Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Megaphone

In 1440 a German inventor, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press and the nature of Christianity changed forever, the balance of power between flock and shepherd shifted, with power flowing steadily away from the church elite as the bible became available to anyone who could read. The importance of this shift cannot be overstated, as people gained the ability to read what Christ said and commanded for themselves, the ability of priests, popes, and pastors to manipulate the flock steadily eroded.
But the church elites still had one thing in their favor, the pulpit. As groups of believers splintered off from the Holy Roman Church, they soon formed their own bureaucracies and theologies, and with the rise of seminaries and divinity schools in the late 1600’s, they were able to control the pulpits of their denominations and thus the minds of the flock. So by the mid 21st century the body of Christ was just as rigidly controlled as it was in 1400, just with more flavors.
So now comes the internet and it looks like the shift in the balance of power that began with the invention of the printing press is racing towards completion and the religious elites are squealing like stuck pigs. One believer with a blog, a bible, and a way of speaking to other believers in a manner they can understand can reach as many people in a day as most any pastor and they don’t like it at all.
Some of their complaints are valid, the internet is the most powerful megaphone ever invented and there are a lot of morons out there propagating silliness of the first magnitude. Turns out false prophets have high speed connections too. It’s wild, undisciplined, often messy, but often exhilarating. There are incredibly moving voices being heard that would never drawn attention had it not been for a megaphone of their own, and my walk with the Lord has been enriched by people from all over the world, people I would never have known had it not been for the miracle of the World Wide Web.

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