The impact of today’s—and tomorrow’s—technology on Christian faith was the topic of a presentation at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary.
“The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology: A Conversation about the Internet, Ministry & Spirituality” featured a speaker as versed in technology as faith. John Dyer is a former youth pastor now building educational tools for Dallas Theological Seminary. In the past he has done work for Apple, Microsoft and other companies. He is also the author of the book From Garden to City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology.
Dyer spoke January 13, 2016, to about 40 pastors and seminary students in BC Lounge on the main Fresno Pacific University campus. Afterward, he answered some questions:
Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised (mostly) in Texas, and I received my training in biochemistry and genetics from Texas A&M University (B.A.), theology from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M.), and the sociology of religion from Durham University (Ph.D. candidate). My wife, Amber is a literature and philosophy professor here in the Dallas area, and we have two elementary-aged children. I’ve always enjoyed played with technology and tinkering with the computers my dad would buy in the 1980s. I was initially reluctant to become a programmer since that wasn’t “cool” when I was in high school, but eventually found my way into web development. I now oversee DTS’s Communications and Educational Technology, and I also do programming work for the Digital Bible Society.
Was there a particular moment when your interest in ministry and technology really took hold?
At the beginning of a Theology and Society course at DTS, the professor said, “One of the most dangerous things you can believe is that technology is neutral.” I thought he was dead wrong about that, so I set out to challenge him. But he fell ill and was replaced by a different professor, so I had to go out and read about theology and technology for myself to begin forming my views.
How can the digital world help one develop spiritually?
Whenever a new technology comes along, I think it gives us a chance to examine our current practices and figure why we actually do things the way we do. Implementing a new technology means changing something, and that can feel threatening at times, but it forces us to ask, “What are the liturgies and rituals in our lives that are unquestioned?” An example I often give is using a projector to show Scripture on screen during worship. On the surface, one might be concerned with this because it means fewer people will usually bring printed Bible to church. However, a deeper look will show that people haven’t been bringing their own copy (and own chosen translation) to worship for the last generation or two. Before that a family KJV Bible was more common, and for many centuries no one had even a family copy. So the presence of the projector—and now the presence of the mobile phone with Bible software—allows us to ask again with renewed clarity, “Why did God give us the Scriptures, and how might we as a community best use them?”
What are the risks to spiritual development?
I think the explicit pitfalls like pornography, cyberbullying and self-indulgence on social media are obvious enough that they don’t require much additional reflection. The more subtle ones are those that remain unexamined. For example, introducing tools for online automatic giving can really help believers maintain a consistent pattern of giving and help churches maintain a stable bottom line in the notoriously difficult summer months. However, by forgoing the process of writing a check (or withdrawing cash) on a regular basis, can hide the process of giving. This is what Albert Borgmann calls “the device paradigm” where a new technology makes former task invisible. That doesn’t make it bad, but it changes the practice and possibly its meaning, and we might need to choose places in our lives where we intentionally do something that a technology can do for us—and often do better—simply because of the meaning it gives us.
How do you know if your digital interests are getting in the way of your Christian walk? What should you do?
In my opinion, this should be answered in the context of a community. Many newer digital technologies are highly customizable and tailored to the individual, but I think taking time to reflect with one’s friends, coworkers, spouse and children about the messages your media usage sends is a key way to build bridges and love our neighbors.
How much of the concern is generational? What are intelligent rules/guidelines for parents? How upset should digital immigrant parents be and when?
One of the most famous definitions of technology is that it is “anything invented after you were born.” That is, everything before you were born is just the stuff that’s always been, the way the world is supposed to work. Then things invented from birth to age 30 are cool amazing things on which you can build your career. But then those things introduced after we’re 30 seem to lead us to the destruction of society and the degradation of our children’s mind. This, too, will happen to our children with our grandchildren. I must recognize that my children will never know a world without smartphones and social media, just as I never knew a world without computers, and my parents a world without phones.
For my own children, we are attempting to gradually introduce screen devices to them and give them increasing responsibility and privilege as they get older. We are more restrictive about games and media than most parents, and I try to make most of their time with screens structured around creation rather than consumption. We do watch videos and read banal things like Lego news, but we also draw, paint and make music with our iPads as much as possible. Eventually, we’ll get into the more difficult middle school and high school days, and at that point I think we’ll have to give up more of our power and do more to demonstrate self-givingness in our love.
What themes and ideas you were trying to get across at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary?
One of my main goals is to take the two most common conversation themes—(1) technology is awesome and we should use it! and (2) technology is harming us!—and take both seriously while also adding two additional streams: (3) a biblical theology that takes the material world and our imago dei-driven ability to create technology and (4) an awareness of the subtle unintended effects of introducing a new technology into our lives. By putting all four of these on the table, I think we have a better chance of living faithfully in an ever-changing world.