"Brave New World"
Loren L. Fenton

The following is a description of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World taken from the online information source Wikipedia.

"The world the novel describes is a dystopia, presented satirically: humanity lives in a carefree, healthy, and technologically advanced society; however, art, science, religion, and all other forms of human expression have been sacrificed to create this 'Brave New World'. Warfare and poverty have been eliminated and everyone is permanently happy due to government-provided conditioning and drugs. The irony is that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things that humans consider to be central to their identity – family, culture, art, literature, science, religion (other than idolization of 'our Ford', Henry Ford, who is seen as the father of their society, and ritualized orgies), and philosophy. It is also a hedonistic society, deriving pleasure from promiscuous sex and drug use, in the form of soma, a powerful psychotropic rationed by the government that is taken to escape pain and bad memories through hallucinatory fantasies, referred to as 'Holidays'. Additionally, social stability has been achieved and is maintained via deliberately engineered and rigidly enforced social stratification."

I asked a small group of people recently, "Is this the kind of world you want to live in?" Their response was predictable:

"Hardly!"

"No way!"

"Absolutely not!"

I think most of us would agree with these sentiments.

Now, with the foregoing in mind, consider three items to cross my path within the last couple of days:

1. A report on a major news network of a new "bionic arm." This is an amazing prosthetic arm and hand that has been developed for amputees. The report showed a young woman who had lost her arm in an automobile accident. With this new limb, however, she is able to grasp a glass of water, fold clothes, and do any number of "normal" tasks, simply by mentally controlling the prosthesis – much as most of us do every day at a thousand mundane tasks. Incredible technology, with the promise of giving a step back towards normalcy for thousands of amputees – war victims, etc.
   
2. Within minutes of seeing the bionic arm story, I received an email describing a new regulation in California where now it seems it is not acceptable for a wedding party to be referred to as "bride and groom," but rather now they must be "party 'A' and party 'B'". No longer "husband and wife," but some other non-sensical term. Seems like Huxley's "Brave New World" isn't that far off. This is quite amazing, to say the least.
   
3. We have some new neighbors this week. I went over to say "Hello," and discovered that this household is composed of two women "partners." Hmmm. Well, I know that's the world we're living in now, but somehow it was always far away in distant places like San Francisco, Portland, and New York. Now it's right across the street, less than 50' from my front door. I can't say I was shocked, just that it caught me by surprise.
   

I have to ask myself and other church members, With realities such as these saturating our society, can the church just continue with "business as usual"? I hope you hear my voice crying out with a resounding, "NO!" We can't just keep doing what we have always done – maybe just more of it with more intensity and thinking that's the working of the Holy Spirit. It seems we (the church) cling desperately to old familiar, secure forms of religion that become more and more irrelevant to an increasingly pagan and hedonistic society. Is it any wonder that the church is almost completely marginalized in our time?

Teamnet Ministries is one attempt to empower the church for effective ministry in this spiritually starving society. But I must confess some frustration. I've been doing this for well over ten years, now, and it seems I've seen little progress. I still have to deal with entrenched traditionalism, NIH (Not Invented Here) Syndrome, and the resistance of gatekeeper-controllers who are loath to release their power.

But there is one saving factor: In spite of all the obstructionism and difficulties, God is still on the Throne of the Universe. He is still in charge. And it is a privilege and an honor to be called into His service. To Him be the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever! Amen!