Would Jesus Upload? Telling the Gospel Story in a Flat World - S&H Jul/Aug 2007

Adapted from a talk given in Birmingham, Alabama for the Fixed Point Foundation.

Conversations at Starbucks are not the same as they used to be. In fact, there seem to be no conversations at all. Nor is anyone reading. Instead, individuals come in, grab a latte and go straight to their keyboards to check their postings to MySpace.com, YouTube or Facebook.com. Everyone seems to be very busy sharing (telling their stories)…but is anyone listening?

Thomas Friedman, in his book entitled The World is Flat sees a massive swing in perspective, and he catalogs a string of factors that have led to a seismic change in the pattern of inquiry. North American Christians are asleep to both the perils and the opportunities of this new flat earth, and Friedman poses questions that need to be considered carefully.  His book suggests that we are at what Malcolm Gladwell describes as a tipping point in our social history where the combination of several factors come together to produce an epidemic spread and change in functioning. The Christian response or lack thereof will be determinative of American history.

Ten World Flatteners
Friedman’s book identifies ten factors that have flattened the world. The primary focus of this article is flattener number four—uploading—but to put this in context, I’ll summarize the list.

1.  A new age of creativity which has burst forth since November of 1989 because “the walls came down, and the windows went up.” His word play alludes to the Berlin Wall collapsing coupled with launch of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

2.  The release of the Netscape Browser on August 9, 1995 gave anyone who owned a computer and modem an easy way to access and travel through the internet.

3.  The appearance of good workflow software with agreed-upon languages and protocols offered working platforms that ordinary people could share with each other and actually understand.

4.  The advent of uploading provided a means to harnessing the power of communities – more on this in a moment.

5.  The American economy discovered outsourcing in a serious way when technicians in India handled America’s Y2K computer problem.

6.  American businesses began off shoring, and when China joined the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001 their attractive welcome drew many American businesses.

7.  The phenomenon of supply chaining made countries much more interdependent. Friedman humorously caricatures this as “eating sushi in Arkansas” (Friedman 151).

8.  Insourcing has brought about new partnerships and collaborative teams that never would have happened before. Friedman describes that when a Toshiba laptop is repaired, the computer never actually gets to the Toshiba factory. Instead, the UPS warehouse in Nashville collects the items, UPS workers replace the hard drive or mother-board, and return it immediately to the user.

9.  Informing capabilities have spread through increasingly sophisticated search engines designed by Yahoo, Google, MSN and many others. A search for anything on the web is both possible and easy, and “Google” has become a widely-accepted vocabulary word.

10.  Finally, Friedman speaks of the steroids that have accelerated this flattening of the earth. Here he includes the ability to transfer data and images digitally, the ability to communicate through mobile technology, and the voluminous ways material can be accessed through a whole new communication network.

These ten world flatteners have come into the world because the values of society have changed and shifted over the years. The War generation (born 1929-1949) sought Competence, Conformity and Commitment. The Boomer generation (born 1949-1969) sought Impact, Imagination and Ingeniousness. The X generation (born 1969-1989) sought Relationship and Retreat. Finally the Y generation (born 1979-1999) comes to seek Autonomy, Actualization and Authenticity.

It is particularly in light of the three “A”s of the Y generation that I want to consider the question of the Christian response to the uploading trend which has spread so rapidly.

Uploading
What is uploading, and would Jesus do it?

Uploading is most easily defined by contrasting it with downloading. Downloading implies taking the expertise of somebody else and bringing it to you so that you can benefit from it. Uploading implies going in the other direction: taking your story and making that accessible to others. In downloading there is a controlled transmission of knowledge from one person/location (the expert) to another, the learner, or non-expert. In uploading the emphasis is on the interaction. “If I share what I know, will you join me and make it even better?”

It all sounds very altruistic, and in one sense it is.

Friedman describes four manifestations of uploading: community developed software, community developed answers, blogging and Wikipedia.  His assessment is largely positive, calling uploading the “Harnessing (of) the Power of Communities.” Apache software does the best job of illustrating community developed software: a collaboration of minds developed a better product by sharing the programming source codes with a team of people. The evolution of the Mozilla browser improved on Microsoft’s product by using open discussion to troubleshoot the problems that were surfacing with the Internet Explorer browser.

Blogging—or web-logging, as it was described originally – has become a major venue for people in many disciplines to tell their story and share their perspective, whether it be scientific, medical, theological, political or just personal narrative. The interaction among people and institutions that establish networks have changed the patterns of communication entirely. Even the conservative BBC in England admits that blogs are a major news source for them.

Blogging has mutated already, as teenagers and college students spend voluminous amounts of time on MySpace.com, YouTube.com and Facebook.com. These sites allow one to easily share personal stories, videos or other forms of self-expression by simply uploading from their home computers to the website. It is not just teenagers who are using these sites: Hillary Clinton has called for suggestions for her campaign song, and participants not only get a chance to express themselves but an opportunity to shape the political campaign as well.

The most controversial expression of uploading is Wikipedia, started by Jimmy Wales (Friedman 121). Wikipedia is an open-source, open-editing online encyclopedia that allows everyone (and anyone) to contribute.  Unfortunately, the open source nature of these articles has a clear downside, with a public that cannot always discern or know which data is accurate. Friedman cites the example of John Siegenthaler, Sr., the founding editorial director of USA Today, who discovered to his horror that his Wikipedia biography suggested he was under suspicion of having been directly involved in the assassination of President Kennedy and his brother Bobby.  What was more horrifying than these malicious untruths was the fact that there is no way to trace who put such lies in the bio.

It is a new world that gives everyone opportunity and access, and this is not always a good thing.

Pro’s and Con’s from a Gospel Perspective
Uploading has caused a complete change in how people approach information management and human interaction in our society. Now people appear to be more eager to tell their story than to hear someone else’s. Since being competent, being committed to a cause or system, and being conformed to pre-established rules (the War generation’s three “C”s) have little or no appeal for a younger group, a whole new society exists that does not value listening, but puts the greater value on telling one’s own story. This in turn leads to seven concerns from a Gospel perspective.

First, truth is diminished as a value in itself. If telling my story is more important than determining what is actually true, the gospel respect for seeking truth is diminished. Jesus teaches that truth is determinative of identity, for those who do not seek the truth are children of the devil (Jn 8:44), whereas those who know the truth will be set free (Jn 8:31). When uploading celebrates the manner in which a story is delivered more than the truth that is actually being conveyed, we are at  odds with Gospel belief and Gospel respect for truth.

Second, uploading helps a society exalt autonomy to the point where it becomes an idol. Adam and Eve wanted to extend their autonomy beyond the limits that God designed for them in creation. Human beings have been trying to declare themselves completely autonomous ever since. “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:22).  The brokenness of humanity fuels human pride; Christians should and must take the unpopular stand that misunderstood autonomy is both wrong and dangerous.

Third, uploading gives no acknowledgment of boundaries, and thus does not acknowledge the effects of sin in human existence. In the first chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul delineates how self-worship becomes idolatrous, and thereafter God hands human beings over to their own reprobate minds (Rom 1:28). Our understanding is not only limited, but is flawed and ruined by sin. When we become infatuated with our own story-telling, we stop listening to the redemptive story of God in Jesus Christ. Uploading can encourage our self-intoxication as we become drunk on our own story.

Fourth, uploading fosters isolationism. In a society that spends more and more time behind a computer monitor rather than interacting in face to face relationships, uploading encourages a trend that pulls people away from each other. Christians need to be concerned to not foster isolationism in individuals and groups and instead to strive for ways to help people interact and listen to each other. For this reason the author of the letter to the Hebrews spends time on the danger of not engaging regularly in fellowship with fellow believers (Heb 10:25).

Fifth, uploading enables individual evil. Like any tool, the internet can be used for evil purposes, and the uploading phenomenon empowers pornographers, sexual predators, terrorists and exploiters of any kind to find new victims of prey. One cannot help but think of Simon in Acts 8:19 when he shouts: “Give me this authority as well!” when he asks how much it will cost to buy the power he sees manifest in the apostles.

Sixth, uploading is time consuming. Uploading can demand almost infinite amounts of time which could be used productively in other directions. God calls us to use time wisely as a gift from him. When no one else is around at midday, Jesus takes time to talk to the Samaritan woman at the well.  He turns a simple lunch hour into a human encounter that changes the life of a woman and a community (Jn 4:7).

Lastly, uploading can be a cheap and easy means to spread deception. Fallen human beings like to run for easy answers. Samuel warned the early Israelites that the monarchy would help with some things, but it also empowered an individual to control a community in negative ways. He warned them about the “procedures” of the king that will come with the empowered leaders (1 Sam 8:11). Easy answers are not always the best answers.

These are negative concerns that stand out to me, but I also see seven positive opportunities for Christians and uploading. For Christians with a passion for transforming society, these positive resonances with Gospel values can and should be embraced.

Positive Opportunities
First, the gospel is radically inclusive: nobody is left outside of its empowering nature. Luke, in particular, stresses in his gospel the universal aspect of God’s encompassing love. He points out how Jesus alienated even his own hometown crowd when he spoke of how God touched the widow at Zarephath, or Naaaman the Syrian (Lk 4:25-26). The advent of uploading allows every person access to others in telling their story, whether in a poor African village or a wealthy U.S. suburb. Everyone is permitted to share, and those with a worthwhile offering cannot be excluded by the corridors of power.

Second, the phenomenon of uploading can affirm the interdependent nature of community. Friedman alludes to this implicitly in the section, “Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities,” suggesting that the united whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Paul teaches the Corinthian Christians that individuals are but parts of a body, but the body functions purposefully only when acting in concert (1 Cor 12:14). The agency of uploading reaffirms this truth as it invites collaboration.

Third, uploading invites individuals to take ownership of what they want and need. Mark’s gospel highlights this when Jesus confronts Bartimaeus and asks, “What is it that you would have me do for you?” (Mk 14:51). No longer can individuals claim that they could not share their message with others. All now have equal access and opportunity to convey what they need to share. Thus, somebody in even the remotest village can send their idea or vision across the world. However, it is their story, and they must own it as theirs.

Fourth, the advent of uploading encourages creativity. MySpace.com and Youtube.com are means by which one can interact with the ideas of others easily, and experiment with one’s own ideas. This has the positive effect of encouraging people to experiment and try out ideas that are new or untested. In line with Jesus’ instruction to believe that as disciples we can in faith do greater things (Jn 14:12), uploading can be a means by which we encourage youth in particular to make positive experiments and trust in the Spirit’s ability to open up new understandings and new ministries for them.

Fifth, uploading empowers the community. Christ-ian believers should jump at an opportunity to stimulate the honoring of the community where individuals can contribute their gifts to the common good. Barnabas needed a place to contribute his largesse when he sold his field (Acts 4) and sought a community in which he could express the grace of God in his life (Acts 11). Today more than ever, Christians need a way to express their love for God to each other in practical and concrete ways.

Sixth, uploading invites exploration and discussion. The Apostle Paul engaged the community at Mars Hill (Acts 17) to consider the claims of Christian belief, using their own cultural expressions as a starting point for the discussion. Christians today can use the evidence provided by websites as a basis for discussion and exploration. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, for instance, if the internet became as famous for sharing Christian testimonies as it is now for pornographic material? If Christians engage in the internet with proactive strategies, they can indeed make a difference and help each other to learn and grow.

Lastly, the uploading phenomenon can be used to foster trust. Christians are not called to live in fear and timidity (2 Tim 1:7) but to engage the spiritual battle proactively and with faithful confidence. But Paul challenges Timothy to do the work of evangelist even though the battle will be costly (2 Tim 4:5). While the cost of engaging a world that resists the gospel is high, our unwillingness to surrender any territory to the powers and principalities of this world is the mission to which we have been called. We are rooted and built up in Christ (Col 2:7) so that we might reach out and establish the beachhead of gospel belief in a world that rejects Christ.

So – would Jesus upload?
I believe that uploading is something that the Christian community must address proactively and wisely. In the history of the church God has rarely blessed the Church when she avoided controversy by withdrawing and failing to address the problem. Uploading will adversely affect the worldwide Church until we face it with faith and courage. And like all things, we can turn that which may be intended for evil, and reverse it for the good (Gen 50:20).

Would Jesus upload? Yes, I believe he would. He invites his disciples to upload the story of the Kingdom of God into the darkness of a confused world, to share the story of the gospel with the expectation of a positive response of faith. Let’s accept his challenge.

The Rev. Dr. H. Lawrence (“Laurie”) Thompson III is the Dean of the School of Doctoral Studies and Associate Professor of Liturgy.

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The sources used in this article were Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (2006) and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000). Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo’s The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Best Seller presents a rigorous critique of Friedman’s approach.