Indifference

A man from Scotland noticed positive changes in his lifestyle after he decided to stop watching television in the evening. 41-year-old Stephen Clarke said, “Now I spend my time creating the reality I want rather than numbing myself from the one I have.”

Mr. Clarke grew up watching television at home as it seemed like a normal thing for him to do. After completing work, he would watch movies or DVDs. Since he already followed a healthy lifestyle, he didn’t experience any glaring negative effects from watching television, but it was the “not-so-obvious side effects” that he eventually became aware of.

Mr. Clarke noticed, “I could feel the energy I was taking on board from the movies and shows I was watching. The drama, the violence, the stress, not to mention the blue light from screens late at night activating and heightening my nervous system and exaggerating all of this.”

Describing television as a “hypnosis machine,” Mr. Clarke said the blue light along with the flashing images that constantly change at a fast pace makes the narrative a part of your subconscious. “The news is constantly giving us reason to be scared, why we’re different from one another, and why we all need to shield and protect ourselves.”

He also felt that while watching television, he wasn’t processing his own thoughts, but rather numbing them, his emotions, and his energy. Instead of working through them, he began blurring his clarity and vision for life. “I experienced big transitions in my life, and I was numbing the feelings of that with screens in the evening, rather than doing what I should have been doing.”

Knowing this, he was keen on making a change.

The father of three began to learn new things such as wood carving, playing a musical instrument, and more. Additionally, he was able to spend more time reading books, cooking, and going on adventures.

He said, “Every month that passes without constant TV exposure gives me more clarity on what I’m doing and how I choose to live my life. My relationships are transforming as well as my working life.”

Mr. Clarke hasn’t cut television out of his life completely, but when he does watch it, he tries to bring value to what he is watching.

When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check “none.” A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They're more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%). Researchers refer to this group as the "Nones."

Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew's new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically. Pew asked respondents what they believe. The research organization found that most Nones believe in God or another higher power, but very few attend any kind of religious service.

They aren't all anti-religious. Most Nones say religion does some harm, but many also think it does some good. Most have more positive views of science than those who are religiously affiliated; however, they reject the idea that science can explain everything.

Pew also asked respondents what they believe. While many people of faith say they rely on scripture, tradition, and the guidance of religious leaders to make moral decisions, Pew found that Nones say they're guided by logic or reason when making moral decisions. And huge numbers say the desire to avoid hurting other people factors prominently in how they think about right and wrong.

Demographically, Nones also stand out from the religiously affiliated:

• Nones are young. 69% are under the age of fifty.

• They're also less racially diverse. 63% of Nones are white.

• The Nones are comprised of three distinct groups – atheists, agnostics, and those who describe themselves as “nothing in particular.”

Tens of millions of people devour true-crime shows on TV, cable, streaming services, radio, podcasts, and in books. This is deeply personal for author Lisa Nikolidakis and her 2022 book No One Crosses the Wolf. She was 27 in 2003, when her father murdered his girlfriend, her teenage daughter, and committed suicide. She experienced the inevitable trauma and "inherited his crime scene of a house." For 17 years she plodded along writing the book about her shock, confusion, and her emotional wounds.

In recent years she "escaped" from her "darkness" by watching endless streaming TV shows that depicted "bizarre murders, cults, kidnappings, rapes, conspiracies. Bodies dismembered and disappeared and defiled, eccentric townsfolk and investigators each with their own secrets.

The upside for this strange choice was that good usually wins, and there are heroes who pay a price. She writes:

I found comfort in following detectives and prosecutors who care. That’s it, really. Someone cared. In real life, we know this often isn’t the case. But fictional characters pursuing The Big Bad are so invested, they pay for it in their personal lives: failed marriages, mental breakdowns, angry children, demotion. They care at their own peril.

She admits: "I can’t stop asking why? When our world news is often so dark, why on earth do we seek out more?" Some of the common reasons:

Voyeurism is a cheap ticket to a thrill-ride – the allure of our own dark sides. There is also the “could I get away with it” curiosity. Would we make better criminals than the ones who are caught? The criminals fascinate us, and we get to peak in their doors from the safety of our triple bolted ones. The world may be dangerous, but there is comfort in our streaming safety. We remain safe.

Evil as entertainment remains deeply problematic, and it raises for me images of families attending public hangings. We look back at that as macabre spectacle, but I am not so sure that what we are doing now is all that different.

Possible Preaching Angles:

The popularity of true crime shows indicates the needs of human nature: 1) Vicarious sin - People delight in imagining themselves breaking the law and getting away with it. 2) Justice; Penalty for sin – People want to see justice done in an increasingly capricious world where criminals go free; 3) Protection and Comfort – We want to feel safe and protected even while entertaining ourselves with the danger of the world.

Six in 10 Gen Zers and Millennials have a complicated relationship—with their cars. A recent survey of Gen Z and Millennial car owners reveals that it takes an average of eight warning lights for them to schedule vehicle maintenance. However, one in four tend to disregard and continue driving with broken speakers or a radio, excessive emissions, low tire pressure light, oil change, or scratches on their vehicle’s body or windshield.

Two out of three say they’re OK with their car not being up to par as long as it passes a state-licensed safety test. On average, it takes five breakdowns for Gen Zers and Millennials to buy a new car.

People stop driving their car and get a new one when the upkeep surpasses their budget (39%), there are too many strange sounds or smells (38%), too many parts have to be replaced (37%), or too much of it is being held together by tape (37%).

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is also true for most people in their spiritual lives, regardless of their age. They will ignore the warning signs and continue with sinful behavior as long as they think they are managing to “hold it together” and get by with it.

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But for one doctor, the cost of lacking such prevention is much more costly. In fact, it’s costing people their lives. Dr. Brytney Cobia is at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, and she’s been treating coronavirus patients, some who are vaccinated, and some who aren’t. The difference between those who make it and those who don’t is as obvious as it is heartbreaking. She said,

I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.

As of July (2021), the state of Alabama had the lowest vaccination rate of the nation, with only about 33% of its residents fully vaccinated. Because of the rise of the virus’ Delta variant, Alabama hospitals are experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-related hospital visits. And according to Dr. Cobia, deathly sickness in someone’s inner circle is the only thing that will get some folks to consider taking the vaccine.

A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.

They cry. And they tell me they didn't know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn't get as sick. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can't. So, they thank me, and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write the death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Lives are damaged and even lost when people choose a convenient untruth instead of an inconvenient truth. Some refuse to take heed until the danger is imminent, but by then it's often too late to do anything meaningful. The time to act with prudence is before the danger overwhelms. 2) In the spiritual realm people also procrastinate making a decision for salvation and it threatens their eternal destiny.

Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. As an artist, he is known for The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa among others. However, his total output in painting is really rather small. There are less than 17 surviving paintings that can be definitely attributed to him, and several of them are unfinished.

The small number of surviving paintings is due in part to his chronic procrastination. He often required a sharp threat by his patrons that they were about to withhold payment to motivate him. The Mona Lisa took over 15 years for him to finish. Worse was The Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned with a seven-month deadline. Da Vinci finished it 25 years later. Da Vinci apologized on his deathbed "to God and Man for leaving so much undone."

Possible Preaching Angle:

God calls his people to build his kingdom--to transform people in the name of Jesus. However, many of us procrastinate. Other “more important” things get in the way. There will come a day when we may look back upon our lives with regret for the things left unfinished.

Storyteller Megan McKenna captures this reluctance to claim and act on our desires in a wonderful parable:

There was a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read papers and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping, and she went into a mall and picked a store at random. She walked in and was surprised to see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus, because he looked just like the pictures she’d seen on holy cards and devotional pictures. She looked again and again at him, and finally she got up her nerve and asked, “Excuse me, are you Jesus?” “I am.” “Do you work here?” “No,” Jesus said, “I own the store.” “Oh, what do you sell here?” “Oh, just about anything!” “Anything?” “Yeah, anything you want. What do you want?” She said, “I don’t know.” “Well,” Jesus said, “feel free, walk up and down the aisles, make a list, see what it is you want, and then come back and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

She did just that, walked up and down the aisles. There was peace on earth, no more war, no hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, harmony, clean air, careful use of resources. She wrote furiously. By the time she got back to the counter, she had a long list. Jesus took the list, skimmed through it, looked up at her and smiled. “No problem.” And then he bent down behind the counter and picked out all sorts of things, stood up, and laid out the packets. She asked, “What are these?” Jesus replied, “Seed packets. This is a catalog store.” She said, “You mean I don’t get the finished product?” “No, this is a place of dreams. You come and see what it looks like, and I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds. You go home and nurture them and help them grow and someone else reaps the benefits.” “Oh,” she said. And she left the store without buying anything.

Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, once referenced what he called the "counter-intuitive phenomena of Jewish history"—a phenomena that applies to Christians as well. "When it was hard to be a Jew," Sacks wrote, "people stayed Jewish. When it was easy to be a Jew, people stopped being Jewish. Globally, this is the major Jewish problem of our time."

Few Americans today say they know their neighbors' names, and far fewer report interacting with them on a daily basis. Pulling data from the General Social Survey, a recent report found that a third said they've never interacted with their neighbors. And only about 20 percent of Americans spent time regularly with the people living next to them. That's a big drop from four decades ago, when a third of Americans hung out with their neighbors at least twice a week, and only a quarter reported no interaction at all.

Public Policy expert Marc Dunkelman noted, "There used to be this necessity to reach out and build bonds with people who lived nearby." Dunkelman added, "[From the 1920s to the 1960s] there was this sort of cohort effect, in which people … were more inclined in many cases to find security that existed in neighborhoods. They depended on one another much more." Little wonder that his book on this subject is titled The Vanishing Neighbor.

The New York Times featured an article exploring our current confusion about friendship. "Ask people to define friendship—even [experts who research friendship]—and you'll get an uncomfortable silence followed by "er" or "um."

"Friendship is difficult to describe," said Alexander Nehamas, a professor of philosophy at Princeton, who in his book, "On Friendship," spends almost 300 pages trying to do just that. "It's easier to say what friendship is not and, foremost, it is not instrumental." It is not a means to obtain higher status, wrangle an invitation to someone's vacation home, or simply escape your own boredom. Rather, Mr. Nehamas said, friendship is more like beauty or art, which … is "appreciated for its own sake."

Ronald Sharp, a professor who teaches a course on the literature of friendship added, "It's not about what someone can do for you, it's who and what the two of you become in each other's presence … The notion of doing nothing but spending time in each other's company has, in a way, become a lost art. People are so eager to maximize efficiency of relationships that they have lost touch with what it is to be a friend."

In a New York Times article titled "Faking Cultural Literacy," Karl Greenfield argues that today's social media lets us pretend to know something about almost everything—even if that "knowledge" is deplorably shallow. Greenfield writes:

We pick topical, relevant bits from Facebook, Twitter or emailed news alerts, and then regurgitate them. Instead of watching "Mad Men" or the Super Bowl or the Oscars or a presidential debate, you can simply scroll through someone else's live-tweeting of it, or read the recaps the next day. [What's really important] is becoming determined by whatever gets the most clicks.

As an example of our superficiality, Greenfield mentions a survey by the American Press Institute that revealed nearly six in 10 Americans acknowledge that they do nothing more than read news headlines. Greenfield adds:

[We all feel] the constant pressure to know enough, at all times, lest we be revealed as culturally illiterate. So that we can survive an elevator pitch, a business meeting, a visit to the office kitchenette … so that we can post, tweet, chat, comment, text as if we have seen, read, watched, listened. What matters to us, awash in [information], is not necessarily having actually consumed this content firsthand but simply knowing that it exists—and having a position on it, being able to engage in the chatter about it.

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Bible Reading; Scripture; Meditation—Do we approach Scripture the same way? Do we feel that what matters is not having actually consumed the content first hand but simply knowing it exists? (2) Discipleship; Spiritual formation—In the same way, do we try to know just enough about Jesus so that we can chatter about him without really encountering him first-hand?

During the height of Marxism in Eastern Europe, the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz (pronounced Ches-wav Me-wosh) explained how so many intelligent people could have been seduced by the soulless philosophy of Communism. Milosz said it was like taking the Murti-bing pill. The idea of the "Murti-Bing pill" first appeared in a 1927 a futurist novel written by one of Milosz's contemporaries.

In the novel (titled Instability), a foreign army is threatening to invade and conquer Poland. The Polish people, nervous and exhausted, have no idea where to turn for help. Should they fight? Should they surrender? Not to worry, the leader of the foreign army offers everyone in Poland a wonderful gift—the Murti-Bing pill. Whoever took the Murti-Bing pill became instantly "serene and happy." The worries of life, including the worry about being conquered and enslaved, no longer bothered them. Takers of the Murti-Bing pill ceased to care about troublesome questions like the meaning of life or what happens after death. Everyone took the pill. But eventually those who took the Murti-Bing pill couldn't completely erase their past or escape their problems so became schizophrenic.

For Milosz, Polish intellectuals and politicians who capitulated to Communism in the 1940s and 50s had taken the Murti-Bing pill. It was the only thing that could help them cope. The pain and shock would be too much to bear, so instead they stopped asking questions about life and just took the pill and escaped.

Possible Preaching Angles: How do we take the Murti-Bing pill and try to escape from the real questions of life? What are our contemporary versions of the Murti-Bing pill—diversions, distractions, addictions, entertainment, or social media?

An article in The Wall Street Journal asks, "Why work out when you can just buy the clothes and look like you did?" The article explores a growing trend in the athletic apparel market—people are buying sports clothing without actually practicing the sport. The article notes "the U.S. athletic apparel market will increase driven in large part by consumers snapping up stretchy tees and leggings that will never see the fluorescent lights of a gym." For instance, sales of yoga apparel increased by 45 percent but yoga participation grew by less than five percent.

The trend isn't limited to yoga. Outdoor and camping retailers have debuted new lines of hiking boots and flannel shirts for people who probably have no intention of actually hiking and camping. Retailers are also rolling out jogging pants and preppy, $90 men's running shorts for men who may never jog.

The article quoted one buyer of athletic apparel who likes to wear yoga pants around town but who seldom has time to workout. She said, "When you put on your workout apparel, you think, 'Huh, maybe I should think about working out today.' "

In the 2013 film, Gravity, Dr. Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock, is a medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky, played by Georg Clooney. On a routine spacewalk, the shuttle is destroyed by a freak hail of space debris, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone. According to one description of the film, "They are tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth ... and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space."

After the film's release, the German magazine Der Spiegel asked 69-year-old German astronaut Ulrich Walter to fact-check the film. Walter said that after becoming completely untethered, Sandra Bullock's character would have died. The interviewer commented, "That doesn't sound like a very nice way to go, drifting through nothingness in a spacesuit, waiting to die."

But Ulrich replied, "When you're slowly running out of oxygen, the same thing happens as does when you're in thin air at the top of a mountain: Everything seems funny. And as you're laughing about it, you slowly nod off. I experienced this phenomenon in an altitude chamber during my training as an astronaut. At some point, someone in the group starts cracking bad jokes … A person who dies alone in space dies a cheerful death." In other words, your situation is hopeless, you're slowly dying, but you think it's funny.

Possible Preaching Angles: Is it possible that our entire culture is, in many ways, cut off from our spiritual oxygen supply, "drifting through nothingness, waiting to die" and yet "everything seems funny"? Is this an example of what Neil Postman called "amusing ourselves to death"?

People sometimes ask, How could sex trafficking happen in America's small towns or big cities? Julie Waters, a family law attorney and director of Free the Captives ministries, offers the following scenario of human trafficking that occurs every day in American towns and big cities:

We turn a blind eye to the 15 year old inner city girl who is being trafficked. Why? Because we turned a blind eye when she was three-years-old being severely neglected by her mother. We didn't see the empty fridge or the apartment without electricity. We turned a blind eye when she was seven-years-old and being raped by her uncle. We turned a blind eye when she was 13 and started missing school and running away from home. And now today when she is forced to sleep with 10 men a night by her pimp at the age of 15, we turn a blind eye because we never saw her to begin with.

Some time ago a rash of flying accidents for single-engine planes occurred across North America. When a comprehensive study was conducted of the 44 most recent fatal accidents involving Cirrus aircraft, a few lessons stood out. First, all but one of the accidents listed pilot-related causes. Second, and most surprisingly, experienced pilots were responsible for a majority of the accidents. A few of the accidents were caused by pilots with less than 150 hours of flight time, but over 75 percent of the accidents were caused by pilots with over 400 hours of flight time. Apparently, these pilots assumed that because they already had a lot of hours under their belts they could cut corners and get sloppy. By contrast, beginning pilots with fewer hours were extremely careful, even painstaking in their preflight routines, meticulously inspecting every rivet of the airplane. They did it by the book. The study concluded that pilots who get overconfident and stop pursuing ongoing safety training are four times more likely to have a fatal accident.

Sometimes we as Christians are 400-flying-hour disciples. Accidents take place because we stop doing it by the Book. We stop studying the Word of God. We compromise on devotions …. We slump on allowing the standards of Scripture and the Holy Spirit to inspect every "rivet" in our hearts and lives. We go on day after day cutting corners, wondering why we lose power on the climbs, and we stall. Accidents may often be the consequences of thinking we know better.

In his book When a Nation Forgets God, Erwin Lutzer retells one Christian's story of living in Hitler's Germany. The man wrote:

I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because what could anyone do to stop it?

A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!

Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us.

We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.

Years have passed, and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.