COMMENTARY: The way forward is not an escape from troubled times

(RNS) I grew up as a city boy in a farm state. I drove by fields of row crops and imagined waking each morning to the land, my roots deep in the rich Indiana soil. I learned, however, that the romance of farming looked better from the roadside than from the milking station or harvester […]

(RNS) I grew up as a city boy in a farm state. I drove by fields of row crops and imagined waking each morning to the land, my roots deep in the rich Indiana soil.

I learned, however, that the romance of farming looked better from the roadside than from the milking station or harvester seat.

The same, I suspect, can be said of those who feel the drain of techno-modernity and dream of simpler venues, where people turn off cell phones, go offline, read books and watch sunsets.


I read much lately about people feeling overwhelmed by nonstop intrusions (cell phones, e-mail, social media) and an overload of information. Although it seems a far cry from truly dangerous occupations, the stress of always-on technology can be compared with being a firefighter always listening for the alarm.

Five neuroscientists recently went to a remote corner of Utah, left their electronic world behind, and discovered that life sure was nice without technology. They might also have said that life was nice without office cubicles, city sirens, debt collectors, politicians and TV ads.

In remotest Utah, with someone else minding the store and paying the bills, sunsets can be intoxicating.

Most of us, however, have to earn a living. That means technology, cubicles, debts, and all the weariness and time constraints that go with employment. We could dial down Facebook, perhaps, but the facts of life today are mega-doses of information, electronic interactions, and duties assigned by others.

What do we do?

That, I believe, is the question of the hour. If techno-modernity isn’t quite working, and if we can’t just dump it all and move to a remote valley, what can we do? How do we manage the stress of modernity without exploding in rage or turning inward in depression?

Farmers deal with it, I recall from Indiana days, by complaining all the time and, quite reasonably, blaming outside forces — weather, pests, weeds, grain-elevator operators and city folks — for conspiring against them.


Similar choruses of blame were orchestrated last weekend at a rally in Washington, bankrolled by billionaires trying to reduce their tax obligation and attended by well-to-do whites feeling out of control, resentful and afraid.

I suspect that if you gave any of us airfare to Utah or D.C., we could all voice dismay and disillusionment. These are troubled times, and those troubles cut broadly.

This is the moment for Christianity to step up and offer a way forward. Not a way backward, as many religious traditionalists offer; not a cantata of scapegoating, as the Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin “religious revival” would offer; and not a phony patriotic fervor that is self-service wrapped in a flag.

I mean the way forward that Jesus offered. People in his era, as in ours, were distracted, seeking escape, wanting easy answers, fearful of change, hungry for wealth and power, blaming foreigners and strangers, pulling inward, and willing to give up their freedom to the strong-willed.

Jesus’ answer was clear, albeit threatening. Love me first, he said. Love your God before all others. Love your neighbor before yourself. Don’t baptize your desired way of life and call it holy, but conform your life to the true holiness of God. Seek the courage not to be afraid.

Such a calling isn’t an escape from techno-modernity and escalating cultural angst. It is a concrete, if daunting, way of dealing with it.


(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter (at)tomehrich.)

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