The Bible gives us a framework for understanding and navigating a world dominated by social media: Christians are to live as faithfully obedient exiles in the midst of Digital Babylon. This is the claim we explored on the prior episode of Breaking the Digital Spell, and we ended the episode open to pushback or objections to this idea. In this bonus episode, Austin sits down with Jacob Cates, executive pastor of Redeemer Christian Church, to talk through some good questions and objections to the “Digital Babylon” framework. Are there other analogies that are more helpful to us? How could the “Digital Babylon” framework be improved? But most importantly: If social media is truly akin to Digital Babylon, shouldn’t Christians try to come out of that empire and get off social completely?
Clarification: many of Jacob's comments on individualism/identity come from Carl Trueman's "The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self." As it is with all the books we've featured on BtDS, quoting an author favorably on one point does not mean an endorsement of everything an author says or does elsewhere.
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