Modern Technology and the Sin of Sodom - Glenn Conjurske

Modern Technology and the Sin of Sodom

by Glenn Conjurske

“Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

The iniquity of Sodom was a complex thing. They “committed abomination,” as we all know, but this was only the final step in their course of iniquity, nor can we suppose that the whole city was guilty of Sodomy, though it was evidently winked at and tolerated by all. But long before such abomination came “pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness.” “Idle hands are the devil’s tools,” and the idleness no doubt led to the abomination.

Now if we were to ransack history and literature for an apt description of the sin of America, we could scarcely find anything more apt than this description of the sin of Sodom. “Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness” is the very essence of American society. No prouder nation has ever lived, no wealthier, and no more idle. And America has descended to the very dregs of the abomination of Sodom, and in her official position, as seen in her legislatures and courts, is passionate in defending that abomination. Many of the churches and much of the populace also favor it.

In one particular only does the description of Sodom’s iniquity vary from a description of that of America. America (in her corporate capacity, at any rate) has not failed to “strengthen the hand of the poor and needy,” but has been the great benefactor of the poor of the whole world. She has fed her enemies, and fed her own so-called “poor” with more of determination than of wisdom. Perhaps this alone has saved America thus far from the judgement of Sodom, for in every other particular their sins are identical.

But what I wish to speak of in particular in this article is the prevailing atmosphere of Sodom. “Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her.” It would be impossible to find a more perfect description than this of America.

First, pride. There is a great deal of national pride in America, pride in being the greatest nation on earth—-the richest and most powerful, and the leader of the “free world,” or of the whole world. It is hardly necessary to say that modern technology has greatly increased the outward greatness, and so the pride, of America.

Next, fulness of bread. There cannot be the slightest doubt that modern technology and invention have greatly multiplied the fulness of bread in America. A man with a tractor and other modern machinery can plow, plant, and reap a hundred times what he could with a team of horses. Modern invention has thus multiplied the fulness of bread in modern America a hundred times over what it ever could have been in Sodom.

But there is another facet to this. Man can only eat so much bread. Give him cakes and sweets and tasty morsels of every possible description, and still he can only eat so much. “Fulness of bread,” then, beyond a certain point, becomes a matter of indifference. But modern society has gone much beyond fulness of bread. Modern technology has brought about a fulness of luxuries, of which the wildest dreams of Sodom must have been entirely innocent.

Next, abundance of idleness. Here again, nothing can be more obvious than that modern technology has very greatly increased this. This land is literally filled with machines and robots and computers which do the work which men were once obliged to do, and one machine may often do the work of a hundred or a thousand men. The only possible result of this is to greatly increase the idleness—-or leisure—-of the nation. If Sodom of old was characterized by “abundance of idleness,” without the possession of a single modern machine or convenience, how much greater is the “abundance of idleness” which all of this technology has brought about.

Modern invention, in other words, has very greatly increased and every way enhanced the very things which are characterized in the Bible as “the sin of Sodom.” Yet there are many who regard all of this technology as the work of God. Such are deceived. This is not the work of God at all, but the work of the devil. It is the very work which God foresaw at the tower of Babel, and which he confounded the tongues and scattered the race to prevent. “Now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Gen. 11:6). Now nothing has been restrained from them which they have imagined to do, and one of the results of this has been to very greatly augment their “pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness.” This cannot be the work of God.

I do not write to recommend any radical course of action. My concern is with where our hearts and our minds are. It is a virtual necessity to use the world, if we are to be of any use in it. We are not called to be monks or hermits. To use the world is legitimate. To love it is not. Necessity may oblige a man to drive the car which killed his child, but he cannot love that car. Necessity may oblige a man to use the axe which killed his father, but he cannot love that axe. It is thus that Christians may use the world. They use it with hearts estranged and aloof, knowing that the world crucified their Lord, and that it is his inveterate enemy still, and the enemy of their own souls also. But the ignorance which prevails on this theme is so great that the church mistakes the devices of the enemy for the works of the Lord. Where such ignorance prevails, it is impossible to understand either the ways of God or the ways of the devil—-and these two things are by all means the most important to be understood.

Let us understand, therefore, that those things which have inundated the earth with “pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness” are certainly not the work of God. When sin entered the world God divorced fulness of bread from abundance of idleness, saying, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” But what God put asunder the devil has joined together. The devil has done his best to remove the curse from the earth, without Christ, where sin yet reigns and righteousness suffers. One of the greatest means in his hands to accomplish this is modern technology.

Glenn Conjurske