Just when I bought the book, iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives, my husband sent me a link to this article by BBC: How smartphones and social media are changing Christianity.
There are really so many of such coincidental things that happens to me. But anyway...
I haven't started to read the book yet, but I read the article. It is interesting.
It says that smartphones and social media are changing the way people practice their faith. They are making people read the Bible more literally compared to reading from the book form, in that they end up reading the text like it's Wikipedia. They are promoting a new kind of mutated Christianity referred to as moralistic therapeutic deism where it is more focused on the charitable and moral side of the Bible, not the Gospel.
I am not sure what state is it here in Malaysia, but we could very well be getting there if we are not careful. I am already in a Whatsapp group that my acquaintances will often send memes or posters of single bible vereses with no context whatsoever, aiming to make one feel blessed and good.
pearlie
When you consider passages in the Gospels like Matthew 25:45 and Luke 4:18-9 how do you separate the charitable and moral side of the Bible from the gospel?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is a matter of separation - the Gospel of Christ in its entirety covers both word and service. We can't have one without the other.
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