Russell Moore & Bill Maher

Two takes on the phone-based childhood and what's to be done next

Shortly after reading Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” I put down my pencil and picked up my headphones. I had marked up my copy of the book pretty heavily but was ready to listen to Haidt speak about what he had written. (A full book review is forthcoming.)

I went to my podcast app (because yes, I’m not against technology. I’m against giving digital media and smartphones to kids) and found two interviews with Haidt to be of particular interest. The first was with Bill Maher, atheist, comic, HBO talk show host and political commentator. (Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 654, starting around the 7:30 minute mark.) The second interview was with Russell Moore, Christian, Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today and a prominent voice on culture and Christianity. Both of these men are good at what they do and though I don’t agree with either of them about everything I do find listening in to their thoughts and insights to be somewhat valuable every now and again.

Portal of Evil or Digital Scripture

Bill Maher is not a tech enthusiast. He’s realistic about life having inherent risks and that kids need to learn how to manage small risks such as climbing trees and playing outside with other kids unsupervised by adults. As to parenthood, Maher says we have engaged in “too much hovering in real life … and then none with virtual.” What really caught me was that Maher, who as far as I know claims no strong held religious or spiritual belief system calls the smart phone “the portal of evil.”

Wait. What? Maher, an evolutionary atheist asserts that the smartphone is “a portal of evil.” That’s strong language. Yes, smartphones can do lots of great things but they also have made the proliferation of pornography mind boggling large. According to Forbes, PornHub has over 115,000,000 visits per day with smartphones accounting for almost 84% of their online traffic. So, is the smartphone a “portal of evil”? Yeah, I’d say so.

On the interview with Russell Moore, Haidt points to research that being in a socially conservative, religious family actually gives kids some protections against online harms. This is great news, and may explain in part why Christian parents and pastors have been less motivated to take a stand against smartphones and social media. Our kids are doing poorly, but not as poorly as the neighbor’s kids. (We can talk another time about loving your neighbor as yourself.)

One of Haidt’s big claims is that religious communities are already set up to have phone-free times. We have a Sabbath that can become phone free. We have collective worship time that can be phone-free. Moore points out that when he preaches and asks the audience to turn to a particular passage many people pull out their phones. Look, I’m not against the Bible being on your phone, but take the time to listen to Haidt here (around the 50 minute mark). He’s surprised to hear that people do this. He finds it fascinating. His outsider’s perspective brings a whole new dimension to the conversation. Haidt says most of us don’t want to be distracted by the pings and buzzes on our phones but we are, “This is kind of a trap, like, we want to be this way, we want to connect with each other and to God, but our phones keep calling us away.” He goes on though, “So what would you say about having worship services and maybe it’s just an optional one, or maybe it’s all the services? What would you say if I asked you to literally turn your phone, put your phone on airplane mode or power it down or put it in a phone caddy at the front, what would you say?”

Yes, Russell Moore, what would you say? During a Sunday morning service, I’ve personally seen plenty of people pull out their phones, open a Bible app and then a few minutes later they are scrolling on facebook, sending texts or checking their email. It’s distracting for me a few seats over. This is to say nothing of the occasional child in the service playing games on their iPads or teenagers so distracted by their phones they are giggling in the back row.

Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash

So what did Moore say? He said nothing. He avoids the question, wraps up the podcast and Haidt brings it home for us, “I think Christian families and Christian schools really have a chance to lead on this and to develop ways of being that might even be a benefit to the rest of us.”

I don’t know why Moore didn’t answer the question. I’ll be charitable and assume that the time was coming to a close and he had to wrap up the episode. To not leave Haidt hanging, I’ll answer the question: I couldn't agree with you more.

Yes, Christian families and Christian schools do have an opportunity to lead on this and develop ways of being that might even be a benefit to the rest of society.

What We Can Do

There’s a lot that can be done, but here are some suggestions:

1. Parents, Sundays are now smartphone free. For all of us. Exodus 20:11 follows the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. It says in part, “For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day.” Be outside. Go on a hike. Play in the dirt. Look at the stars. Feel the wind on your skin. Hug your kids. Put your phones away.

2. Get a paper copy of the Bible and take it to church. In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis likens a church service to a war time secret intelligence meeting. Focus on the worship and preaching like your life depends upon it. Model this for your children. Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.” Make your mindset one that isn’t battling a smartphone, but battling the cosmic powers that are trying to distract you from Truth.

3. If your kids are in Christian schools and there is not a bell-to-bell phone free policy, talk to your Head of School and get this in place. Allow at least 7 hours a day that kids aren’t distracted by smartphones.

4. If your kids are in a public school or non-Christian private school and there is not a bell-to-bell phone free policy, talk to you School Board and get this in place. Almost every day I see a new school district that is enacting such a policy. Christians, go to the School Board meetings and be outspoken on this issue. In fact even if your kids aren’t in public schools, speak out on this topic and ask for change.

5. Stop giving your kids smartphones. What if Maher is right? What if the phone is a portal of evil? What if our worship services and our homes become the places the neighborhood kids can go where no smartphones are allowed? What if we provide a respite and real community? Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approach.” In Acts we are told that being together was one of the key elements to the growth in the church. Let’s be together, in real life.

Dear Christian Parent, we can lead on this issue. Starting something new is hard but we are calling our children and our families to something better: real community. God created us in physical bodies in a physical world. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Let’s get after it.