The Distraction of Distraction

by Kirk M. Wellum @ http://redeemingthetime.blogspot.com/

In a recent article by Bill Tancer entitled, "Looking for God Online," the general manager of global research at Hitwise reported that in the United States visits to the top religious websites has dropped by 35% over the past two years. To put this in perspective he claims that visits to "adult sites" outnumbers visits to "religious sites" by a ratio of 60/1. While interest in social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, and video sites like YouTube continue to soar, it seems that fewer people are searching for anything of substance when it comes to religion including Christianity. This is also supported by an analysis of what people are looking for when they make use of search engines like Google or Yahoo. In spite of these findings, Tancer concludes by observing that it is not a matter of losing our religion as much as it is being distracted by all that the internet has to offer.

From a Christian perspective, I think that the internet needs to be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is not a harmless playground or pastime. Trouble lurks at too many internet street corners and its dark alleys are full of everything unclean. Too often internet users are just a click or two away from that which is downright blasphemous, heretical, evil and perverse. But beyond these concerns, as legitimate as they are, it is Tancer's last point that I wanted to pick up and discuss.

As I see it, one of the problems with the online world is that it is a giant distraction that keeps too many Christians busy with things of little value and takes up time that could be better spent in more meaningful interaction with others, reading and learning, and real life service. In many ways, the digital world is a pseudo-world that is too often inhabited by people who are looking to escape real life and the demands it makes on each of us. While I do not think the internet is all wrong, or inherently evil, I do think that it has to be used carefully and in moderation. It should never be a substitute for real involvement in the church or in the lives of others who live around us. And we must not spend endless amounts of time surfing here and there, for the simple reason that there are far more important things to do.

If John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, were still alive, I have no doubt that he would see the world wide web as an extension of what he calls Vanity Fair. It is a place were people can lose themselves pursuing things that matter little in the end or things and activities that will only make repentance more difficult because of their addictive qualities. Christians today need grace and discernment if they are to remain loyal to Jesus in a seductive world that can deliver all that it has to offer to our digital devices in the privacy of our own little world that is too often unmonitored. We need to remember that God is omniscient and still requires that we love him with all our minds and hearts and souls, and our neighbors as ourselves.