Pastoring, parenting, and privacy

I recently read The Circle, Dave Egger’s dystopian novel about a benevolent Internet company that eerily crept into every aspect of our lives, taking it over, one smiley emoticon at a time. Think about it like this: a company encompasses Facebook, Google, and Amazon, and then it begins partner with the government.

There are parts of the book that have haunted me. The main character got a peculiar calm by conjuring up the number rating her work performance. She would sneak back to work any time she was agitated and take customer service calls, so she could get the feedback. It reflected well the strange satisfaction we get with Facebook likes, blog stats, and (for authors) Amazon rankings.

But the most poignant parts of the book took place when it wrestles with what should be private and what shouldn’t. Pastors have been thinking about this for generations—in a different sort of medium. Like, when we have a kid and we use her endlessly for sermon illustrations. We can’t help it. She just says really cute and clever things that fit perfectly with what we are trying to say.