he Curses of Modern Society - Glenn Conjurske

The Curses of Modern Society

by Glenn Conjurske

God himself has subjected his creation to a curse. This curse consists of toil and hardship, pain and suffering, disease and death. Yet this curse, though difficult and unpleasant in the extreme, is an actual benefit to mankind, for its tendency is to exercise man’s conscience, and to cause him always to feel his weakness and dependence. Affliction is good for man, to turn him from sin, and to keep him from it. Peter says, “He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,” and the curse which God has inflicted upon his own creation consists of suffering in the flesh. The Psalmist says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept thy word,” and therefore, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:67 & 71).

The curse, then, which God has inflicted upon the earth is one which appears to be evil, and yet works good. The devil, just contrariwise, has inflicted his curses also, but they are those which appear to be good, and yet work evil. Into this category will naturally fall all of those things which work to undo the curse which God has inflicted—-all of those things which ease man’s burdens, mitigate his toils, and remove his sufferings. Among these are included much of modern invention and technology, machinery and mass production, and scientific and medical advances. Not that we could regard all such things as unmixed evils. To some extent at least it is certainly a good thing to ease man’s burdens. The Lord did so when he walked this earth, and set us an example that we should do likewise. Moreover, the day is coming in the which God himself shall remove the curse from the earth, and it will certainly be a good thing when the groaning and travailing of the creation, and man also, shall cease. Yet observe, God will not do this until the day in which he establishes a righteous government on the earth, under the iron rod of Christ. The wholesale removal of man’s toils and burdens in his present state is much more productive of evil than of good, and cannot be otherwise. It was the wisdom of God which inflicted the curse so soon as man became a sinner, and man does not know better than God.

But all of this easing of man’s burdens has only an indirect tendency to evil. There are yet greater curses than these in modern society—-modern inventions and attainments whose tendency is primarily and directly to evil. It may be that none of them are evil in themselves, nor yet that they must necessarily be productive of evil, but that as a simple matter of fact they are productive of evil. They augment and multiply man’s temptation to evil, and his capacity for evil. This has all no doubt been engineered by the devil himself, who is the ruler and god of this world.

Though I have somewhat hesitated as to which of these curses I should place at the top of the list, I have at length determined upon the camera. This may not appear to be a curse at all, simply considered, but the things of the world do not exist as unrelated atoms, but as integrated components of a system of which the devil is the head, and I suppose that, all things considered, the camera contributes more to the forces of sin than any other invention. Its greatest evil is its contribution to the production of pornography, a flood of which now inundates the world, none of which could exist without the camera. I am aware that pornography is not so prevalent and all-pervasive as some other curses I shall mention, but it does more damage. It is more ensnaring, more defiling, more enslaving, and more damning than other evils. It is of course defiling and damning also to the producers of it, as well as to those who are used in its production. The love of money is the root of those evils, but they would not exist without the camera.

And while I am speaking of the camera, I must also list as some of the greatest curses of modern society both the movies and the television. The theater has existed for centuries, and has always been a force for evil, but it was not so readily available as the movies and television have made it. Now all of the filth, the smut, the sensuality and innuendo, the wrath and violence—-or the unmixed worldliness of the so-called good movies—-in short, all of the sin which has always been the staple of the theater is available to everyone, at all times, in living colors, set to enchanting music, at the touch of a button. But I beg leave to point out that it is the camera which is at the bottom of all of this. None of this could exist without the camera.

Now in the light of all of this, it is hard to suppose that the devil had nothing to do with the invention and development of the camera. The kingdom of God had no need whatsoever of the instrument, and if the camera had never been invented the cause of Christ would not have suffered in the least. I beg my readers to note that the Bible characterizes “all that is in the world” as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life” (I John 2:16), and it is perhaps safe to say that no other thing in existence has so bound these three together, as a threefold cord which cannot be broken, as the camera has done. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye are two things, but in pornography they are one, each strengthening the other. The same is true of the movies and television.

But there is yet more. The lust of the eye and the pride of life are two things, but in the department store catalog they become one. “Love not the world,” the Bible says, “neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (I John 2:15). Yet nothing in existence has so contributed to glorify the things that are in the world, as the camera has done. Though smut and sensuality did not exist, the camera would yet be a great curse for its constant contribution to the glorification of simple worldliness. Advertising was revolutionized by the camera, and today “the things that are in the world” are blazoned before the eyes of everyone everywhere, in papers and magazines, signs on the highway, and even in telephone books.

But I proceed to the next great curse of modern society, which is the radio. The damage which the radio does to the souls of men is incalculable. The kind of damage which it does may not always be so deep and damning as that which is done by the camera, for the radio does not feed the eye, but the radio is more pervasive in society than anything which the camera can provide. Men cannot always watch something, but they can listen at almost all times, and many there are who never get away from the radio, except when they turn to the television. The radio wakes them up in the morning, and they listen to it the whole day long, whether eating, working, driving, playing, or what have you. They are addicted to its sound, and can hardly live without it. I was working on a temporary job at a factory some fifteen or twenty years ago. When I started work in the morning, the foreman conducted me to a machine where two girls were working, and a radio blaring. I settled in for what I expected to be an evil day, but in a few minutes the foreman came to take one of the girls to a different machine, as I was there to replace her for the day. She took the radio with her, and the other girl began immediately to moan, wondering how she could make it through the day without the radio. I told her I had been wondering how I could make it through the day with the radio. A little later in the morning I began to talk to her about her soul, and told her I was a Christian. Her immediate response was, “So that’s why you didn’t want the radio. You know it’s no good.” Yes, and she obviously knew it was no good also, but was addicted to it anyway.

I should mention, by the way, that I have always refused to take any long-term job where there was a radio. I have sometimes worked for a day, or a few hours, with one, but I will not stay on such a job. The job which I mentioned above was temporary, and I had no obligation to go back for a second day. Twenty-five years ago I had a good job in a hospital laundry. The supervisor brought in a radio. I immediately told him I would not work with it. Either I must go, or the radio. He threw plenty of sarcasm in my teeth—-told me we were running a laundry, not a Sunday school—-but he took out the radio.

The radio is defiling. Its music is corrupt, and addictive also. Addiction, I should say, is not necessarily a physical thing. Addiction is in the soul, though the body may be addicted to some things also. Herein lies the strength of sin. Infants are not born addicted to sin. Little children are not addicted to swearing, or gambling, or pornography, or drink. These things have no hold upon a man until he strengthens his own lusts by indulgence in them. Indulgence brings addiction. The strength of sin does not lie merely in the corruption of our nature, real as that is, but in habit. And the constant indulgence in the radio, day in and day out, strengthens its hold upon a man until his soul is addicted to it. Its influence is of course evil. It is filled with moral corruption. This is too obvious to need any proof. It is in and of the world, wholly worldly, even apart from any apparent moral corruption.

But there is another evil in the radio, perhaps as damaging as the actual defilement which it communicates. It effectually stands in the way of any spiritual good. It keeps men from thinking. It controls their minds—-keeps their minds constantly engaged with the corrupt, the frivolous, and the worldly. Thoughts of God and eternity never enter their minds, while the radio bears its all-pervasive sway. The scripture says, “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart.” (Matt. 13:19). The devil has always done so, and I suppose that he has numerous means by which to accomplish it, but I frankly suppose that since the invention of the radio he might as well have gone on vacation. Not that we suppose the devil has gone on vacation. He has perfected his machinery, but he is still in control of it. Today a man may hear the word of the gospel, and understand it too, and be impressed by it and moved by it, but how long will this last? Only until he turns on the radio, which will quickly obliterate those serious thoughts, catch away the word of God out of his heart, and blot out the very remembrance of it.

It would be well if this evil were confined to the world, but no, it pervades the church also. The radio plays the whole day long in many Christian homes. It may be Christian radio, but what of that? Its preaching is shallow and worldly enough, while much of the programming consists of music—-and very shallow and worldly music too—-and its effect can only be to dissipate, I will not say all serious thought, but certainly all deep thought. Now permit me to speak very frankly. I read but little of the literature of the modern church. I have no taste or time for it. I say, “The old is better.” But when I do read modern Christian literature, I am constantly impressed with its shallowness. Most of it consists of nothing deeper than worn-out clichés. And when I read the doctrinal argumentation of modern publications, I find it often so childish—-so mindless—-that I am perfectly amazed that adults could write such stuff, to say nothing of doctors of divinity. Now there must be a reason for the extreme shallowness of the modern church, and I cannot help but suppose that one of the primary reasons, at any rate, is the radio. None but the most shallow sort of thinking is possible while the radio plays. Christian radio may actually stimulate some serious thoughts, about “God is so wonderful” or some such things, but those thoughts, however pious, will necessarily be of the most shallow sort, and any connected reasoning or deep meditation will be out of the question. The case would be bad enough if it were only for the time which Christian radio steals from serious thought, but I fear it is much worse. I fear that this constant stimulation of the mind from without robs men also of the habit of thought, and eventually of the ability for it. I repeat, there must be some explanation for the extreme shallowness of the modern church, and I suppose the radio is one of the greatest factors. Nor is anything changed if Christians substitute the tape recorder for the radio, so that they can control what they listen to. If it is music they listen to, its certain effect will be to dissipate meditation and depth of thought.

Some, of course, will vigorously contend for preaching the gospel by the radio, and I would not deny that some good has been done in that way. Nevertheless, the good done can never begin to offset the harm done by the same means, even in the church, to say nothing of the world. The “great commission” enjoins us, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Any use of the radio in evangelism must conspicuously fail in much of this. Radio preachers cannot baptize their converts, nor gather them together in churches, nor exercise any proper pastoral authority over them. While the radio, therefore, has doubtless brought truth and light to some souls, it has at the same time obscured the truth and dimmed the light of the church. Nothing has contributed to corrupt the music of the church as Christian radio has done. Though we can grant that Christian radio has done good, that good will never offset the evil which it has done. The radio is one of the greatest curses of modern society, both in the church and the world.

To speak more particularly of the world, which is the proper subject of this article, it is a solemn and unchanging fact that “Evil communications corrupt good manners,” and nothing on the globe has augmented evil communications as the radio has done. Evil need not now pass from mouth to mouth through a long chain of individuals. It is spread broadcast over the whole world, so that a few seconds are now sufficient to accomplish the corruption which must have taken months or years before the advent of the radio. The modern means of rapid travel were curse enough in this direction, but nothing to compare to the radio.

And while I speak of evil communications, it is proper to state that in this regard the television is of the same character as the radio. The damage which it does is indeed deeper than that of the radio, for to the corruption of the ear it adds that of the eye, but the television is necessarily more limited in its use. Men cannot watch television while they drive a car or work at their jobs, but the radio goes everywhere.

Nor can I exclude the printing press, though it is not so unmixed a curse as the radio or the television, nor is it strictly modern as they are. Though I freely grant that the printing press has been a very great blessing to the church—-and it would ill become me to deny it while I live in a house bursting at the seams with books—-yet the printing press has surely been the agent of an incalculable amount of evil, and certainly of much more evil than good. Neither pornography, nor the modern profusion of smutty literature and worthless fiction, nor department store catalogs, nor the profusion of worthless books and magazines under which the modern church is buried, could exist without the printing press. And of course the modern automated presses are a thousand times the greater curse than those of the old style, by which a man turned a screw to print one sheet at a time. The printing press has contributed a large share to the evil communications with which the devil has cursed the modern world. It is a simple fact that the kingdom of God and the gospel of Christ prospered well enough in apostolic times, without a printing press—-and prospered a good deal better than they do today. And I must point out that one of the lesser effects of all of these modern curses lies in the fact that the profusion of books, of music, and of material goods, which modern technology has made possible, has very much decreased man’s capacity to appreciate them—-and “unthankful” is one of the characteristics of the last times. And still another evil lies very close to this one. The profusion of books, recorded sermons, and especially Christian radio, has very effectually destroyed the hunger of the church. When every child of God is literally satiated with “Christian ministry”—-unsound and shallow though most of it be—-there is no hunger left for a solid ministry which would restore health to the church. When John the Baptist stood up as a voice crying in the wilderness, his solitary voice arrested the nation. If “a man sent from God” stands forth today, his voice is but one among the ten thousand of those who have run without being sent, and the people have no interest even to give him a hearing. They have been preached to death—-yea, entertained to death—-by Christian radio, and a regular avalanche of “ministry” of all sorts, so that they have no hunger left, any more than the boy who has been eating candy all day has any interest to come to the dinner table. It may be that the cream of the ministry will rise to the top, but those who are swimming in a sea of diluted milk know not where the top is, and have no hunger to look for it. This is all part of the curse with which modern means of communication have plagued the church.

But to continue. Since evil communications corrupt good manners, and since the communications of the world can hardly be anything but evil, everything which modern attainments and inventions have done to increase communications has worked also to increase evil. One little recognized curse which operates in this way is urbanization. There can be no doubt that the devil has engineered this. It is the direct reverse of the rural life which will exist under the reign of Christ, when every man will eat of his own vine, and sit under his own fig tree. Cities have always been the strongholds of sin. There is an obvious reason for this. The close proximity of all the people to each other multiplies communication, and the multiplied communication of sinful men can only multiply sin. Cities have long existed, but the urbanization which exists today is a modern thing. It is the result of modern invention and mass production. The farms are more and more abandoned, and the cities more and more crowded. The love of money is the root of this evil also. City life is not only physically unhealthy, but morally so also. An old proverb rightly affirms, “God made the country, and man made the town,” but it would be nothing too strong to assert that God made the country and the devil made the town. Alas, all the sin of the cities is now broadcast over the whole countryside by means of the radio and the television, so that the difference between the cities and the country is not near so great as it once was. The fact yet remains, however, that the cities are the strongholds of sin.

Another of the great curses of modern society is mass production. We might know that this is a curse from the very fact that it is so glorified by the world. It was glorified in the school room when I was a boy, as one of man’s greatest attainments. But what has mass production done for man? We have remarked already that it has taken men away from the country and brought them to the cities. Beyond that, it has taken the fathers out of their homes, and sent them to the factories. It is scarcely possible for a man to work any more at his own craft, producing his own goods for the market. He cannot compete with the mass production of the factories.

It would be hard to speak of the curses of modern society without inclucing electricity. I am very well aware that electrical power has been a great help to the human race. It has doubtless done more than anything else to ease man’s burdens, and this is not all evil, but it is certainly not all good. We must consider the overall result, the net gain or loss. In the first place it must be understood that it is electricity alone which has made possible every form of those mass communications which have so corrupted the race. Without electricity, there would be no radio or television. But I turn to something which may appear more innocent. Electrical power is the foundation of a thousand modern appliances which do man’s work for him. It also empowers the machines which make those appliances, and which produce also a thousand forms of luxurious goods. Electrical power and mass production have flooded the world with a profusion of luxuries, putting them within the easy reach of everyone. Electrical power and mass production have thus combined to very much reduce man’s labor, while they have very much increased his goods. Can this be anything but a curse? It is the very state of things which God describes when he speaks of “the iniquity of Sodom”: “pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her.” (Ezek. 16:49). Electricity and mass production have given all of this to modern society, and abundance of luxuries besides. This is surely a curse. Christ came to preach the gospel to the poor, and it is poverty which naturally turns men to the Lord. “Not many rich” are called, nor ever will be. But electricity and mass production have made everybody rich. We all live in a profusion of luxury which kings never dreamed of before the advent of electricity and mass production. We may not have the gold and silver which they possessed, but we have a profusion of luxuries and conveniences which they could never have imagined. Yet the Bible still says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him.” Understand, I would be the first to contend that “the things that are in the world” are not merely material things, nor even primarily so, but rather principles, programs, associations, and so forth. Yet material things are surely included, and the profusion of them which electricity and mass production have put into the hands of everyone has proved one of the most effectual bars to the success of the gospel. America was once known as the land of revivals, but no revival has swept over her since 1857. Why not? The devil knows his business, and I suppose he knew well enough that the most effectual way to put a stop to those revivals which made such inroads upon his kingdom was to flood America with riches and luxuries. Men feel little need of God when they live in a profusion of wealth and luxury. Yet some foolish Christians regard all of this as the work of God.

Oh, if the saints of God could only see the world as it is, as a vast system which controls the human race, all of it engineered by the devil, with every part intertwined with the rest, every one of them contributing its own part to the general evil, all of them pulling together in the same direction, which is always away from God. The radio, the television, the camera, rapid travel, electrical power, mass production, the printing press, all of these work together to increase and cement the power of Satan over the human race. All of them work together to eliminate the very classes to which Christ was sent—-the poor, the sick, bruised, and the broken-hearted. Human need turns men to God, and the direct tendency of all of the curses of the modern world is to eliminate human need, and where it cannot do that, to entertain men away from any thought of it. A century and a half ago most any preacher could ride into a town, announce a gospel meeting on the court house steps, and the whole population would turn out to hear him. Today he would be preaching not only in the open air, but to the open air. The whole population is surfeited with wealth and luxury and entertainment and pleasure, and is hungry for nothing. This is all the devil’s doing. All of the curses of modern society conspire together to impede the success of the gospel. Never before in history has the church of God faced such overwhelming difficulties in turning men from darkness to light.

Yet one fact abides above all of the power and success of the devil. The Bible yet says, “Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.” God is yet able to do his work in the souls of men, in spite of all the power of the devil, and all the curses of modern society. But God works through men. He works through the church, which in our day is so conformed to the world as to be, in general, an actual detriment to the cause of Christ. And as in another day, so in our own, it would seem the Lord must say, “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezek. 22:30). And the man that might have sufficed for that day, may not suffice for this. We live in perilous times, serious times, when it behooves the church of God as never before to cease from its games and entertainments, and to learn simple self-denial and devotedness to the cause of Christ, if peradventure the Lord will once again make bare his arm to bring salvation, in spite of all the impediments to it with which the devil has cursed modern society.

Glenn Conjurske

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Pinterest
Email

Leave a Reply

0:00
0:00