EDITOR'S NOTE: Second of two columns on faith, families and smartphones.
As the star of the scathing documentary "Religulous" -- "religious" plus "ridiculous" -- Bill Maher has never hidden his agnostic views about faith.
But that doesn't mean the stand-up comic doubts the reality of evil. Consider this blistering comment on smartphones, drawn from his "Real Time" talk show earlier this year.
Far too many people think "they don't need reality," Maher told social psychologist Jonathan Haidt of New York University, author of "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness."
"We've made reality obsolete -- interesting choice," said Maher. "Parents today, it's kind of the worst of both worlds. Too much hovering in real life, where there is any left, and then none with virtual. You go in your room, lock yourself in there with the portal of evil, that is the phone. … I feel like parents, in each generation, ceded more control to children."
In response, Haidt -- a self-avowed Jewish atheist -- stressed that modern life continues to eat away at the traditions of the past.
"As life gets easier, as people get wealthier, as they move away from the old days, authority tends to decay -- there tends to be less respect for authority, less respect for the old ways," said Haidt. "Kids need structure, they need moral rules. … When it seems as though anything is permissible, it doesn't make people happy. It makes them feel disoriented and lost."
Maher has made it clear that he is "not a tech enthusiast," noted Emily Harrison, in her "Dear Christian Parent" Substack newsletter. But the shocker in that HBO exchange was his claim that smartphones serve as a "portal of evil" in daily life.
"Wait. What? … Yes, smartphones can do lots of great things, but they also have made the proliferation of pornography mind boggling large," wrote Harrison. After all, five years ago, PornHub was already reporting 115,000,000 visits "per day with smartphones accounting for almost 84% of their online traffic. So, is the smartphone a 'portal of evil'? Yeah, I'd say so."
Here is the question that haunts Harrison: Why haven't more religious leaders been willing to address the scary trends linked to smartphone abuse in the urgent, even fiery language used by secular figures such as Haidt and Maher?
"I think many church people don't want to hurt the feelings of people -- to shame them, even. … We don't want to say, 'It's a mistake to give these devices to children.' We don't want to say that smartphones are dangerous to young people -- even if the evidence clearly shows that is true," said Harrison, reached by telephone days before speaking during Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's November 21 "Reclaiming Childhood" summit on mental health issues.
"As believers, we don't want to say things that make people walk away feeling sad and our pastors certainly don't want to make people mad," she added. "It's like we don't have enough faith to trust that telling them the truth could help them, in the long run."
In her newsletters, Harrison has pointed readers to the waves of statistics used by Haidt and other activists. For example, since 2010 -- when smartphones entered public life -- anxiety has risen 52% among people ages 35–49, 103% among those 26–34 and 139% among those 18–25. An American College Health Association survey found that, between 2010 and 2020, anxiety rose 134%, depression 106%, anorexia 100% and substance abuse 33%. Also, the diagnosis of ADHD cases rose 72%, schizophrenia 67% and bipolar disorder 57%.
It's time, said Harrison, for pastors to urge worshippers to turn off their smartphones on Sunday and, maybe, even consider asking them to bring a copy of the Bible, as opposed to a phone app, to church. More parents need to support schools with "bell to bell" policies against the use of smartphones.
Finally, she believes religious leaders should urge parents to stop giving smartphones to their children under the age 18.
"The whole give your kid a smartphone and tell them to stay off TikTok and Instagram approach just isn't working," said Harrison. "Parents need to say the hard truths out loud and have faith that their kids will be grateful, sooner or later."
FIRST IMAGE: Photoshopped image from MelissaPierce.com piece entitled, “God Gave You Two Ears, One Mouth, Two Hands, and the iPhone.”