Prayer for Use of Technology

Lord, I am so often overtaken by machines, trapped by technology. My older skills are dying: I telephone instead of writing letters, I put on the CD instead of opening the lid of the piano, I drive to the shops in a sealed box well out of reach of my neighbours. And sometimes I feel controlled by what I should be controlling.—written by Jeff Astley and found at the After Sunday website
Help me to find my life again, enhanced and not eroded by these technical aids. Help me to take control, at least in my heart, and put them in their place. I do know that it is really a useful, impressive place: a place worthy of products of the highest human ingenuity. But I know too that it is a place where they are subordinate to human needs and human cares.
Help me, Lord, to rejoice at the machines, and to be hopeful about the future benefits they can bring.
May technology serve us Lord, so that we may better serve one another, and you.
Amen
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It is not enough for the priests and ministers of the future to be moral people, well-trained, eager to help their fellow humans...the central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word, and to taste fully God's infinite goodness?




Darley and Batson met with a group of seminarians, individually, and asked each one to prepare a short, extemporaneous talk on a given biblical theme, then walk over to a nearby building to present it. Along the way to the presentation, each student ran into a man slumped in an alley, head down, eyes closed, coughing and groaning. The question was, who would stop and help? Darley and Batson introduced three variables into the experiment, to make its results more meaningful. First, before the experiment even started, they gave the students a questionnaire about why they had chosen to study theology. Did they see religion as a means for personal and spiritual fulfillment? Or were the looking for a practical tool for find meaning in everyday life? Then they varied the subject of the theme the students were asked to talk about. Some were asked to speak on the relevance of the professional clergy to the religious vocation. Others were given the parable of the Good Samaritan. Finally, the instruction given by the experimenters to each student varied as well. In some of the cases, as he sent the students on their way, the experimenter would look at his watch and say, “Oh, you’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago. We’d better get moving.” In other cases, he would say, “It will be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head over now.”
If you ask people to predict which seminarians played the Good Samaritan (and subsequent studies have done just this) their answers are highly consistent. They almost all say that the students who entered the ministry to help people and those reminded of the importance of compassion by having just read the parable of the Good Samaritan will be the most likely to stop. Most of us, I think, would agree with those conclusions. In fact, neither of those factors made any difference. “It is hard to think of a context in which norms concern helping those in distress are more salient than for a person thinking about the Good Samaritans, and yet it did not significantly increase helping behavior,” Darley and Batson concluded. ”Indeed, on several occasions, a seminary student going to give his talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literal stepped over the victim as he hurried on this way.” The only thing that really mattered was whether the student was in a rush. Of the group that was, 10 percent stopped to help. Of the group who knew they had a few minutes to spare, 63 percent stopped.
















1 Comments:
At 5/20/2008 7:16 AM,
Anonymous said…
Look how technology has improved the life of the woman in the picture. She can do all of her shopping from the TV, never having to leave home. Now she can spend all of her time cooking and cleaning while wearing her dress and heals with the pearl earings. Not to mention that she is perfectly coiffed. Must be one of those valium hallucinations from the Fifties.:)
Personally, I prefer phone calls to letters. I thank God for the CD player and CDs considering that I was not given the talent to make my own beautiful music. The mall is a great place to take the neighbors; I do prefer the rocking chair front porches though. But, at least we can shop together on line! :) And, if I do venture out alone and anybody may need me, I'm only a cell phone call away.
"May technology serve us Lord, so that we may better serve one another, and you."
Amen!
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