The Sacred Screens

We had our first UKirk Thursday of the fall 2020 semester this week... we met on Zoom but tried to include many of the classic UKirk Thursday elements we'd have in person, like an awkward silence avoider, shared dinner (now delivered to each student via local establishments), thoughtful discussion and prayer, and a lot of laughter. As the fall continues, we hope to include some music, communion, and other worship elements, as possible. But this week we focused on discussing the sacredness of our screens.

Before Covid, many of us spent time trying to spend less time on our laptops, phones, and social media, but now that so many things are on Zoom and social media platforms, that's nearly impossible. So, we're going to spend at least the first part of the semester discussing how our screen time, at least some of the time, can be sacred. We'll be looking at different posts, tweets, and scriptures to help us think about where God dwells in and online. We took note of a popular Instagram post from Jonathan Van Ness, that reads, "just because you Ameri-can doesn't mean you Ameri-should" and compared this quip to 1 Corinthians 10:23, which reads, "all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial." Reminders of how our freedoms and responsibilities intersect were all around us this summer, and even more so now as students share their space. Social media can be a safe place to be reminded of our neighbors before we run into them "IRL".

We look forward to continuing this conversation in next week. I mentioned a very recent article from Professor David Dark that looks at the connected sacredness of screens and social justice. That article is right here:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/lebron-james/king-james-profanity-prayer/

And heeere is a reminder that we have a few classic UKirk worship songs up on YouTube, if you're missing singing together these days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSf20CpAPvw