower of Jesus, Buddhist, atheist, all people worship. The question is who or what do you worship? And he just makes the point that if you don’t worship something spiritual like Jesus or Yahweh, that quote pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. And then he just goes on to talk about you worship money, this is what I’ll do to you.Living as a Counterculture: How Christians Don’t Conform to the Secular City • Christians in the Roman Empire compromised after the worship of Jesus was legalized. • It’s easy to get colonized by secular culture. • Christians are a counterculture. • Christians live in the culture of the kingdom of God. • Christians don’t do money, power, or sexuality the way the city does.
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We’re just Portlanders who like sprinkled the Holy Spirit dust on top or something. And it’s easy like many Christians in the Roman Empire after the worship of Jesus was legalized to compromise. To get, we’ve used this language before to get colonized by secular culture, to get comfortable, to fit in, to settle in, to get numb, to sear your conscience and the language of the New Testament with sin. And to forget, oh my gosh, we are a counterculture. That doesn’t mean that we’re better than the city or that we think we’re better or that we have it all together. Not all what it means. It just means we don’t live the way that the city lives. We live in another culture, that of the kingdom of God. So we don’t do money the way that the city does money. How many of you like secular friends are really into tithing? I’m guessing none of them. You’re like, my Christian friends aren’t into tithing. Exactly. We don’t do power the way that the city does power. We definitely do not do sexuality the way the city does. Oh my gosh, cosmic difference. With that, we don’t do identity. The way that we think about identity and what makes us very different from that of our city. We don’t do relationships like our city does where you kind of hit or miss and it’s consumeristic and when there’s things you move on, we just know we don’t remotely do. Again, that’s not to say we’re better or we have it all together.How Christians Differ from the World in Tithing, Sexuality, Identity, and Relationships • Christians do not follow the same practices as their city in areas such as tithing, power, sexuality, identity, and relationships. • Christians are a counterculture. • David emphasizes putting trust in God for safety and security.
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I’m guessing none of them. You’re like, my Christian friends aren’t into tithing. Exactly. We don’t do power the way that the city does power. We definitely do not do sexuality the way the city does. Oh my gosh, cosmic difference. With that, we don’t do identity. The way that we think about identity and what makes us very different from that of our city. We don’t do relationships like our city does where you kind of hit or miss and it’s consumeristic and when there’s things you move on, we just know we don’t remotely do. Again, that’s not to say we’re better or we have it all together. We say we are a counterculture and we like the poet say I will not pour out libations. Meaning I will not give my life and my resources, of which time and attention are to, to the things and the kinds of things that the people all around me do. But then David goes on to say what he will do. Take a look at five. Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. All of my safety is in you. Boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. I have a delightful inheritance. This is an agrarian ancestral kind of economy where land was passed down to you. It’s basically him saying I have a good life as I think about it even in this time of chaos and I need to take refuge in you and I have fear and there’s secularism and corruption all around Me. But actually when I think about it, when I give it my attention, I have a really good life before you.Not pour out libations is a precursor to boundary linesThe Role of Attention in Receiving and Giving Love to God • Giving time and attention to God is necessary for receiving and giving love. • Attention is the portal to spiritual formation. • We become like what we worship.
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Time given over to attention on God is both how we receive God’s love coming toward us and what a few weeks ago we called contemplation as we look at God looking at us in love and as a result Are transformed into people of love. And it’s also how we give love back to God. We give Him our time. We give Him our attention. We just direct the inner gaze of our heart to look at Him looking at us in love. We give Him the first part of every day upon waking. We give Him the first part of every week on Sunday at church. Here’s our time. Here’s our attention. We give it over to you in love. And the more we do that, the more time we spend just sitting with our mind set on God, the more we index our heart toward love of God, and this is also how we set our soul on our trajectory to Become like God, which leads to my second point. Attention is the portal to our spiritual formation. As the saying goes, we become like what we worship. At a neurobiological level, as I understand it, that’s because what you give your attention to is the person you become.The Importance of Being Sober and Alert in the Age of Technology: Insights from a Media Critic • Distraction and addiction must be taken seriously by followers of Jesus and citizens of America. • We must learn from historical examples like Saint Benedict’s to avoid going down with the ship. • Technology should not be accepted as the natural order of things. • We must live sober, alert, and wise.
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Via distraction and addiction. I don’t have a Bible verse for this, but my deep settled conviction is that we have to take this seriously as followers of Jesus. Not to mention just as citizens of America, that a lot here is at stake. That light, the Saint Benedict’s and others who were living through the decline of Roman civilization and the corruption of the church, which in our days on now on the right and on the Left, we have to make sure that we don’t go down with the ship. Again, I don’t want to sound harbinger of doom, but we have to live sober and alert and wise. Postman, whom I referred to earlier, was a professor and a media critic, and in a later book, another famous book of his, called Technopoly, he wrote this, technology must never be accepted As the natural order of things. Every technology, from an IQ test, to an automobile, to a televisionTaking Technology Seriously as Followers of Jesus • Taking the decline of civilization and church corruption seriously is important for followers of Jesus and American citizens. • We need to avoid going down with the ship by being alert and wise. • Every technology has a specific economic and political context and carries a philosophy that requires scrutiny, criticism, and control.
Speaker 1
I don’t have a Bible verse for this, but my deep settled conviction is that we have to take this seriously as followers of Jesus. Not to mention just as citizens of America, that a lot here is at stake. That light, the Saint Benedict’s and others who were living through the decline of Roman civilization and the corruption of the church, which in our days on now on the right and on the Left, we have to make sure that we don’t go down with the ship. Again, I don’t want to sound harbinger of doom, but we have to live sober and alert and wise. Postman, whom I referred to earlier, was a professor and a media critic, and in a later book, another famous book of his, called Technopoly, he wrote this, technology must never be accepted As the natural order of things. Every technology, from an IQ test, to an automobile, to a television set, to a computer, is a product of a particular economic and political context and carries with it a program in agenda And a philosophy that may or may not be life enhancing and that therefore requires scrutiny, criticism, and control. We need to cultivate a healthy suspicion of technology.Cultivating Healthy Suspicion of Technology • Technology should be viewed with healthy suspicion. • Progress doesn’t always mean human or spiritual progress. • Newer and faster doesn’t necessarily mean better. • The Amish are selective and critical about the technology they allow in.
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We need to cultivate a healthy suspicion of technology. Technological and even economic progress does not necessarily equal human or spiritual progress as heretical as that sounds in the modern western world. Newer and faster does not mean it’s better. What looks like progression is often regression with an agenda. Others get rich and we get distracted and addicted. The Amish, you know, that we idolize, and I’m sure all sorts of weird ways, but are such an interesting case study in this. Who are, we often don’t think of them this way, but who are our brothers and sisters in Jesus in America? And it’s a common misconception that they are against all technology. They’re not. Go visit an Amish community in Pennsylvania or whatever, and you’ll see a horse and buggy with a chainsaw or something in the back. Maybe not a chainsaw. I think so. I can’t remember. Propane, whatever. I don’t know. And they’re actually just really selective and critical about what technology they allow in. When a new technology comes on the scene, rather than just adopt it with no suspicion or critical evaluation, they test it for, they evaluate it, they watch it for a little while from The sidelines. Like scientists in a lab, they let us volunteer for the human trial. Seriously, we are the lab rats. Then, after they watch us for a few years and see what a technology does to us, then they have a community-wide conversation and they discuss, will this new technology, the car, the phone, The computer, whatever it is, will it make our life better before God and together? Will it increase our love and our joy and our peace or not?What is it like to anticipate the need for a technology rather than seeing how it plays out in society first? The innovators have previously seen the effectsRules for Healthy Digital Device Use at Home • No phones at the dinner table. • Phone sleeps in a different room. • Television in different room than family room. • Create a living room focused on conversation. • Time limits on screens for kids. • Limited tablet apps to early childhood learning. • Only high quality television and movies. • One screen at a time. • No scrolling phone while watching TV. • Laptops only. • Avoid using screen time as a reward.
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Six, no phone at the dinner table. If I was writing that, it would be bold and in highlights and applied to communities as well. Moving on. Number seven, phone sleeps in a different room. Number eight, television in different room than family room. Create a living room where the furniture is pointed at each other, cultivating conversation instead of pointed at a television. Number nine, time limits on screens for kids. Notice not for adults, I’m not sure what’s up with that, but okay. Ten, apps on tablet limited to early childhood learning and creativity, no YouTube. Eleven, only high quality television and movies. Entertainment as art or learning. Very similar to J.M. Here. Notice I show up in his rule, abbreviated, but I’ll still take it, all right? I’m assuming that’s me, I don’t know. Number twelve, one screen at a time, no scrolling on your phone while sitting in front of the television. Thirteen, laptops only in the house, no permanent computer screen on desk. And fourteen, screen time is not used as a reward for kids that cultivates an unhealthy draw toward digital devices. Now, I read that to you. That’s not from some crazy pastor trying to show off. That’s just from a dude in our church. He has three kids and lives on eighty second. And this is just something he put in place in order to create the kind of family and spirituality and emotional health that is in alignment with his deepest desire.Finding Your Own Rules for a Fulfilled Life • Create a rule or practice for yourself based on your deepest desire for the life you want to live and person you want to become. • Copying someone else’s practices may not work for you. • Self-generate a practice based on your personality, stage of life, rhythm, and routine.
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And this is just something he put in place in order to create the kind of family and spirituality and emotional health that is in alignment with his deepest desire. Now, you’re welcome to copy his thing or take all the best practices, but that doesn’t really work as well. You have to self-generate a rule based on your personality, stage of life, your rhythm, routine, but it has to come from the deepest desire in your heart for the kind of life that you want To live and the kind of person that you before God want to become and that you know God wants to become, you to become. Whatever that is. And it will be different for every one of us. I was just chatting to a young mom in our community, Tuesday night at our meal, who said she got off Instagram and she just had this throwaway line. She said, oh, it’s because it’s not an app. It’s a way of life. Oh, man, you’re right. And then she just said how the one, everything else, everything about it has been great, except she’s so frustrated because now people just assume that she knows everything that’s Going on. They refer to Instagram stories rather than just telling stories anymore or whatever it is. Now, you might say on Instagram, but get rid of your video games or you might play some video games, but get off Twitter or whatever the thing is. The key is to get in touch with your deepest desires and then craft a rule of life or a digital rule of life to that end. I came across this line from Dr.Crafting a Digital Rule of Life • Craft a digital rule of life that aligns with your deepest desires. • Avoid allowing technology to absorb your inner life according to Dr. King.
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She said, oh, it’s because it’s not an app. It’s a way of life. Oh, man, you’re right. And then she just said how the one, everything else, everything about it has been great, except she’s so frustrated because now people just assume that she knows everything that’s Going on. They refer to Instagram stories rather than just telling stories anymore or whatever it is. Now, you might say on Instagram, but get rid of your video games or you might play some video games, but get off Twitter or whatever the thing is. The key is to get in touch with your deepest desires and then craft a rule of life or a digital rule of life to that end. I came across this line from Dr. King a few weeks ago and I don’t think of him as like a critic of technology, but man, this was beautiful as we near the end. He said this, the great temptation of life and the great tragedy of life is that so often we allow the without of our lives to absorb the within of our lives. The great tragedy of life is that too often we allow the means by which we live to out distance the ends for which we live. We have allowed our civilization to outrun our culture and then listen to this. We have allowed our technology to out distance our feet.The Root Cause of Addiction: Inability to Face Reality • Addiction is not only about neurobiological factors on the surface, but also an inability to face the pain of reality. • Addictions can be to various things including drugs, alcohol, hurry, work, sports, social media, and shopping. • These addictions are a way of escaping reality.
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You’ve not done that. Thank you. I’ve yet to read my email. But thank you. But you know, it’s because it’s hitting such a deep nerve. Experts on addiction all say that the neurobiological-like addiction in your nervous system, yes, that’s a legitimate thing on the withdrawal on the surface. That’s not actually what addiction is about. The real root cause, they argue of addiction, is always an inability to face the pain of reality. Whatever that pain is for each person. Loneliness, singleness, marriage, the disappointment of a marriage, or of children, failure, body image, doubt, a broken or dysfunctional family, a torn relationship with your Mom. It could be anything. Just reality. We’re so bent to escape from reality, from the pain of reality. This is true of addictions to classical things like drugs and alcohol, but it’s just as true of the stuff that we’re mostly okay with, like hurry, and workaholism, sports, and busyness, And Instagram, and shopping. They’re all at their core an attempt to escape into a fantasy life. As T.S. Eliot once said, humankind cannot bear much reality. I was driving down Burnside theEmbracing Reality: Escaping the Pain and Joy • The speaker reflects on not looking like their younger self. • There is an attempt to escape reality, including aspects of identity such as marriage and sexuality. • Being present to the pain of reality allows us to also experience the joys of reality.
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I don’t look like Chris Hemsworth. Okay. I’m just getting to that age where I see older pictures of me, and I think, dang. I don’t look like that anymore. Hmm. My daughter literally picked up my new book, and there’s a picture of me in the back, but it’s a couple years old, and she goes, Daddy, you look so much younger. Thought, thank you so much. But there’s that attempt, seriously, to escape this is my body. This is my sexuality. This is my marriage. This is my, I don’t have a marriage. This is my ex marriage. This is my whatever it is. This is my orientation. This is my, it’s an attempt to escape from the pain of reality. But if we’re not present to the pain of reality, neither are we present to the joy of reality.Living in the Kingdom of God with Jesus • All are welcome to live in the kingdom of God with Jesus. • Living in the kingdom allows one to face life’s pain and joy and be okay. • Jesus said we can all live blessed or happy, fortunate, and well off, regardless of our circumstances.
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And the good news, or if you prefer gospel of Jesus and his kingdom, is that all of us are welcome to live in the kingdom of God with Jesus. And when we live in the kingdom with Jesus, we can face the reality of our life with all of its pain and all of its joy and be okay. Like Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5 of Matthew, we can live, all of us can live blessed. Another way to translate that happy, fortunate and well off. Even if we think of his list, poor, meek, persecuted, hungry, thirsty, even if nothing about our life is blessed from our culture’s perspective, you make your own list. Even if we’re in a marriage that’s in a disappointment, have a chronic illness, still single at age, whatever, sad about our family of origin, not in the job we want, stuck in a, you fill In the blank. We can still live blessed. We can wake up in the morning and say, I’m fortunate because I’m living in the kingdom of God with Jesus. That is good news. Let’s stand together and pray. Thanks for listening. This podcast was brought to you by Practicing the Way. We are a crowd-funded nonprofit that exists because of the generosity of listeners like you.
