We live in an “information age.” If you have cable television, you can view a wide range of news, sports and entertainment programs from around the world. If you have access to a computer, you can type in any question that pops into your head and use the Internet to find an answer. And if you have a SmartPhone, iPad or Wi-Fi tablet, you can get maps or movie reviews or just about anything imaginable from wherever you happen to be. The past 25 years have seen a tremendous explosion in the range and depth of information now accessible from our home computers and “smart” devices.
More recently, questions have begun to be raised about who might be tracking the questions we ask and the Internet searches we type. Is it an issue of concern when the same GPS device that helps us get directions from the North Hills to the Liberty Tunnel also tracks everywhere we travel the rest of the day? Is it something to worry about when the questions we ask our computer are collated in such a way as to create an online database about who we are, where we live, our age, income and shopping habits? The most common result from this collected personal data is seen when your “shopper’s card” pumps out a personalized coupon at the grocery store for an item you would likely be interested in, or when the sidebar advertisements appearing on the screen, when you do a Google search, reflect causes or organizations you support. None of this may be bad, but it does raise some theological questions.
The theme for this month’s newsletter is “Just Love,” a combination of the Christian virtues of justice and love. Love is not simply an emotional act or a quality of compassion; its larger goal is to bless the receiver while also serving the common good. To paraphrase the end of the pledge of allegiance, love works for the justice of all. The international growth in the computing world raises two questions about love that is truly just. First, having access to information is becoming synonymous with having access to power and opportunities. Jobs are advertised online; communication occurs electronically; resources are only available to people with computers. A “just love” will work to ensure that no one is pushed to the margins because they lack access to the tools of today’s information age. Second, it is possible that the electronic choices we might today (the things we search for, the ads or videos we view) subtly shape the electronic choices presented to us tomorrow (the ads we see, the rankings in Google searches). In trying to present us with personally relevant information, our cyber-profile runs the risk of narrowing defining us by our zip code, income bracket, race, gender and age.
Both of these trends run counter to the larger message of the gospel, in which extra effort should always be exerted to ensure no one is left on the margins or barred from access to life-enhancing resources. Remember how Jesus stopped the parade around him to welcome over the blind men or to offer healing words of comfort to the woman with the flow of blood. Also, no one should ever stereotype us as people permanently locked into one category of life, falsely determined by our age, race, gender, sexual orientation or wealth. For as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5: “From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view…Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!” The blessing of Christian faith is that is presents us with a new vision of life that transforms the way we live now while joyfully providing promises of future peace and eternal life. At the heart of this vision is “just love”; remember that we are called to be its disciples in our personal, spiritual and technological lives.