Train Wrecks and Websites

What is there about disasters that draw our attention in ways that can only be described as “staring.” When I listen to the traffic reports in Atlanta every morning, it isn’t unusual to hear Capt. Herb, the more famous of the traffic reporters, to complain about “rubberneckers.” Those are the people on the other side of the interstate, unaffected by the accident on the opposing lanes, but who back up traffic as they slowdown “to take a look.” In the name of full disclosure, I’ve caught myself doing that very thing a time or two, or maybe more.

I wonder, as I watch the major networks, along with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox covering the most recent tragedy – the tornado in Oklahoma – if we need to keep staring at the same images. But apparently we do, or surely they would move on to something else. I understand the need to be aware – in hope that awareness produces help – but does that mean around the clock coverage? And do reporters really have to ask an elementary school kid about how he felt when he learned that some of his classmates had been killed by the storm?

But it isn’t just tragedies – at least not of the car wreck or tornado kind – that draw us in in ways that are surely unhealthy. Our culture is drawn to violence and sexual misconduct in movies in record setting ways. We watch mayhem being elevated to the norm and can’t seem to turn our heads. An NFL team has recently been seriously impacted by the fact that they apparently put out “bounties” on opposing players – but empty seats at an NFL game seems to be an oxymoron. 

But even that isn’t all there is to this phenomenon. Websites that portray every kind of human suffering are making millions attracting us to them. Video games, where violence and sexual assault are the norm, are huge attractions for young adults, especially males, in our culture. A study I recently read suggested that the average male college graduate would spend far more time either watching internet pornography or playing violent video games than he would on studying.

But there's more. Somehow I became a member of a closed Facebook group for preachers – I’m sure how a Facebook group is formed or closed, and not completely sure how I became a member. Every time I look at it I wonder, “What is the attraction here?” Most of the posts are either sectarian rants about “everyone but us is without hope:” or “no one preaches – even most of “us” – the Bible anymore;” or some similar sense of tragic hopelessness from “the church I serve is awful” to “the current government in the US is a disaster.”

  

I keep telling myself I will quit looking at this site, but I find myself “rubbernecking” a bit. The so-called “information age” has created serious challenges to any who would read Paul’s words to the believers in Philippi – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV) Too much rubbernecking can create snarls far worse than a traffic backup.