Much Afraid of TV, the Internet, and Y2K

Much Afraid of Y2K

Roy Hershberger

“When Y2K passes and the technology remains what then?” This is the question I asked before January 1st 2000. The answer: not much!

“It is the greatest evil to hit the world yet.” In the 1950's, when TV began to make its entrance into the American scene, this was a common cry heard from the pulpits of many churches. If those same preachers could have ridden a time machine to 1999 just imagine their horror in discovering what this little box would some day become.
     So we might assume, as we flip through the countless channels of mindless hype, tasteless humor, and sensationalistic garbage that is now television land, that these preachers were doing us a favor by warning us of the great evil to come. Not really.
     It's the old proverbial “self fulfilling prophecy” that we have witnessed with the advent of the TV culture. Just imagine, if you will, those same preachers who successfully instilled the fear of technology into the hearts of their congregations would have instead spent that time and energy in challenging Christians to get involved in its development? What if they would have encouraged the young people to pursue a career in the TV broadcasting field, to take the technology and use it for good?
     I admit that this is a little hard to imagine considering the state of rampant mediocrity that has ruled in the Christian world over the last 100 years, but please humor me for a moment if you will. What if many of the top dogs of the major networks were Christians who were committed to providing quality, wholesome and meaningful information and entertainment to the masses? And I don't mean “Christian TV” as we know it today that has (in many cases not all) set the standard for the lowest quality.
     As the possibilities of this run back and forth through the network of your brain let me turn your attention to the new medium. 100 times more powerful then TV it is now only in it's beginning stages yet its potential is mind boggling. As the most powerful information and communication technology ever developed in human history is the Internet destined to add only to the further degradation of civilization?
     Unfortunately, in the minds of many Christians, the “further degradation of civilization” is a common attitude when considering the ultimate destiny of the web. Are we heading down the same road of self fulfilling prophecy that we did with TV? Why do Christians always spend so much time dwelling on the negatives of change rather than focusing on its obvious potential for good?
     Personally, as one once addicted to pornography, (pre Internet days) I can imagine all to well the dangers and corrupting potential of being alone in your room at night with a modem. The countless pics, the chat rooms where you can remain anonymous and say any disgusting thing that comes to mind with seemingly no consequences attached. The Internet is clearly the perfect habitat for the voyeur.
     Why then has God allowed us to have this technology? So that we can destroy ourselves? Implode into a small ugly heap of selfish, degraded humanity? Many Christians of course believe this. Having been told countless times that it is technology that will bring on the mark of the beast and the control of the masses by a one world government. Throw into this mix something like Y2K and you had the perfect apocalyptic scenario. It was actually a bit humourous to see how disappointed some were when January 1, 2000 rolled over and nothing happened. Will they learn a lesson from this? Some might, but most will continue focusing on preparing (in a physical sense) for the end rather then seeking God on how they can effect their world in the here and know. This sad reality is illustrated by the fact that an “end times” series of apocalyptic hyped up fiction is enjoying some of the best “Christian” book sales ever seen.
     To put this into perspective I would like to present a profound statement made by Steve Hewitt of Christian Computing Magazine. Please note that this was written before January 1st 2000, and reflects how those who did real thoughtful research understood that Y2K was nothing to be alarmed about. Unfortunately his voice of reason was drowned out by the numerous and better funded screams of fear and alarm:

With more Christians dying this past year for their faith than possibly ever in our history, we do not get excited. With persecution increasing around the world, we do nothing. With the percent of the lost growing each year in our nation, and millions starving around the world, nothing got us more excited than Y2K. Why? Because it threatened our comfort, our pocket books.
As we continue to see more and more just how overblown the entire event was, and evaluate the sensational, exaggerated reaction we had, the issue must not end there. We need to seriously ask ourselves: what does Y2K tell us about the spiritual state of Christianity in America? Moreover, what does it say about our personal walk with Christ?
Hewitt, “Challenge Ahead, Part 10."

Clearly it speaks of the fact that we are being driven by fear rather than faith, by emotions rather than reason.
Could it be that instead of fearing technology God intended us to take control of it, to exploit it's power to influence the masses toward getting their heads out of the fantasy world and into the ultimate truth and reality of the Creator?
I had hoped that when Y2K passed and the technology remained that it would provide an open window to challenge Christians to get beyond their fears. Yet I see little change in most of those who carried the Y2K/end times banner. I find myself asking in a cynical way: what will be the next big end time crises? We must believe that faith will eventually win out and we will not be so easily distracted from our purpose of presenting the Gospel to a hurting world. Meanwhile we can be thankful for God's great mercy in putting up with our foolishness.

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