Jesus Didn't Use a Smartphone!

[Content Note: Catholic Church-based prejudices.]

Our old pal Pope Francis has some important advice for the kids today:

Pope Francis has urged 50,000 German altar servers not to waste time on the Internet, smartphones and television, but to spend their time on more productive activities.

"Maybe many young people waste too many hours on futile things," the Pope said in a short speech to the altar servers – young people who help the priest during religious services – who had come to Rome on a pilgrimage.

"Our life is made up of time, and time is a gift from God, so it is important that it be used in good and fruitful actions."

Activities cited by the Pope as futile were: "chatting on the Internet or with smartphones, watching TV soap operas, and (using) the products of technological progress, which should simplify and improve the quality of life, but distract attention away from what is really important."

I hope he makes this wisdom available on his Twitter account.

See, here's the thing about setting "what is really important" and "good and fruitful actions" in mutually exclusive opposition to spending time on the internet: Many of the people who are most demonized by the Catholic Church (and certainly not only the Catholic Church) find community on the internet. Find validation. Find acceptance. Find salvation from despondency and isolation.

Especially young people, who may be stuck in communities with very little or no support.

For an awful lot of people, the internet does improve their quality of life, by a sizable margin, because what they find in the world outside the internet is hostile garbage that tells them, often with the claim of god's very own stamp of approval, that they are less than.

It's neat that Pope Francis thinks it's more important to tell young people to stay off the internet than it is to provide the love and acceptance they find there inside the doors of the Church.