I watch things like this, then I look at my own life, and shake my head…
New Gračanica Orthodox Monastery
Some pictures:
Answer: None of the Above
Question: Which politician am I counting on this election season to save this country?
Do not trust in rulers and in the sons of men,
In whom there is no salvation.
His breath shall go out of him,
and he shall return to his earth;
On that day all his thoughts shall perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob;
His hope is in the Lord his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and everything in them,
Who keeps truth forever,
Who executes justice for the wronged,
Who provides food for the hungry.
Ps. 145:3-7 (LXX)
A Christian Reflection on the (Temporary) Demise of SOPA and PIPA
There has been much rejoicing in Internet circles during the past week following the tabling of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From my knowledge of what these laws would have done, SOPA and PIPA would have wrought great damage to the fundamental integrity of DNS and placed unprecedented power in the hands of a small number of copyright holders, all so that copyright holders can continue to horde and store riches without the interferences that the free internet presents. I believe that is a fair assessment of what SOPA and PIPA would have accomplished (if it is not, please forgive my ignorance). The lawyer in me wonders whether SOPA and PIPA would have unconstitutionally trodden on a public forum, as the laws would unquestionably have inhibited the free expression of ideas.
But that is beside the point. I am writing now of the spiritual dimension of SOPA and PIPA, and the Christian ramifications of what just happened.
SOPA and PIPA were the fruits of the massive lobbying power of the RIAA, the MPAA, the cable networks, and related entities. Many today decry the power wielded by these groups. Yet these groups only possess this power because we have given it them. We have become a society whose primary aim is to be entertained and humored at every turn. Our lives are filled, from waking until sleeping, with music, movies, television, video games, etc. With our iPads and iPhones, we can carry these entertainments with us wherever we go. God forbid that entertainment ever be more than a click or a tap away. If a device isn’t capable of streaming Netflix to us wherever we are, it is useless.
Every dollar we spend on these activities – Netflix subscriptions, movie tickets, DVD box sets, MP3 purchases, video games, cable television charges, etc. – fuels the beasts that are the RIAA, the MPAA, and their doppelgängers. We could shut them all down in a month if we threw bricks through our televisions, flushed our iPhones down the toilet, and kicked our Wii’s to the curb.
Constant dawn-to-dusk entertainment is inherently opposed to a life in Christ:
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. (Luke 6:25, NKJV)
And I [the rich man] will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you…” (Luke 12:18-20, NKJV)
But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [of Judgment] come on you unexpectedly. (Luke 21:34, NKJV)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten… You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. (James 5:1-2, 5, NKJV)
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” (Apoc. 18:1-3, NKJV)
St. John Chrysostom in particular repeatedly cautioned about excesses of entertainment, luxury, laughter, and frivolity:
There is no harm in laughter; the harm is when it is beyond measure, and out of season. Laughter has been implanted in us, that when we see our friends after a long time, we may laugh; that when we see any persons downcast and fearful, we may relieve them by our smile; not that we should burst out violently and be always laughing. Laughter has been implanted in our soul, that the soul may sometimes be refreshed, not that it may be quite relaxed. For carnal desire also is implanted in us, and yet it is not by any means necessary that because it is implanted in us, therefore we should use it, or use it immoderately: but we should hold it in subjection, and not say, Because it is implanted in us, let us use it. (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews, Homily XV)
Shall I say also how many pains and displeasures they have who wait upon luxury? I could not enumerate them all, but by a single principal point I will make the whole clear. At a table such as I speak of, that is, a sumptuous one, men never eat with pleasure; for abstinence is the mother of pleasure as well as health, while repletion is the source and root not only of diseases, but of displeasure. For where there is satiety there desire cannot be, and where there is no desire, how can there be pleasure? And therefore we should find that the poor are not only of better understanding and healthier than the rich, but also that they enjoy a greater degree of pleasure. Let us, when we reflect on this, flee drunkenness and luxury, not that of the table alone, but all other which is found in the things of this life, and let us take in exchange for it the pleasure arising from spiritual things, and, as the Prophet says, delight ourselves in the Lord; “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on John, Homily XX, quoting Ps. 36:4, LXX).
So too in the case of the soul, that which leads an easy, luxurious life, has its impulses quickly swayed to sin: for such a soul is next neighbor to folly, to pleasure, to vainglory also, and envy, and plottings, and slanderings. Behold this great city of ours [Constantinople], what a size it is! Whence arise the evils? is it not from those who are rich? is it not from those who are in enjoyment? Who are they that “drag” men “before the tribunals?” Who, that dissipate properties? (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily XLII)
We should call our addiction to pleasure what it is: gluttony and idolatry. Our minds are so stuffed with entertainment, our modern “American Idol,” that we have no room left for God, no capacity to grasp our total emptiness. How can we learn the Scriptures, and the Fathers, and be enriched by the lives of the holy Saints if our minds are lost in Angry Birds, or can’t be bothered to miss an episode of Top Chef, or are waiting on a line for a ticket to the latest Twilight premiere?
How can we even hear God, with all that racket from the TV blaring? What better way for the devil to keep us distracted from our neighbors in need, our sick, our families, our communities, and our starving souls, than to heap upon us the distractions and enticements of a life of luxurious entertainment?
Is it any wonder why the author of Ecclesiastes said, concerning “merriment”, that it, too, was mere “vanity”:
I said concerning laughter, “This is madness,” and concerning merriment, “What does this accomplish?” I searched in my heart that I might excite my flesh as with wine. And my heart guided me with wisdom to grasp what is foolishness, until I might see what is good for the sons of men, that which they should do under the sun all the days of their life. …
I … gathered silver and gold for myself and the abundant treasures of kings and countries. I provided male and female singers for myself, the delights of the sons of men, and male and female cupbearers. So I became great and advanced beyond all before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom established me.
Whatever my eyes desired,
I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any merriment,
For my heart was made glad in all my labor.
And this was my portion from all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled,
And indeed all is vanity
And is the choice of one’s spirit.
There was no profit under the sun. (Eccl. 2:2-3, 8-11)
Amazingly, it is a movie – WALL-E, specifically – that gives the most vivid visual depiction I have ever seen of this gluttony and idolatry. Anyone who has seen the movie will know what I am talking about. The faux-human characters in WALL-E had become so overfed, so lazy, so addicted to TV and entertainment, that they became physically (and disgustingly) transformed. They were each morbidly obese, and floated about in special mobile-recliners, complete with a video screen with TV always in sight, food always within easy reach, totally oblivious to the truth of the world around them. They were so engrossed in their own entertainments that ultimately lost complete track of where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing. When their bubble was burst in the movie, these faux-humans literally had no idea what to do with themselves, and they very nearly all died.
Who, in their right minds, would want to live in that world? Yet viewed against the backdrop of our actual culture of endless entertainment, how different are we really from that depiction?
I agree completely with those who perceived SOPA and PIPA as the means of creation of a tool that could have oppressed and trampled upon the rights of many. But our own gluttony and idolatry, our own refusal to put down the remote and pick up the Scriptures, has brought us here – and I do mean us. I include myself squarely in that camp, since I am as guilty as anyone in this regard: just ask anyone who knew me when Lost was still on television.
It should be little wonder that our addiction to excess brought us so close to this precipice. What else would we expect? “The wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23). God has blessed us with a temporary respite from SOPA and PIPA, and at least a few more years of the open internet before the copyright police arrive. This is not, as some say, a moment of triumph for those who want more “enlightened” or “disruptive” ways of delivering these same entertainments. Rather, let us not waste this chance to turn from the excesses of entertainment and turn instead to the cultivation of a broken and contrite heart, which God will not despise (Ps. 50:19, LXX).
I’ll end my little rant with this:
And at midnight, a cry was heard: Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered, saying, “No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.
Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us!” But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”
Let us pray, for our own sake, that, when the Bridegroom — our wonderful Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ – truly does come, it’s not in the middle of NCIS.
Modern Day Anchorites
I’ve run into this YouTube video a couple of times now. Both times, it astonished me, as well as encouraged me, that there are still people striving to live as an anchorite in today’s world.
Sometimes, sitting here in suburban Cleveland, I look around and wonder where I’d even begin if such a desire ever overwhelmed me. I’m sure the Holy Spirit would answer that particular question should it arise. This video (shot in the late 1990′s in eastern Europe) gives a fair idea of how the Holy Spirit has continued to guide today’s hermits.
