January 31, 2014
Losing Control
In 1517 the Protestant Reformation turned the
Roman Catholic Church on its head. No longer was the Catholic Church able to
control the Word of God and the religious thinking of the masses. I see a similar
situation erupting between the media and social media. There was a time when almost
all of our information came from mainstream media. To their credit they do have
a code of ethics; however questionable it is at times. The “real” media is now struggling with their
loss of control over information and literally no control over social media
types who have no rules. In the world of texting anyone can say anything they
want to say regardless of proof, facts or basic standards of good behavior –
and they can text it in real time. In
the long run it may serve us well that the media, particularly the liberal
media, is losing their stronghold. Consumers will need to be on their discerning-toes,
but that is the case whether we are reading local newspaper or reading someone’s
interpretation of the Word of God.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----How aptly expressed! Let’s see if I understood what you meant. It seems you are saying that the process of truth was not at work in the Catholic Church’s control over the Word of God and the laity’s resulting beliefs. And it seems you are saying the same truth process has been missing from the media’s control over our information and resulting perceptions. And finally, it seems you are saying that the social media trend, though turning entirely loose of information and perception control, yet has not developed a truth process. I might even be able to unpack by implication of your comment regarding reading other folk’s interpretation of the Word of God, that the Protestant Churches arrived, also, without a well formed truth process.
-----I happen to agree with all of that. It isn’t to say that the Catholic Church, the media, the social media, nor the Protestant Churches had no truth process at all. I think we would be very hard pressed to find any human or assemblage of humans on earth who do not have at least some semblance of a truth process. Together, people in their groups form mental frameworks in which all of the group members are expected to formulate the rest of their thinking. It’s just human psychology.
-----It is even that way in the church. “Jesus is the Christ” is the overarching mental frame in which all church members are expected to formulate beliefs. That can be viewed as a control issue if there were not a very complex structure of vetted facts, validated reasoning, and observations of it being so by the changes in the lives which have accepted it. Therefore, what would be otherwise considered over-control if made by simple, unsupported assertion is considerably true as confirmed by the truth process.
-----And I believe you properly placed that truth process. The process is simple, but the structures of understanding it builds are both delicate and as vastly intricate as the biomechanics of a cell. It is for that single cell to vet the overarching truth of its surroundings as well as the detailed truths of its inner workings. For the cell is in the closest contact with the facts and circumstances needed for making true determinations of what it individually faces.
-----The New Testament both calls upon the individual to elevate his grounding in the knowledge of the truth and upon truly made individuals to lend direction to others who are less founded. Examine Paul’s instructions to Timothy and Titus regarding the selection of elders. These are selected from men being more founded in the truth (never saw Paul require an elder to be the wife of one husband.) Notice what Paul and John and Peter and Jude all say about certain men spreading ideas contrary to the truths the Apostles taught. If the truth process lives in the church within its individual members, correlations of truth will be found amongst them because truth does exist, is what it is, and extends throughout the church as spiritual nourishment.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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