By Mark A. Taylor
The nuns in Nell Merlino”s school told her to do good because God was always watching. But she didn”t accept that. According to an article in the March Reader”s Digest, Merlino asked her teachers, “Wouldn”t it be better . . . if we were just good and did good things and it didn”t matter who was watching? If I gave food to somebody who was hungry, what did it matter whether God knew about it or not?”
Her teachers were scandalized, maybe because Merlino”s question implied some doubt that God can see everything. But evidently many today are behaving themselves precisely because they fear they will be seen, although not by God.
Jim Shahin in the February 15 American Way, credits YouTube, the popular video clip Web site, for the improved behavior.
He quotes a Dunkin” Donuts worker who fought off a thief with a coffee mug because he was afraid the security camera tape would show up on YouTube. He didn”t want the masses to think he”s a wimp.
A similar thought was in the mind of a 17-year-old male who gave an elderly lady his seat on a New York City subway. “I didn”t want to look like a complete jerk on YouTube,” he said. Ditto for a Washington, D.C., motorist who stopped unexpectedly to let a woman and her 3-year-old son cross a busy street.
YouTube has even been credited with a reduction in rhinotillexis, according to Shahin. “The act of excavating objects from your nose with your finger is on the decline in public places, according to a recent study by researchers at Harvard University.”
Amazing as this might seem, the folks at Harvard spent six months monitoring public nose-picking (i.e., rhinotillexis), and discovered a 70 percent drop in the habit. Again and again research subjects said they didn”t want YouTube to catch them with their pinkie in their nostril.
This suggests all kinds of possibilities for ministry. How about mounting cameras to tape Sunday-morning activities? Folks could go online to see who did and didn”t drop something in the offering plate. The lobby-cam could find people welcoming visitors””or ignoring them. We might even catch regulars parking in the Visitors parking spots.
Bill Hybels has written a book titled Character: Who You Are When No One”s Looking. Sounds like an apt theme for the current times.
Maybe he could put it on YouTube.
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