Against the counselors of holiness. [Step away from that computer, now]

This morning’s illustration, of the internet being injected, comes from a post from Matt Forney who is turning away from being continually on the internet. And Matt makes his living by blogging and internet hustling. This reminds me of a conversation I had in a seminar yesterday: we are seeing more young people with serious suicide attempts than we used to. IT seems that the memes about self damage are getting to younger and younger children, even pre adolescent children, and that there is little or no parental balance: many families have been shattered.

[Yes it is anecdote, and anecdote is not data. But anecdote drives us to find data}

Now, Matt’s secular. But within the church there are a bunchaton of people who write on the internet: often suggesting regulations, and indicating this is a more perfect way of living. This has always existed. And this Paul told us to ignore.

COLOSSIANS 2:8-23

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. ¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; ¹²when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,¹⁴erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. ¹⁷These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,¹⁹and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ²¹“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”? ²²All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings. ²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.

There are many who spend much of their day in front of screen: it’s easy to do. To continually keep up with facebook, twitter and foursquare. Heck, these apps are on most cellphones. To be texting continually. To be checking your email.

One of the things I like about conference trips is the fact all these things are switched off during flights. I usually watch a movie or sleep. Or read a book. It’s important to have periods where you are not connected.

For if you do not get some real life, you spend all your time acting as an echo chamber. It’s more important to make breakfast. It is far more important to hug your children and your spouse. The one virtue of the computer is that it can wait, and should wait.

I’m not Matt Forney: I do have FB up (for science fiction gossip and to keep up with the daughter). The work mac (the other option was a PC and dealing with UEFI) comes with skype (cheap videoconferencing saves the Uni money) and itunes (for all our lectures), as well as Stata and R.

But those boxen should not be on every day. You should not be answering your emails every day.

And, at the same time, we should not get into some kind of huddle about appearing completely righteous as some kind of competition to see who can be the most crunchy. The simple answer is: don’t. We are called to freedom. We are not called to re-enslave ourselves to the ideologies of this world.

UPDATE.

Mundabor on noting that the modernistic monastic orders and dying, and the traditional ones are founding new communities. He’s right: the church is indestructable, and will be presented as a perfect bride for Christ. And that there has been a tidal wave of stupidity, most easily seen in that most hierarchical branch, the Roman one.

The Church is Indefectible and we need therefore not be worried about Her. But this huge tsunami of stupidity that has been impacting the Western hemisphere for now 50 years will leave a huge trail of destruction behind itself. A destruction that has been going on under our very eyes for a long time now and continues to march undisturbed as our hierarchy, with stubbornness worthy of the Politburo, not only continue to deny the decay but even try to depict it as a great moment in a Church history. Perhaps not even the Politburo is here a valid comparison. Perhaps, a North Korea might be more to the point.

The current Pope is acting as an antichrist, just like the Borgia popes of Luther’s day.