Technology as a value-neutral enterprise

On internship I was told time and again by my supervisor that "the medium is the message". Little did I know he was actually quoting someone, a very prophetic someone by the name of Marshall McLuhan who wrote that message many years before the Internet was a thought in the tech-savvy generation that spends its time walking through crosswalks and down sidewalks oblivious to the world (and sometimes the cars) around them.

We were to read articles for our initial class for today and while I did not read them until last night, much of the information came in the form of echoes from past discussions I've had with people.

What is value-neutrality? To me, I see it as the objectivity of something being able to be used by anyone or anything for any purpose. For something to be value-neutral it carries with it no inherent qualities or attachments. In our class, we are looking at this issue from is one of technology being used by specific people (we who preach) for a specific purpose (preaching Christ crucified and creation justified by faith through grace).

Looking at it from that angle of preaching, technology is not value-neutral, even though many things in this day and age claim to be, technology included. In psychology, my background, we pride ourselves on being able to distinguish between subjective and objective, but looking back on it from years spent at seminary, I no longer see objective. We are, each of us, our own unique points of view. Sometimes we strive to see other points from different angles to widen our tunnel vision into a panorama, but even then we are still marred by the inability to escape our own preconceptions, emotions, experiences, and predilections of our identities. The saying of 'history is written by the winners' is not entirely true, but the understanding that it portrays is too close for comfort to this idea of objective neutrality.

From my perspective looking at the world, people seem to think that the technology of the internet carries with it, currently, an inherent goodness because it is the latest information, the most recent, and is 'global'. I think technology is a wonderful thing, and I am currently using it to talk about it, but I understand the necessity of technology as a tool, not as an entity, structure, or deity as some would make it out to be. Technology, to me, at its roots is simply the ability for communication with other beings. So yes, even that color-changing octopus that was so popular on the internet all those moons ago is a technological marvel.

But in the use of technology as a means of church involvement or preaching, this inherent goodness can rapidly diminish. Websites can be created by anyone with a little bit of patience and some mouse clicks, and running a website can be just as easy. How can you tell that the website you just viewed for your sermon on Sunday is on that is written by someone who was authentic? How can you know the person who is writing a blog? How is it that you, the reader, know me, the writer? Well, for now, I can safely say that many of the people that will be reading this either have a class with me or know me through various actual, physical contact and relationships that we have built over time through schooling, church, or wherever (like my one facebook acquaintance who is now the author of one of my favorite book series, Mr. Brandon Sanderson). I would even go as far as to say that this inherent goodness that people feel exists with the internet is merely a comfort that people have created with their use of technology since it has become such a necessary part of life.

But what part does technology play in our life in the church?

I believe that the answer to that particular question is this: the internet itself is merely a tool. If we look at technology from a tool standpoint, I believe that the church can begin to look at the internet and its accompanying technologies with a safer lens. Tools that the church use already? Hymn books, musical instruments, and oh, I don't know, electricity itself amongst other things. The internet is a tool that should be looked at and pondered over like any other item that the church may use.

Right now, that is about as firm as I am willing to commit to this point. I have seen pastors who are willing to print out sermons from an online source and not attribute (that portion of the article hit a little hard spot on my heart for actions like that) and I have seen pastors pour over tomes and printed research material and pretty much everything in between.
But just because we have access to the internet or a drop-down screen in the nave does not mean we should use them just because they are cool little gadgets that might draw in a couple people. Any tool should be used with integrity, honesty, thoughtfulness, mindfulness, and care, and the utmost caution should be taken when taking that tool with you into the pulpit to proclaim the Word of God made visible.

Thanks for reading, and since I caught flak for it the first time I put it in my intern site's newsletter, I'll close with it here and still not translate it:

Soli Deo gloria,
Jon