I have had a taste of the what the end of civilization will be
like – the modem at the church died and I found myself disconnected from life
and the world. No email, no internet, I couldn’t even print as the copier is
linked through our modem. I couldn’t get newsfeeds and I wasn’t able to post
this on my blog. Did everything I know and hold dear disappear? No! My phone
still can access the world. Thank God for LTE reception!
Richard Rohr has a small book out What the Mystics Know
that I am using with my Sunday School class. As with any book and especially
one on spirituality and mysticism I don’t agree with everything he says. I like
what he says about our being over stimulated by the omnipresence of media and
how it induces emotions in us and how this makes us overstimulated emotionally
which in turn makes us less aware of and able to get connected to the deeper
level that emotions can take us to. I call this desensitization. It’s like hearing another story about Donald
Trump putting down women or making a racist remark, they are happening so often
that we have become desensitized to them and the awful reality they reveal.
I think there is a point in disconnecting once in a while. First
off when you reconnect you remember how awesome it is to have such wonders at
your fingertips. You are overcome with the reality of the unbelievable gift
that is technology is. Next you are moved when you see and hear things again.
If you haven’t had a newsfeed for a day or two that story of a police shooting
or a refugee boat capsizing hits you hard. You find yourself enlightened and
enlivened by that cat video or those cute puppies or that great dance by that
toddler and you are thankful for the wonders of God’s creations. If your emails
have stacked up, you realize how unimportant many of them are and search for
the few that have a real need to be read and replied to and the rest you
delete. You do a search for something that is the most important issue you are
thinking about and let the shopping for shoes fad to the back. You log in to
Facebook and scroll past the insignificant things looking for that update on a
friend’s health or a reply to a question you sent.
But after maybe 15 minutes or so you slip back into the patterns
and habits that you have developed for your engagement with technology in your
life. You once again get desensitized because your Facebook page and newsfeeds
get bombarded with so much stuff that plays on your heartstrings, fuels your
anger or frustration, or pulls you into emotionally charged areas that you have
to let your emotions slip behind a screen just to move on.
And this is tragic. Every story about a refugee dying trying to
get someplace safe should move you to tears. Every misogynistic statement,
racist remark or hate-filled comment should get your ire up. Every falsehood
and stupid, blatant, and obviously inaccurate comment should bring you up out
of your seat with a cry for truth and accuracy. We cannot allow ourselves to
become desensitized to these things. If we do then we allow for them to happen
and we allow for them to become normal and acceptable, just part of what we see
and hear. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN. We have to be appalled, disgusted, sickened,
stunned, repelled, and horrified at injustice, oppression, misogyny, racism,
loss of life, and every other evil and wrong we see, hear, and read. To do less
is to allow for the darkness to grow.
As many have said, if not now than when and if not me then who? We
cannot expect anyone else to do it. We have to do it ourselves – we have to
object and protest and call for change. We have to say no to this rhetoric and
stop to this hate-mongering. We cannot allow ourselves to be desensitized to
this because if we do darkness gains and we all are a step closer to ruin. Be
offended and don’t just take it. Be appalled and call for change. Be disgusted
and push for better. You, I, we cannot wait for someone else to do it and we
cannot wait for a better time. We have to do it and we have to do it now.
Dear God help me to speak the truth in love. Help me to challenge
injustice, oppression and hatefulness wherever I encounter it. Help me to
remain sensitive to the pain and suffering of others and help me to keep from
thinking that it is just the way things are. Amen.
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