(Luke 16:19-31) (Acts 10:9-28, 34-35) Social Justice Sunday
29 September, 2019 – Judith Shaw
Today St Ninians is joining with many other churches throughout Australia celebrating Social Justice Sunday, focussing on the theme “Making it Real: Genuine human encounter in our digital world”. Your Social Action Group would like to share some thoughts on the Digital World and its impact not only on the world at large but more specifically on our church community. It affects us all in different ways. Many adapt to change seamlessly, sifting out the worthwhile from the damaging or dangerous. Some of us find it difficult to learn or keep up with new technologies, being dependent on younger more computer literate people to steer us through the maze. Some question its relevance to their lives and doubt if the effort is worthwhile. Others would like to embrace the digital world but are excluded because they are inhibited financially. It is inescapable that these changes have consequences for all of us, both positive and negative and need addressing if we are going to embrace the possibilities and be aware of the pitfalls for communication and connection.
Change is not new and has confronted humans throughout the ages. Our Bible Reading this morning from Acts, is a case in point. It relates the story of Simon Peter, a dyed in the wool Jew, struggling with his strongly held convictions concerning eating clean and unclean food. As a result of his dream he later clarified his thinking leading him to understand that God has no favourites. Accepting change, he embraced Gentiles into the Christian community. I would like to share with you a modern parable with a not dissimilar theme which addresses the role of habits and change. It is the story of husband and wife and the preparation of the Sunday roast. The Husband watched his wife cut off both ends of the roast before placing it into the baking dish. Puzzled he asks her “Why did you cut off both ends like that.” To which she replied, “that is the way my mother did it.” The next time they visited his mother-in-law he asked her the same question and received the same reply – “because that is how my mother did it.” When they next visited grandma, the husband continued to pursue the mystery. Grandma gave a chuckle before answering. “I don’t know why they do it. I did it because if I didn’t cut off both ends of the roast, it wouldn’t fit into my small baking dish.” Clearly habit and unquestioning acceptance play a part in many of our actions and decisions.
Over time, we have adopted changes in communication, unaware of their impact. I invite you now to join me on a brief stroll through history. My mother loved to tell us of her first experience of radio. She went to a small rural one teacher school. When she was about 9 in 1918, the teacher took the whole school to visit a local farmer who had constructed a crystal radio set. The farmer demonstrated it to them, resulting in them hearing the crackling voice of Dame Nellie Melda, an experience she never forgot. Radios were further developed but were expensive in the 1920s. My father talked about listening to the Ashes Test being relayed from Britain for the first time in the 1930s on their first radio. With my parents I remember quite clearly hearing on that same radio, the crackly voice of Sir Robert Menzies informing the nation that England had declared war on Germany and therefore Australia was also at war. Over the following years technology moved at an accelerated pace. Radios decreased in size and reproduction improved. In the 1940s I learned to dance to the sound of a gramophone, the quality of the music leaving a lot to be desired. We now use CD and DVD players taking the quality of sound reproduction for granted. More recently there are services which enable us to download music from the Internet onto our iPod, iPhone or other devices.
While travelling in WA, Marion and I visited a Telegraph station museum. On display was an old wall telephone. It reminded me of the first telephone I ever used. The earpiece was separate from the mouthpiece and I had to stand on tip toes to speak into the mouthpiece. You wound a handle to connect to the local telephone exchange. A telephonist asked what number you wanted to be connected to. We were on a party line and sometimes before connecting she would engage in a 3-way chat with others on the same party line. Over an ever-decreasing timeline, we have moved on to handsets, cordless phones, mobile phones and NBN landlines. Many users no longer connect to the land line only using mobiles. They no longer have a listing in a telephone directory. The advent of television rapidly changed the life of many Australians. Black and white TV arrived in time for the 1956 Olympics, with colour TV available for the 1976 Olympics and Cyclone Tracey What we can access now using services such as Foxtel, or Netflix is quite astounding. At the flick of a switch world news is available in our lounge rooms 24 hours a day.
The advances in personal computers are equally overwhelming. We have moved from using a nib pen and ink to Fountain pens, biros, mechanical typewriters, and electric typewriters, finally adapting to the computer, barely noticing the transition. The first University Course in Computing was offered in Queensland in 1966. The first commercial computer was installed in NSW by CSIRO in 1967. It was the size of a large modern-day refrigerator and needed an airconditioned room to operate. By 1969 the CSIRO Parkes Telescope and its accompanying computer played a pivotal role in the moon landing relaying footage to the rest of the world.
We have been introduced to the internet and a completely new vocabulary to go with it – words such as online, Google, email, Facebook, twitter, cyber bullying and many more. These have become part of our everyday language. Banks and many Government Agencies conduct most of their business with the public via their webpages – for example, Medicare, Pensions, taxation, rates and other utilities. This is far from an exhaustive list. Many retail goods and services can be purchased from online websites. Many of our churches including St Ninians have embraced these technologies. We have our own website on which we present our profile to the wider community. The Sunday sermon, Service times and other useful information are posted on it. It is possible to receive the Witness via email and some members choose to make regular offerings by transferring funds from their bank accounts directly into St Ninians account rat her than the offering plate. The means of communicating has certainly come a long way since my mother heard Nellie Melba singing on a crystal radio one hundred years ago. The Digital World is here to stay!
The Canberra News recently reported survey findings that 83% of Australians have an internet connection but only 48% have a home phone. It would be interesting to see how these figures reflect our congregation. Could you raise your hand if you have a home Phone? Now hands up if you are connected to the internet. Do you use email or Facebook? Church surveys show that many users first started showing an interest in Digital Technology when they discovered that they could keep in contact with distant relatives or friends using email or Facebook. They saw a worthwhile purpose for engaging. Facebook has also made it possible for people to communicate with likeminded people with similar passions whether they be social issues or just an opportunity to engage in social chitchat.
Despite the positive impact of the Digital World in which we now live, there are also negative implications, which we as a Christian community need to be aware of and be prepared to act on. Our Christian teaching exhorts us to care for our neighbour. We cannot ignore in all conscience those who are excluded or disconnected. We cannot walk by on the other side ignoring the needs of others longing for warm friendly face to face interaction.
The Digital World can be damaging. Commercial online businesses can often provide cheaper more affordable goods and services at the expense of local retailers. Amazon is a case in point, as it steadily overtakes the role of the local bookseller. Anonymously and at a safe distance, users can hurt others by posting online malicious statements or private photos to embarrass their targets. School children, young people and women can be abused and bullied, sometimes resorting to extreme measures such as suicide because they cannot cope.
Despite its benefits for making worthwhile, social connections, use of Social media for some can become obsessive, time consuming and a distraction from the real world. There are those who can be socially disconnected. It is possible to access internet services from the privacy of one’s home without any human contact. Taking an extreme perspective – Is it possible that in the future speech will no longer be a required skill and our only connection with the outside world will be via a computer screen? I hope not.
The Digital World can also be isolating because there are those who want to engage in this new world but lack either the technological skills or the financial resources to participate. They are denied access to resources that they have an equal right to engage in. This further divides the haves from the have nots.
In our first Bible reading Simon Peter showed us his willingness to tackle change. In our second reading Luke presents the divide between the rich man and Lazarus as an injustice that sees the rich man condemned to hell. Abraham, who has gone before us in faith, chooses to comfort Lazarus. We should not let the good things available to us divide us from our sisters and brothers. As a church family we have a moral responsibility to make our digital world a place of connection and genuine human encounter. A challenge? – yes. But definitely doable.
Making it Real: Genuine Human Encounter in the Digital World