Dinosaurs Should Eat People with Cameras
I have had a few weeks to sit on this so hopefully I won’t be spitting out the venom I would have if I had written this sooner. It has been over a month and now my wrath is just bubbling under the surface. Alright here it goes. I was able, with a gracious gift from my mother-in-law, to go with my boys to the Walking With Dinosaurs show at the Tacoma Dome. She splurged and got us great seats and it was pretty awesome when the monstrous T-rex had his head feet from us and roared. The show was cool, even if the evolution stuff was a little odd. The part in the end about the birds. anyway. not what this post is about.
It is about the request in the beginning of the show that came over the speakers, loud and clear so everyone could hear it. “No flash photography, and no recording equipment.” Just like your typically ride at Disneyland. Seems like easy instructions to follow, right? Wrong! Every time a new dinosaur came out the flashes rained down. It was like a dinosaur dance party with a strobe light. On top of that looking down the rows in front of me I could see numerous LCD screens from camcorders and cell phones. I had a really hard time enjoying myself with all this going on.
I could rant about a few things, but to keep my sanity let’s just concentrate on the blatant disregard to authority that was displayed. I could not believe that so many people came to the same conclusion at the same time. The conclusion that the rules did not apply to them. Unfortunately this behavior is highly indicative of our culture (at least in the Seattle area). The idea of what might be right for you, is not necessarily right for me. We like this idea (although it usually isn’t as blatant as flashes of light in a dark room) because it allows us to do what we want. You have no right to tell me what is truth. This however is not truth at all, it is just an excuse to do what we want. Jesus is truth, and he is in authority over all things, including you and I. That is probably why some of us resist Jesus, we do not want to give up our “freedom” to do as we please.
Pastor JD
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JD,
Interesting post. As the bottom line I tend to agree that it is disappointing that the attendees did not comply with the requests of those who did the hard work to put on the exhibit. My guess is that rather than a “rules do not apply to me” attitude, there was, rather, a “hey, I paid for this and I want to get my money’s worth” attitude. That is just a guess obviously and it would be interesting to get some feedback from those who did so (I wonder how many would have called themselves “evangelicals” or even “disciples” – now, that would be interesting!).
While disappointing I am wondering how huge of an issue this really is – there is a big difference between flashing a few strobes at T-Rex and robbing a bank, etc. In other words – I might blow through a red light at 2AM when there is not another car within 500′ of eyesight – but I would not think of it during rush hour. There is a point where we are old enough to recognize that some rules are generalities, etc. I am not suggesting that this fully applies to the event you described but simply as a general concept to the “authority” issue.
Also, I am wary of extrapolating too heavily from this incident to some kind of new fangled “rejection of authority” concept (guarantee you will hear the same complaint in the 15th century!!!).
BTW – I doubt people are any different in Texas than in Seattle (well, maybe Texas…).
Peace,
Greg