My name has been flagged up as appearing in the Church Times this week, in an article by Rev Simon Cook:
This is to ignore the fact that the way we live “in the world” is becoming more digital, like it or not: work, social interaction, banking, shopping, and even medical appointments have increasingly moved online. Furthermore, “real relationships” have been mediated successfully through technology for many years, as anyone with a pen pal or a family member overseas will already be aware.
The literature around the subject tends to simplify the Christian response to one of “tech as threat” or “tech as opportunity”. The book iGods, by Dr Craig Detweiler, for example, suggests that digital media have usurped the part that faith and church used to play in building relationships and community. In contrast, Dr Bex Lewis’s guide for families, Raising Children in a Digital Age (Interview, 9 May 2014), is clear that people bring their pre-existing values to the digital world, and its technologies can be used for good and evil — and talk of “conditioned” behaviour is usually an excuse.
Read full article.
