I’m in a pretty sour mood right now. At first it was because I’ve been hurting for that poor girl in Florida who got beat up for a YouTube video. Now I’m ticked off at her dad.
Her parents blamed the Internet for the incident.
“These Web sites are creating a space for criminal activity, beating, fights,” Patrick Lindsay said. [...]
“I’m very upset with these Internet sites,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children. I’m going to carry this as far as I can.”
Talk about tilting at windmills. How about blaming the girls that did this? How about blaming the people who watch the videos, thereby encouraging things like this? Even some indirect blame on the parents would have been acceptable…but blaming the internet and MySpace?
Granted, there’s plenty wrong with MySpace, which is why my profile still has a picture of my wife about 4 months pregnant. But when it comes to six people deciding to beat up an innocent person – Hell, even a guilty person – let’s place the blame squarely where it belongs: on the perpetrators.
Ok, now that I’m over that, here’s the real point of this post. There are some Christians who believe that the task of the Church is to restore the world, whether that be through service or control. The group who truly believes that we are to do it by control (Dominionism) is so small that it barely merits discussion. Sure, you’ll hear people, particularly those like Andrew Sullivan (though he prefers the term “christianist”), attribute these qualities to “many evangelicals”…that’s bollocks.
Those who believe that we are to do it through service and love have a larger following. They believe that as a result of the influence of Christians, and good people from other religions (or no religion), the world is getting better. Progress has been, is being, and will be made. They are Progressives. Read more
We talk a lot, especially in the midst of the postmodern and emergent philosophical/theological movements, about challenges to our worldview. Most of us have accepted the proposition that our acculturation determines in large part how we think, and the values we hold; only those with true intellectual strength can break free and start thinking in “new” ways.
