Toppling the Old Boys Club or What Would Jesus Blog?

This is the first in a series of articles that will help us to disciple our children in the midst of this new global phenomenon. We must prepare this generation to live as Christians while the old world disappears and a new emerging digital world is changing everything around us at break-neck speeds.

Have you heard the old cliché “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know?” Not any more. The power brokers of knowledge are gone. The sages of the ivory towers and the protectors of truth have been reduced to mere mortals. How about a few more clichés: “the cat is out of the bag,” because, “there is a new sheriff in town,” or more correctly there is no sheriff in town. The digital world and the internet have dismantled the old authority structures that protected the dissemination of knowledge as their chief source of power and control over the masses.

In 1370 an English scholar emerged with a vision to change Europe forever. This scholar wanted the same thing the internet has done. He wanted to get information to the masses that would enable them to make their own decisions regarding truth. This would give them the ability to touch the face of God without holding the hand of the educated priest. His name was John Wycliffe and he was the first to translate the Bible from Latin into English. Perhaps his most famous statement was, “I believe that in the end truth will conquer.” His notoriety and scholarship was renown throughout all of Europe. His writings had a wide circulation and became the foundation for a pre-reformation to take place as far away as Bohemia (modern day Austria/Hungry). The Christian History Institute writes, “Wycliffe cared deeply for the poor and common folk and railed against the abuses of the Church. The Church owned over one-third of the land in England. Clergy were often illiterate and immoral. High offices in the church were bought or given out as political plums. But the problems went even deeper. Wycliffe, a devoted student of the Bible, saw that some of the doctrines of the church had departed from biblical moorings. Based on his study of the Scripture, he wrote and preached against the teachings about purgatory, the sale of indulgences, and the doctrine of transubstantiation.” (http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps013.shtml)

Wycliffe not only stepped on the religious toes of the Roman Catholic Church but also the power structures of European politics. He declared, “This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” He saw correctly that if the control of knowledge (in this case the Bible) could be given to the people then they would begin to challenge the powers that be and bring change. Unfortunately, Wycliffe was removed from his post as Chief Scholar of Oxford University and banished from preaching. He went to work on his translation of the scriptures which his followers would faithfully copy and distribute throughout England. His translations where confiscated and his followers were burned at the stake. Foxes Book of Martyrs focuses much of its attention on the enormous sacrifices of these people.

What did Wycliffe lack? Why is he only know as the “Morning Star of the Reformation” and not the Father thereof, the title given to our beloved Martin Luther? Simply stated it was the Gutenberg printing press. Some historians would argue that Wycliffe would have made a better leader of a Reformation. His theology was far more temperate and it presented a strong balanced understanding of the role of the state. Regardless of this, Wycliffe’s time lacked the technology to mass produce his message and thus the religious and political authorities in his day successfully muffled his message and held the reformation back for another 150 years.

“Whoever controls the language, the images, controls the race.” (poet Allen Ginsberg; The New Yorker, August 24, 1968) If this is even remotely true, and I think it is, then we are in the greatest moment of the deregulation of control in all of human history. This is illustrated by what is taking place in China today: once the internet is available their world will be forced to change. My brother started the Digital Bible Society which is devoted to the task of reaching millions of Chinese with Bible CDs in several translations as well as containing reference materials and study guides. Now that the internet is available his website is becoming a huge source of Biblical scholarship to the largest people group in the world!

What does this mean for our kids? They are growing up in a world where the Old Boys Club, made up of those who control the media, has been dethroned. Back in the 80s I attempted to publish my first book, The Mystery of the 3 Days and Nights, (http://www.kcc.net/greg/3days.htm) a study of the spiritual side of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and found nothing but discouragement from the established Christian book publishers. They said it was too controversial and I didn’t have a famous name that would sell books. They were right but thanks to the internet I published my book in 1997 on the web and continue to receive comments from around the world, some good and some scathing. But like Winston Churchill once said, “You can write good things about me or bad things, just don’t misspell my name.” Yes, I was, and to many, still am, very controversial. Nevertheless, I am now published and have had significant influence in places I never imagined.

In our church staff meeting our Men’s Group leader suggested that he start an email newsletter for the men of the church. I suggest that he start a Weblog or as is more commonly called today Blog. Blogs are updated diaries or personal news pages that instantly publish a person’s thoughts, ideas, news etc. Today there are over 5 million of these Blogs world-wide. Some political pundits attribute many of the problems John Kerry had in the last US election to right-wing bloggers who called him out on several issues. The recent resignation of the trusted CBS News anchor man, Dan Rather was orchestrated by bloggers making sure that his inaccurate statements about George Bush’s military record came out loud and clear. It was at least a week after he presented forged documents of Bush’s poor military service that the “main stream media” picked up the story. Bloggers kept pounding the story until it finally came out. As I made this suggestion at the staff meeting half of those present had no idea what a blog was. I suggested that many of their own children were already published authors and poets. The men’s ministry leader sort of smirked but his expression changed when I showed him and the staff his fifteen year old daughter’s web page where she frequently blogs her thoughts and feelings. He was astonished that his daughter was already an accomplished and published writer and that people frequently visited her site.

We are now part of a world, a digital world, that has changed and challenged all of the old world media moguls. Who are the power brokers of knowledge? We could ask Wikipedia, the new online encyclopedia, whose contributors to the articles are anyone who can write about anything. That’s right; the largest encyclopedia in the world is made up of articles on anything, from anywhere written by anyone. Don’t you need a PhD to write for an encyclopedia? Apparently not. Some of the most prolific writers on this amazing collection of information have no formal education. The material is scrutinized and edited by other non-official officials; anyone anywhere can edit. Yet what has come forth is an amazing journal and dynamic collection of articles (586,583 at the time of this newsletter).

It is time to prepare a generation of truly inspiring young people to engage a culture that will now let them in. In fact there is no way you can keep them out. Here within HCOS we are deliberate in our attempts to have our students gain a vision for this opportunity to impacted our culture - to be the Wycliffe's, John the Baptists of our generation.  Then perhaps God in his great mercy and grace will give us another Martin Luther to bring another reformation to our postmodern culture. Would Jesus blog? I think the real question for today’s generation is W.W.J.B.