Watched!

July 9th, 2016| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Last week was a pretty dark one in American history.

We live in an age of anxiety, fear, and reactionism. People get shot by police and police get shot by people. The latter event happened here in Dallas.

Things are toxic with all this back-to-back violence. And our leaders seem loathe to (or incapable of) doing anything constructive, or saying anything sensible.

[An appropriate season for a sermon series on Judges, it appears (more about that here).]

But one thing struck me, almost as an aside: the Facebook Live video of the shooting of Philando Castile in Minnesota, the other day. Live! The one that Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds streamed of her boyfriend being killed. What a woman! Seemingly calm, at least on the outside composed, summoning up a great deal of courage (she could’ve been shot in the skirmish), she had the presence of mind to whip out her phone and stream the gruesome proceedings. Live!

As well as the streaming images of bullets ricocheting off buildings in Dallas. Live!

In fact, a friend, in another city, watching it live, texted to find out if I was OK, within in a minute of it happening. I hadn’t seen or heard anything, until then.

They watched it live!

From a human standpoint, that may be a glimmer of hope for all of us.

As one commentator put it:

Times are now turning because of the way news content is being produced and the mediums in which it is being shared. We are witnessing new technologies which are transforming the way we perceive the reality around us. Journalism is changing more than ever now. … What makes us pause is how devastatingly effective the video can be.”

Citizen video journalism! That lead to nationwide protests, presidential news conferences from Poland, federal investigations …..

Citizen video journalism, said Yahoo! News, is …

… an unregulated, intimate, extraordinarily powerful new frontier with no limitations.

Responded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to all this:

While I hope we never have to see another video like that, it reminds us why coming together to build a more open and connected world is so important — and how far we still have to go.”

Said another citizen journalist:

The same transformative power that has recently recorded and exposed violence can also cleanse our government and lead to the replacement of our leadership. It can be used both to expose horrific incidents and police bad apples. It can, and should, be used to clean up Washington.”

It is perhaps not coincidental that the Civil Rights chaos of yesteryear ended with the introduction of TV into most households in America. It must have been hard to ignore the brutal images of discrimination.

How about streaming video in congress? Streaming video in our federal agencies? Streaming video in courtrooms? That may make them behave.

And for that matter, streaming video in our own lives, broadcasting every dark nook and dank cranny? Wouldn’t that make us behave?

Oh, wait. SomeOne already sees, without any technology whatsoever. He don’t need no Facebook Live or Periscope or Meerkat apps.

God sees everything!

And there is no creature hidden from His sight,
but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 4:13

Yup, we are watched!

The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men;
From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth,
He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.
Psalm 33:13–15

That ought to make us behave, too.