Growing up in the country during the 80's and 90's has provided me with memories that are absolutely foreign to the kids currently sound asleep and snoring as I write this. I work at a residential treatment facility for teenage guys and since I work night shift they sleep while I work. It boggles my mind to think that I was finished with high school before many of these kids were even alive! So many things have changed since I was their age and media is by far what has changed the most. Being that we lived in the country we didn't have access to things like cable or satellite dish and so the only television channel options we had came via antenna. On most days we had three options but if the weather was clear we had four. NBC, ABC, and CBS were a part of our daily television regimen and on special days FOX came in clear enough of to make it worthwhile trying to watch it. Deciding what to watch was so much easier back then! And get this, there was no such thing as 24 hour programming! Mind blown! I remember waking up as a youngster and watching the colored bars on the screen until it was 5:30 am and cartoons came on. I remember watching television until 1:00 am and then television cutting off to those same colored bars.
One of the most exciting things about moving to town when I was in high school was that we got cable and with cable came options. We were no longer narrowed in our options and could find things that more suited our taste. Needless to say I was thrilled to be able to watch every single Chicago Bulls game with my dad for years on our non-HD tube television. Can you even buy a tube television now? Before all of these options we would sometimes watch things that may not have been our top choice but when the options are few you learn to deal with it. In our consumer culture with its limitless options we no longer have to put up with watching or listening to something we don't like, even commercials. We can DVR our favorite shows and skip past commercials and not once have to deal with or digest information we have already decided that we don't like. In a way we have the ability as a culture to mute an ear to anything that doesn't fit our fancy. Tune out, change the channel and then tune in to what our other ear really wants to hear. Our preferences get affirmed over and over and over and over again to the point that anything contrary to them is extremely distasteful.
I think it is pretty clear that the United States is anything but united. There are some pretty glaring divisions that are creating havoc within families and leading to the elimination of facebook friends. You don't agree with me….BAM….removed from my friend's list. Pretty severe stuff! I make fun of the facebook scenario, which is pretty common, but the divisive situation in our country really is pretty bad. In my opinion the one thing that feeds this kind of divisiveness is a mute ear. Whatever the topic (religion, politics, sexuality, or all 3 of these at once) I don't get the vibe that either side is really listening to each other and I'm not surprised in the least. We don't like what we hear so we change the radio station. We don't like a particular biased media channel so we go to the biased media channel we do like. We consistently reinforce what we like and this is a hindrance to our ability to truly listen. We literally tune out or mute anything or anyone that challenges what we 'know' to be true.
Being a one-eared Christian in this world is detrimental in many ways to the health and vitality of the church. I love what God says in his conversation with Moses:
"The Lord said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.' "--Exodus 3:7
God hears the cries of His people! That is a big deal! I wonder if Moses heard their cries prior to God's acknowledgement of their suffering. Perhaps by turning his ear toward God he was simultaneously allowed to turn his other ear toward those whom God loves and hear their cries for himself. I think a good indicator for whether or not a church has it's ear turned toward God is whether or not it is attuned to the needs and the suffering of those in it's midst. God hears their cries and in turn so should the church.
This past year I have made a habit of reading and listening to things that in no way align with what I believe. Before I go on, let me state that I am not an 'open minded' person nor do I think you should be 'open minded' either. I am not open to believing things that are untrue. Nowhere in scripture do I read anything about being open minded but it does say an awful lot about being discerning. I have often compared discernment to digestion even though the final picture isn't too pretty. I will eat just about anything but my body discerns what comes in and I will only keep what is of nutritional value. The rest is….well…you know. Having a discerning ear helps sort through all kinds of garbage being sold as treasure in this world. My new habit was not an attempt to be more open minded but more open eared. The fact is that even if something I hear is untrue and contrary to what I believe someone out there does believe it. It is important for the church to better know and understand some of the core beliefs that drive people in this world.
Beliefs always dictate action. If people honestly believed they could get killed in a car accident they would drive differently or not at all. We can all attest to the fact that there are CRAZY drivers out there and I'm sure there are people who think we are those crazy drivers ourselves. People believe they are excellent drivers and do not believe that today could be their day to depart this earth and so they drive like idiots. Our true beliefs are revealed in how we live our lives and drive our cars. Turning an ear toward the beliefs that people hold explains a lot about how people live their lives. I'm not saying to go out and read 50 Shades of Gray to better understand our cultures sexual obsession but I am saying that there are a variety of helpful things to be gleaned from a variety of sources so keep your ear open and your heart discerning.
Here's something I believe to be true about some of the most vocal and public people in the media world: The things that they yell at the top of their lungs in public are more similar to what people believe in private silence than we would like to admit. All too often, when we come across a loud and boisterous figure ranting about something we disagree with, we categorize them as an extremist, a rarity, and discredit their argument based on volume (speaking volume) than actual content. We think they represent only a small proportion of people who really don't understand the issue. These people are yelling advertisements and as a culture we are suckers for advertisements. People, many people, actually believe what these vocal people are selling and people in the church need to recognize it. The charges and accusations made against the church by media figures many times reflect actual belief in the larger population, whether true or not.
And now here's the tough part. What if the accusations and disappointments expressed by people about the church are true? Even if just a little bit. I think that in a culture trained to mute what it doesn't want to hear, a person yelling at the top of his/her lungs is necessary to get our attention. Don't discredit the content because of the volume. Over the last few weeks I have listened to hours upon hours of Bill Maher and trust me he is LOUD! Maybe not high on the Richter scale loud but an 'Up In Your Face' kind of loud. He is as honest as he is loud and he believes every word he says. In his stand up routines as well as on his regular show he is outspoken about his atheism and never misses an opportunity to rail against religion. So why do I listen to him? I think this world is filled with people who believe just like he does but without the platform. I believe that some of his railings against the church are extremely valid and this world is filled with people that have hardened hearts toward God and the church. If God's people don't realize just how deeply fractured this world is, it will never love as deeply as it needs to love in order to bring about the kind of deliverance and reconciliation this world desperately needs. To love as God loves just might start with hearing what God hears. He gave us 2 ears so use both of them!
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