17 June 2009

A Protest

Everywhere I go, I find them. I can't eat at a restaurant without them trying to entice my attention away from the other guests. Shoot, you find them in McDonalds, at Dairy Queen, you name it. In many a home they have come to replace all meaningful interaction between family members. I speak of the ubiquitous electronic SCREEN. And now the danged thing is asking for admittance in our churches and in too many has already found a home. Good gravy! Can we not be free from the screen for an hour of worship? I can promise you, one will go into the sanctuary of St. Paul's over my dead body (not that anyone is proposing putting one in there, mind you). But there has to be SOMEPLACE left on God's green earth where that wretched screen is not found! And you better not let me find you texting in church either!!!

20 comments:

Phil said...

I already see too much PowerPoint at work. I'm surprised more people haven't gotten sick of it...

Elephantschild said...

So when does the LSB app for the iPhone come out?

(Just kidding.)

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said...

RE: Elephantschild

Yeah, the viewing area for the iPhone is too small for hymns. The Kindle, though... ;)

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said...

Pr. Weedon,

I have a Palm T|X with a duly paid for copy of ESV on Bible With You. If the service folder doesn't have the pericope insert, I'll break it out.

I also use it in Bible class, of all things. :)

Elephantschild said...

Dan = GEEK. :)

Rev. Eric J Brown said...

It was the custom in the ancient church to bury there deceased clergy under the altar at which they served.

Not so with William Weedon. No, they took his memorial monies and bought a nice, shiny screen for the sanctuary, burying him right underneath the 65 inch LCD of awesome glory.

(or was this not what you were implying?)

J.G.F. said...

Add my name to the protest! Nothin' but the Crucifix adorns the front of our Sanctuary, and a life-sized one at that.

Hey, did you ever see the ads in those "clergy cards" that annoyingly arrive in the mail for the "Scrolling Electronic Number Board" so that parents can be alerted to problems in the nursery?? Gotta get me one of 'dem.

John Wurst said...

AMEN! Pastor Weedeon - AMEN!

Jo said...

My biggest gripe against the big screen in restaurants is you can't carry on a conversation. What ever happened to good ole conversation????

Christopher D. Hall said...

Would you all please shut up! TV is on! TV!

JK :)

Unknown said...

Even my gas station has a screen over the pump.

I visited a church recently where they had a projection screen hanging off the side of the apse (the cove where the altar is). They used it pre-service to show announcements. We saw pictures of the building project. The church picnic has an alligator theme. There are no alligators up here.

These are minor points to this one: The screen is a distraction for those of us who are preparing for worship! It partially veils the altar piece and the cross. None of the messages relate to the forthcoming service.

When the service began, the screen was electronically moved to be flat against the wall of the apse. You could still see the side of it for the entire worship service.

I knew then to hang on to my pew, because this was going to be a bumpy ride.

Paul said...

Are we still able to anathematize such depradations? I think that's what you are doing!

Anonymous said...

"I visited a church recently where they had a projection screen hanging off the side of the apse..."

Maybe they were going for a low-budget iconostasis...

Anonymous said...

I was watching a show on multi-million dollar homes and some of them had LCD screens in... the shower so one can watch business news while bathing... some of the homes had screens in the stalls with the toilets... they had screens on the walls next to each door where they could control lighting, air conditioning, music, get stock reports, and get directions if lost in their mansions.

I say... forget the LCD and get some sort of implant on the eye so we can see our favorite broadcasts, blogs, email, etc. delivered right to the brain from our cell phone providers 24x7! LOL! ;-)

Unknown said...

"Maybe they were going for a low-budget iconostasis..."

LOL...that assumes they projected actual Christian images on it!

Rosko said...

I was watching a video recently of what I believe to be Historic St Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, MI. It had 2 flat screens installed, one on each side of the chancel. It looked so far out of place, I almost stopped watching, especially since it was a video of dancing girls, which was also being placed on the screens, so I was watching it in TRIPLE!

That is one thing I really like about where I am now, that such of thing has no place, and no one is pushing for it anywhere anyway.

Past Elder said...

I think the issue of screens per se and what is projected on the screens are two different things -- and that we judge the former not of itself but re the crap that so often happens in the latter.

Dan @ Necessary Roughness said...

Congratulations; you made Issues, Etc., Blog of the Week!

Anonymous said...

No.
The screens themselves are an intrusion into sacred space.

Some years ago I visited a new church (if it fails it can be turned into a mortuary with scant change in decor).
The reredos struck me as a little odd. It had a pretty wood frame and was about 8-10 feet above the altar but it was blank white. It eventually dawned on me that I was looking at a screen. (No, I don't know where the PP or projector was.)
For other reasons (a band was the least of them!) I never went back.
Helen

The Renegade said...

Rosko is correct, St. Lorenz has video screens. We worshipped there a couple years ago on vacation, and they were there then. It's a very malignant tumor on the architecture of that lovely lady in Frankenmuth. I know we are to passively receive God's gifts in the Divine Service, but are we to be so physically passive that we can no longer flip pages in the hymnal, too? Oh, I forgot... the church growth models says worship is for the seeker, not the saved. How silly of me!