I heard something one morning last week on network news that left me flabbergasted!

Certainly there are far more important issues out there, covered masterfully by Bloggers who are “far sharper knives in the drawer” than I am. But I almost spilled my coffee in my lap when I heard what I heard.

There has been a common thread running through all of my blog posts: To what extent have we, as a culture and as individuals, become so enticed by and attached to our modern industrial, technological, progressive culture that we have become like “frogs in the pot” and blinded to how this has pulled us away from God? Have we grown to accept thousands of things as “normal” in our lives today that fifty years ago we never dreamed we’d have let alone become dependent upon. Has this changed us? Irretrievably?

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m hardly a Luddite! My life and our farm are overflowing with all the latest technologies. As the Catechism teaches, “Science and technology are precious resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral development for the benefit of all” (2293). All of our technologies are built upon gifts within Creation that God placed there for our betterment. But, as the Catechism also teaches:

“By themselves, however, they cannot disclose the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development; hence they find in the person and in his moral values both evidence of their purpose and awareness of their limits” (2293).

The question is: Are we carefully aware of “their purpose and … limits” or blindly accepting every advancement that is placed before us for our assistance, entertainment, or absorption?

So what did I hear that was so “shocking”?

I stumbled downstairs, made coffee, and turned on the tube. The NBC Today show came on: not by choice, but because the technology had been left on that channel. There before me I had the privilege of seeing, what was being touted as an historic first: Ann Curry was interviewing the new President of Iran who was speaking out for the first time in 8 years! There he was seated in his traditional Islamic dress and across was seated Ann Curry in a black pants suit, but with her head covered with a white traditional Burqa! The head covering made sense as a respectful gesture, but the pants suit?!

Anyway, she began asking admittedly important, even confrontational questions about his plans for renewal as the new Iranian President, including his attitudes toward Israel and nuclear arms: Did he share the views of his predecessor? Did he also believe that the Holocaust was a hoax? Was he also out to exterminate Israel?

After these questions, and the optimistically positive answers from the President, she then turned to what appeared to be the most telling of her questions. This was the climax of her interview: Would he stop the government’s previous policies of censorship and allow more freedom and civil rights for his people? In summary, he answered “Yes,” essentially that the government needed to stay out of the private lives of their citizens.

Great! But then her ultimate and final question (at least as presented by NBC news). I waited “on the edge of my seat” to hear what this might be, and she asked with a look of intense deliberation: “Does that mean that you will allow your people free access to Facebook and Twitter?”

What?! I don’t remember what the President answered. My eyes had glazed over. I think he may have said something like “Yes,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was as stunned by this absurd question as I was. With all the issues of civil rights and individual freedom under attack in the world, the one “right” that has become the most tell-tale mark of progress, at least from an American perspective, is whether these people, most of whom still carry on the simply traditions of their forefathers, have free access to social networking.

Lord, help us. As I wrote in my last blog post,  “Do you have a place in your life where you can “shut the door” away from the entanglements and enticements of modern technology, or are we so entangled that we can’t even imagine life anymore without them?”

Or as Scripture teaches, “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22).

I’ll just end with these further thoughts form the Catechism: (1723)

The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement – however beneficial it may be – such as science, technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all love.