Is the cellphone a blessing or a curse?
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Reflections
Michael J. Brooks
My generation remembers taking trips or experiencing emergencies and looking about for a telephone. Little did we dream one day we’d all have one in our pockets.
But is this a positive or a negative thing?
One of my colleagues at Judson College always wore ear buds. I asked about this one day, and he told me his wife was mobility impaired and he needed to be available to rush home if she needed him. We’ve found it so convenient to keep appointments on a cellphone calendar, or to check news sites quickly when world events are popping.
But, on the other hand, sociologists tell us we’re losing the ability to converse with one another face-to-face when we’re typing or texting. And we’re wasting a lot of time, they say, “doomscrolling.” This is a relatively new term that describes how we’re hooked into watching a video, and then another, and then another until we’ve wasted an hour and find ourselves depressed.
Charlie Kirk in his posthumously published “Stop in the Name of God,” described his habit of practicing a Sabbath – a time of rest that included hours with the cellphone off.
He also described how he and his wife had a basket by the front door. When guests came for a meal, he requested they put their cellphones in the basket so they could converse unhindered at the table. This practice intrigued me.
I suggested in my Mother’s Day message that most of us learned life lessons with mom at the kitchen table, but this is in jeopardy today when everyone at the table is scrolling. I challenged our mothers to consider the basket idea. And then, unscripted, I launched into a soliloquy about perhaps trying this at church.
“What if we had nice people at the doors with baskets for your cellphones?” I asked. “Would it make our worship better since we’d not be tempted to check baseball scores?”
Seeing the glares, I backed away and announced I was teasing a bit!
I said something similar several months ago, and a nice lady chided me about having 30 Bible translations on her phone and how these enhanced her worship. Wonderful. But I’m not sure others in our churches do this or watch cat videos.
I learned some time ago to begin funeral services and weddings with an appeal for attendees to turn off their phones, although once a phone went off in a funeral service with a “When the Saints go Marching In” ringtone that was somewhat appropriate for the occasion!
Cellphones are a mixed blessing, indeed.
I’m interested in feedback and suggestions from others about how you deal with this at your kitchen table and in your church.
“Reflections” is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Ala. The church’s website is siluriabaptist.com.
