As the Gnostics discarded Christ's humanity and kept only his divinity, we similarly sacrifice incarnation at the altar of ease. One way we dehumanize other humans and ourselves is by dissociating bodily presence from our minds in online communities, we conceive of ourselves as essentially minds.
Closing his thoughts he writes and compares the internet village/community/church to other cultures:
"Tribesmen in North Africa, like Native Americans... They don't want to hear your thoughts until you've sat with them for extended periods of time, not talking; this is how they get comfortable with one another. They require you to not talk but move with them for weeks to get to know you in a way that is deeper than words. Missionaries often make the mistake of going into a culture and talking right away.
"So how are we showing love towards one another through these online mediums? ... We're not doing love much justice by copping out to convenience. I'm not going to get into defining love but if it something we mean deeply, love can only be expressed personally, in presence..."
I am grateful to have such friends. The ones who are okay with silence and with simply being near. They are credible witnesses, trustworthy ones who are more than disembodied text.
Our supreme example is Christ--the incarnate Word:
"God's greatest act of love to come to us in human form and die on a cross for our sins sums it up pretty good... Shalom is something that we have little notion of today thanks to our dulled sensitivity to the spirituality of things. Powers such as Facebook continue to assert their dehumanizing agenda in an attempt to further divide our beings and souls into commodified pieces..."
I like this:
ReplyDeleteWe're not doing love much justice by copping out to convenience.