In the comments on our discussion of Living Into Focus, Brian listed this quote:
It is easy to find ourselves in the predicament Martin Luther King Jr long ago described: ‘We have allowed our technology to outrun our theology’ (p. 69).
I also found that quote thought-provoking, and decided to do some digging. The footnote mentions that the Martin Luther King Jr. quote came from a secondary source (Richard Lischer, The End of Words: The Language of Reconciliation in a Culture of Violence, p. 17). Interestingly, the quote is actually on page 16 of that book (at least that’s how Google lists it) and does not cite where the phrase came from. (Footnotes can be an interesting adventure). It appears that the ‘quotation’ is actually a paraphrase of “We have allowed our technology to outdistance our theology” (perhaps MLJ said it different ways at different times). Anyway, I do believe I found the original written source of the idea. It comes from a talk MLJ gave at a Jewish synagogue in Hollywood, California in 1965 (I’ve provided a link below).
The context of the quote is actually better than the quote itself, which is saying something:
I’m talking about practical materialism — the notion that causes individuals to live as if material values are the only values and concerns in life. Each of us lives in two realms, the “within” and the “without.” The within of our lives is somehow found in the realm of ends, the without in the realm of means. The within of our [lives], the bottom — that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion for which at best we live. The without of our lives is that realm of instrumentalities, techniques, mechanisms by which we live. Now the great temptation of life and the great tragedy of life is that so often we allow the without of our lives to absorb the within of our lives. The great tragedy of life is that too often we allow the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. And how much of our modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau, “Improved means to an unimproved end?” We have allowed our civilization to outrun our culture; we have allowed our technology to outdistance our theology and for this reason we find ourselves caught up with many problems. Through our scientific genius we made of the world a neighborhood, but we failed through moral commitment to make of it a brotherhood, and so we’ve ended up with guided missiles and misguided men. And the great challenge is to move out of the mountain of practical materialism and move on to another and higher mountain which recognizes somehow that we must live by and toward the basic ends of life. We must move on to that mountain which says in substance, “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world of means — airplanes, televisions, electric lights — and lose the end: the soul?”
-Martin Luther King, Jr., Keep Moving From This Mountain, (emphasis added) Available Online HERE
In the sermon, MLK is going after the ideologies of his times. He likens these ideologies to ‘mountains’ that we need to ‘move on from.’ The particular mountain dealt with in the above paragraph is ‘practical materialism.’ Could this really be any more relevant? It’s more relevant now than it was then to be sure. Especially poignant is the line:
Through our scientific genius we made of the world a neighborhood, but we failed through moral commitment to make of it a brotherhood, and so we’ve ended up with guided missiles and misguided men.
To paraphrase, we have a global village, but not a global family. We have guided missiles and misguided men. That’s the kind of wordsmithy paradox that gets me going. Equally good is the idea that civilization has outrun culture.
I am playing around, at the moment, with working out some thinking about the paradox of our concern with climate change in relation to the fact that we are unconcerned with how culture itself (a climate to be sure) is changing. Tomorrow I am going to post something on the fifth commandment that is relevant to this point.
But, for now, I am curious if my commenters have any ideas for such wordsmithy paradoxes related to technology and modern culture(?). Let me know if you have any thoughts.
One of my first thoughts was also in relation to the world’s ideas of “climate change”. I work in the eco-friendly apparel world. There are lot’s of ways to describe the sector of fashion I work in, but essentially it is involved in clothing that uses less-toxic or non-toxic dyes, organic cotton, recycled fibers, etc, as well as some nod toward “fair trade” and other humanitarian business practices. In short, the idea is to be responsible with the land and with the people affected by the product.
At this point, the description sounds pretty good. However, upon closer inspection, we realize that we’ve not yet reached our “ends” when discussing these things. We are talking mostly about means. Why care about the labor practices of your facility? Why care about the cleanliness of your supply chain? Etc? Answering THESE questions helps us to arrive at our “ends”.
What I’ve noticed is that most people are fueled by one of two ideas in the eco-friendly world, the first is selfish fear. Climate change causes fear of personal impending doom. “Be responsible or die” only plays to the natural man’s motives of self-preservation. There is nothing transcendent about this belief. You’ve just widened your perspective and become a more “clever devil”.
The second motive is “coolness.” I’ve always thought it noteworthy how much more sellable eco-friendly became when the buzz word “green” got hijacked from the color spectrum, and practically was branded. Being cool is a sort of externalized religion. I can now wear things that give me a public boost of ethos. Nothing transcendent here either.
We’ve not arrived at affecting King Jr’s idea of “ends” at all with the green movement. This isn’t just true of sustainable fashion, but the entire movement. The heart-motives are screwy. So even if we put out the fire that is supposed to burn us all alive in the imminent future, we will just start a different fire in the process. And this is why we have the technology paradoxes to begin with. We create a solution, and by so doing, we create 20 newer and worse problems. We’ve not circumcised our hearts.
In an environment like this, it is easy for Christians to jump on the band wagon as well, and eat organic, drive a Prius, and use solar power. And yet you can do these things for a million different reasons. If you aren’t seeking Christ’s reason to potentially do a thing, you’ll just pick a reason from the world’s buffet, whether purposefully or thoughtlessly.
Ken Myers says the true, the good, and the beautiful has/have been replaced by the new, the cool, and the sensational. I am tracking with you on this
I tell people that they should not call themselves Creationists if they don’t care about creation. But this speaks to a viewpoint that cares for ‘things’ as ‘created things’ that are valuable to the One who created them.
-We have non-toxic clothing and toxic souls.
-We have whole foods and broken hearts.
-Communication has disconnected understanding.
Wendell Berry observing the tenants of modern commercial education wrote, that our world today teaches among other things that:
“IX. The smartest and most educated people are the scientists, for they have already found solutions to all our problems and will soon find solutions to all the problems resulting from their solutions to all the problems we used to have.” -Wendell Berry “The Joy of Sales Resistance
Along the lines of the Berry quote, I think it was Postman who wrote something about the fact that ‘thus says the Lord’ has been replaced by ‘science has demonstrated.’ I do like the quote you shared, thanks.
Second, all three of your sayings are good. The whole foods and broken hearts rings especially true. I have no doubt that I will use that one! I joke about the fact that my home church now has gluten free communion bread (true story) – and we’re a bunch of conservative Presbyterians! It is not as though there is anything wrong with it. I just see humor in it.