Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 July 2008 06:41:05
Whether you're reading a book like Disconnected, listening to David Cameron or simply chatting to a kid about the world they live in you can't fail to notice that current life is pretty grim in some ways and young people are looking for ways to escape it. However, I'd argue that it's not just young people, there are vast sections of adult society also balancing the day job with evenings and weekends of escapism (through alcohol, anti-depressents, video games, soap operas or illicet sex).
This escapism is not biblical and is I would argue one of the key problems in modern society and one of the areas where Christianity has a real alternative to offer (if the church would wake up, smell the coffee, and start being offended by the stuff that really matters rather than stuff that doesn't).
People are escaping and so abdicating their responsibilities because they are living in bleak, treadmill lives on one hand but live in a world of absolute choice on the other. They feel powerless, as Barham (in Disconnected)and many others have pointed out we live in a world where the politicians showed they were prepared to ignore the majority when they went to war in Iraq in 2003. They feel trapped in bleak worlds where they have to compete and claw their way up career ladders, not by having a job for life but knowing when to jump and how to juggle multiple roles. They are ruled by the demands of our consumer lifestyles. They have so much choice they feel they have no choice and so they use whatever makes them, just for a while feel better.
The results of this escapism vary. For many their recreational drug use, casual sex, or use of the media will have no long lasting negative result that they can see, but for some the results on emotional and physical levels are scary. But let us look at the results on society.
A disposable society, where sex becomes another escape route - used to make people feel better leads to relationships becoming undervalued as sex becomes seperated from commitment. It leads to a society where families fragment and parents of whatever ethnicity and gender struggle to keep it together. (Note Mr. Cameron - it's not just a black thing). It leads to a world where our teenagers (and adults) are increasingly getting preventable diseases.
A society where prescribed drugs or recreational drugs are increasingly the crutch used to get through life leads to a situation where it becomes accepted that everybody is on something the only question is who you are getting it from, how much is costs and how well does it work. It leads to a society where our minds are fogged. (Note here I am not knocking all prescribed drugs or saying that some people don't need anti-depressants but my five years on Seroxat gives me some experience of the negative aswell as positive effects). It also leads to a society where people increasingly think rather than having to face up to reality they can get happy pills to escape what infact will remain.
So what alternative does Christianity offer?
Christianity offers a value system which says sex is good, but is ideally within stable life long relationships. Note marriage and civil partnerships are good things. It is also a value system which acknowledges things can go wrong, but that doesn't mean the end of things. The bible is full of people making positive decisions after messing up and rebuilding their lives. It is a book which also acknowledges that people suffer because of the bad decisions of others and shows in those situations you don't need to escape reality totally but rather you need to turn to God who will help you through facing the reality whilst you are getting your head around what's happened. (Note here: I am not saying people should stay in bad relationships, I would be the first to advocate that somebody get out of any relationship which is abusive or is having a negative effect on them. What I am saying is in that situation rather than dealing with the pain artificially Christianity should be offering an environment and ways of dealing with situations which are healthy and work through what's happened. Also I'm not advocating we abandon the professionals, rather that we work with them and offer people opportunities and spaces).
The bible is full of stories about people who positively changed the world around them by not running away or escaping but rather by facing up to the hard stuff, engaging the minds and imaginations God had given them. It is full of stories of people with low self-esteem who found meaning not through getting wasted or moving from one bloke to another but rather through learning to respect themselves and letting God take them on amazing adventures.
So as Christians what we have is a gospel which is about creativity, using public space, chilling out in groups and then using that stuff to change the reality of the world around us, valuing ourselves and relying on God not chemicals or sex. Through this families (of whatever shape) are built and become stronger, single people are valued and consumption should theoretically fall.