Does Christianity have a place in today’s world?

The world has gone through dramatic changes over the past three centuries and these changes have been accentuated in the three decades, namely since 1990’s. The most noticeable of these changes are related to technological advances. I consider these most noticeable because they are visible to the naked eye on the street, in the home, at work, in schools, etc. Our mobile phone devices, portable computers, and other electronics means. This allows us to access information and resources in no time. They also allow us instant communication with people in distant places. The means of travel are also tremendously revolutionized, allowing phenomenally rapid movements of people, goods and services. But these are things that are now taken for granted and obvious. Therefore, my article is not set to describe or give a lecture on how these inventions work but rather to discuss the impact that they have on our society and the moral standards that we were meant to transfer from previous generations to current and futures ones. I would also like to situate the role of religion, particularly Christianity, in soothing the difficulties that masses of people go through and restore social order that can shape a new trajectory for humanity.
Many would agree that technology, as we know it today, has been disruptive despite the great benefits that it has engendered. The daily news is filled with reports of severe social and psychological disruptions, e.g.:
Loneliness
Overwork
Lack of respect for parents
Disconnection
Human trafficking/ grooming
Exploitation
Pornography
Other organized crimes
Etc.
It is not unreasonable to cogitate that advances in technology have had severely disruptive effects because such developments have not been aligned or integrated with societal values and culture of which religion is a significant part. Christianity, for instance, advocates community, and the church communities traditionally provided opportunities for socializing and social solidarity. Such support was instrumental in soothing issues of mental health and loneliness. Christian values, thus, centre on social connectivity, which is quite different from the current so-called virtual friends. Some individuals have over 1000 virtual friends on main social media in addition to hundreds of other friends on other social media platforms. Yet these individuals still experience a great sense of loneliness and anxiety. Christian teaching suggests human contacts, face to face when possible; and when not possible, it suggests spiritual connection through prayer for one another.

Technology and social media, though very useful, have not integrated citizenship education that was clearly embedded in Christian culture, particularly in societies that claim to be founded on Judeo-Christian values. On the contrary, there seems to be continuous spear on Judeo-Christian values and the denigration of Christian thought as outdated and anti-science. Christian thought sees people as primarily sociali hominum (social man). The other dimension homo technologicus becomes then an artificial addition to the human being. The critical problem in today’s society is that the artificial aspect (homo technoligicus or homo machinalis) has been relied upon more prominently. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize that, in most instances, homo machinalis replaces the natural man. It is not surprising, therefore, that social disruptions are currently prevalent because the natural instinct inherent to humanity is being substituted by the machine. It is now common to hear people say: “I do not need friends; I do not need to go to the shop as the goods will come to me; I do not need to go to the school as I can learn from home; I do not need to go to church as I can follow online”. These choices that rely on technology contribute to isolate individuals, separate families and break communities, which in the Christian tradition are core to human sanity and growth in the spiritual realm.

Christian values advocate probity, respect for human beings. They urge individuals to love others like themselves. This wisdom, if conveyed in our technology, and reinforced in our educational system, has the potency to get people thinking about abstaining from actions that may potentially degrade others, e.g. sexual violence, exploitation, human trafficking, etc. Christian values also profess work life balance, stipulating that man should observe the ‘sabbath’ (a day of rest). But in our current society, where technology is never switched off, rest becomes an impossibility for most people.

The excessive focus on developing a secular society nowadays presents serious difficulties for a cohesive community. This is significant because in the absence of societal values conveyed in religious thought, there is little common values that are disseminated through our social system and educational institutions. Citizenship values were traditionally conveyed in religious education, but with this being sidelined, the moral breakdown of our society is widening. And technology has not been able to bridge this gulf but on the contrary, it is deepening. Our Western societies, with their obsession with secularization, could be heading toward a loss of identity and a moral and citizenship breakdown.
*****