"Church Rudeness: The Oblivious typer"

"There is a time and place for everything..."

"Church Rudeness: The Oblivious typer"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Technology and the Church have gone hand in hand so that a lot more people could hear God's word. I recently attended a service where there were 3 simultaneous services being broadcast and some were even able to watch it via live streaming. I found that cool. However technology it seems is a double edged sword. One edge allows you progress , move forward and the other edge is for regression.

This was my 2nd week of returning to church after my board exams and my brother and I went to our usual spot in the balcony area. During the beginning of worship I noticed a young person , a skinny guy who looked like he was in his senior year in high school or first year of college. This guy had swirly spiky hair on a head that was bobbing up and down as he alternately typed on his laptop and checked 2 of his phones. Normally a guy with a laptop would go unnoticed but when someone is typing furiously in the middle of hundreds of people during praise and worship then you are bound to get noticed. I was being distracted by this laptop guy who seems to be oblivious of everything around him. The blaring speakers were hard to drown out and the huge monitors in the front of the auditorium were kind of hard to ignore.People were shouting , singing and dancing and this idiot with the laptop was typing away like nothing else existed. I was rationalizing to myself that he might need that paper by monday morning but church is not the place where you should be doing that at all. I'm sure assignments are given well in advance in order for you to do them and even if it is late assigned thing surely you could do it at a later time.

I tried to ignore the guy.As worship was winding down (Usually 30 minutes) I managed to glance down at what the guy was typing and he writing things about Respect. Respect!!! It was in bold letters. So I could not hold it any longer and I crouched low , put my hand on the guys shoulders and asked,

"Para sa school ba yang ginagawa mong yan?"

The young man nodded.

"Puwedeng wag mong gawin yan ngayon? Nasa gitna ka ng simbahan eh."

The guy stopped typing. It perturbed me even more that he looked more annoyed.There are people who are blind to the truth. He wanted to turn around and look at me. He had no inkling of what he did wrong. So I had to press my point a little bit more.

"Kung gusto mong gawin yan eh may mga lamesa sa labas.Bakit ka pa nagsimba kung yan din lang gagawin di ba?"

This time around. The guy looked shaken and tried to keep his head facing forward through out the entire service. He kept his phones. Turned off the laptop and pretended to listen. He knew I was still looking at the back of his head.

My brother elbowed me and said , "kuya anong sinabi mo mukhang iiyak na..."

I just smiled at my little brother. I usually don't mind other peoples business but what the guy did was plain rude and disrespectful. It took me 30 minutes before I told him because I thought that he would stop long before I even said anything. I guess he was planning to write the whole service if I just shut up. He was setting a bad example to the kids around him and even his mother who was right beside him was saying nothing. 

There really is a time and place for everything.Maybe he would remember that the next time he wants to bring his procastinating self to church and start typing again. 

I feel so old. When did I become the oldie imposing some sort of rule?