Question: What, if anything, is wrong with this video?
I attempted to articulate one answer over at Mere-Orthodoxy. I highly commend Rhett Smith’s analysis as well, as Rhett is a therapist who is very sensitive to these issues.
I love thinking about marriage because it is the nexus of so many different realms—the Gospel, sociology, law, culture. In fact, I have an article coming out in the next issue of The City (free subscription) on the meaning of marriage within evangelicalism. And no, I didn’t mention that for any other reason than shameless self-promotion.
But I like this video because it challenges so many evangelical shibboleths. We love technological mediation, and have a difficult time articulating why and where we should draw boundaries. We frequently appeal to Christian freedom (which I presume covers the way people do their weddings). Some of us self-consciously reject tradition, usually on grounds that it is akin to legalism. The traditional among us frequently appeal to it, but don’t have much of a grasp of why it was implemented in the first place.
And most evangelicals aren’t sacramentalists—at least, not with respect to marriage. So that line of criticism is out.
Yet, when watching this, I suspect most of us have a haunting suspicion that there’s something amiss with tweeting at the altar. The question is, what? And why?
Or are my intuitions on this off?
Discuss. But discuss kindly. Please.
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
