To give visual context to the story I am about to tell...
...here is the outside of my church:
...and here is the inside:
El Pastor hates cell phones. Last week he took 2 minutes just to make sure everyone had theirs turned off. So, at church today, the inevitable happened.
At the beginning of the sermon, a cheerful little tune began polluting the rooms sound waves. El Pastor immediately stopped his message and turned towards the sound, silent, a frigid stare on his face. Some people, including me, giggled shyly.
El Pastor: Whose cell phone is that?!
Cell Phone Owner: (in silence, reaches into bag to turn off cell phone. Though he is trying not to move an inch of his body so as to remain anonymous, all can see him and El Pastor's eyes narrow at him).
El Pastor: Turn it off now.
After this scene, all over the room, cell-phone-turning-off sounds can be heard.
El Pastor: Anyone else?
One more cell phone-turn-off sound can be heard and then... silence.
El Pastor: (then turns to the owner of the cheerful little tune) You know what? This is sin!
It is more and more obvious to me that I live in a shame culture which pretty much means that people are motivated by fear of being shamed. Most those who read this are from the United States, where people are more motivated because they are afraid of feeling guilt. In reality, we shouldn't be motivated by either shame or guilt but only controlled by the love of Christ and we should motivate one another only towards Him, only through Him. This is something you, I, and Christians everywhere don't do, and we all need to think out the implications of this bit of knowledge.
Still, I applaud El Pastor for doing something about the annoying cell phones.
3 comments:
For sure! Nothing is more distracting than a cell phone going off. Well, babies crying are up there too...
jejeje...that was an amazing moment! Kyle needs to read your blog...you explain it so much better than I do!
yikes! scary Ramiro. have you been reading the Cross-Cultural Servanthood book... I remember we talked about it a little, but the whole shame vs. guilt culture is such an important concept to understand.
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