Jay Moon of Asbury Theological Seminary opened a session at the inaugural Karam Forum with provocative comments on cultural change, communal beliefs and the economics of technology.
Using a perplexus ball, Moon describes the “functional integration of a culture” and how social relationships, beliefs and economics/technology are inextricably connected. A change in one portion of a culture results in changes in the other portions: “If you want to create a change in the ideology and belief sector…you don’t have to start there, you can start on the other side of the ball in the economics and technology sector or in the social relationships sector.”
Moon illustrates this dynamic through two illustrative stories – how the introduction of air conditioning transformed relationships in his Baltimore neighborhood and how better well technology sparked a spiritual revival in a remote area of Ghana by ending a cholera epidemic.
