Simon Cox Blog: Social Media and the Church

Thursday 14 February 2019

Social Media and the Church

Now we live in a new age of technology, and it is having massive, unforeseen effects.

We live in the age of technology. This age has been characterized in other ways by other people, social commentators, and gurus of culture.

Famously, Canadian philosopher Dr. Charles Taylor calls our age the “age of authenticity.” To be authentic is the final word in credibility. We must be true to ourselves. Dr. Ed Stetzer calls our age the “age of outrage.” We are constantly annoyed at each other and positioning for our tribal groups to gain precedence over one another.

What is behind this?

Part of it is philosophical. Dr. Neil Shenvi has described how “critical theory” is moving from the universities to the mainstream, and in some cases to the unthinking church. Critical theory is based on the proposition that we are defined by the group to which we belong—gender, race, culture, and others—and that each of these groups is vying for hegemony over the other.

In addition to these philosophical roots, there is also a technological engine that is driving the development. The printing press changed Europe and changed the world. The use of gunpowder changed the world through shifting the balance of power to those who could employ it best.

Now we live in a new age of technology, and it is having massive, unforeseen effects.

Not all of technology, by any means, is bad. Just as pornography is widely available across the globe and into the privacy of home more than ever before through the smartphone, so also are Bibles, various translations, biblical teaching, and spiritual resources.

In the smallest village where books would take months to penetrate, there are now farmers with smartphones.

We must not be luddites when it comes to technology. But we must also be aware of what it is doing to ...