Texting and Church

I had a friend text me recently about an incident that occurred in his church. The text message was about how an older lady of the church stood up to protest the abhorrent use of cellphones to text during service, she humbly requested that all the youth of the church be asked to leave their cellphones in the office of the pastor during service times. He texted me during church service.

Has it really gotten that bad?

It seems that over time technology has become a deterrent for attention spans during church services. There are exceptions to the rule. For example if you are a doctor on call and you have to leave your pager of blackberry on for the sake of someones life, or if there is a particular and very specific reason as to why your cellphone is on during church, its acceptable. For the general public, you are only required about an hour-two hours a week to sit and spend in church. It is disrespectful and rude to be on your phones texting to each other. I mean SERIOUSLY you are not that important, quit trying to act like OBAMA needed to reach you during the pastor's sermon.

You would not be in a meeting with your boss and be texting your friends, it wouldn't be professional. Why should church be any different? If you aren't paying attention during class or you are being a disruption to the students around you, you are generally asked to leave. Most professors don't tolerate students on their cellphones during class. If you don't want to be there, you don't have to be, but if you are going to stay for the sake of your reputation, PLEASE refrain from taking this holy experience away from someone else due to your utter disregard for respect.

Being a public speaker on a few occasions, I cannot begin to tell you how distracting it is for me when people are not paying attention, or playing with their phones or dozing off, it makes me lose my train of thought and it makes me doubt the truth and relevance of what I am saying. It is distracting from the other side of the pulpit also.

Over the past winter break I heard about an instance about a man who brought his laptop to service to watch a football game! I was appalled, because as it so happens it was during the service in which we had a play that I had worked an entire two weeks to help put together. If he did not want to be there, he had the option of being at home and watching the game on his LCD, why ruin the experience by watching on it a 13' laptop in dim lighting and low sound quality? MORE IMPORTANTLY, why ruin the atmosphere of the play and make it seem unworthy of your attention?  

It is not only about your experience, think about the message you are passing on to those who are younger then you. What do you think they learn when they watch you, time and time again not paying attention and finding something "better" to do?

The entire point of this page long rant is to let you know that if you are "RAD" enough to text during church then you are "RAD" enough to not come. It is hypocritical for you to come on account that someone might say something about your reputation! You are not above it and you are DEFINITELY not TOO COOL. Please stop being a distraction and disruption for those of us who want to hear and want to pay attention.

Thanks

Pseudo.