I decided to do a new post on this matter.
I watched a newsmagazine show the other night where the reporter did a segment with children from about 5-8 years old. She asked them how they felt when their parents were so engaged with cell phone usage. All of the children were displeased with how their parents catered to cell phone usage. One little girl stated that she felt that her parent cared more for cell phone conversations than she did about her.
To observe the reactions of the children, the reporter had made prior arrangement for someone to call her (the reporter's) cell phone while she was interviewing the children. Immediately, the children reacted with displeasure. When the reporter answered the phone...the children responded with groans, sighs, and vocal displeasure expressed with body language that was indicative of exasperation. The reporter got off the phone and asked the children how it made them feel when she was engaged on the cell phone in their presence. I do not remember what their responses were but I do recall that the children expressed to her that they did not like it. The parents were observing from another room. One parent stated that she would engage in cell phone usage less in the presence of her child.
I was at a church once at a Bible study and the pastor's wife, from the podium area, stated that she kept her cell phone on vibrate mode in case of emergency. My thought was what did we do back in the days prior to cell phones, when we were in church services, and there were emergencies?
I attended Sunday school in one church when it was time for the teacher to teach. She stood at the podium to begin. Her cell rang and she answered it.
My opinion is that our Lord is not pleased when we use cell phones in His sanctuaries. Now if someone is an on-call doctor...that is understandable. It is, in my view, a lack of holy reference for GOD to engage cell phones in church services. I am not even about the vibrate arrangement. I turn my cell phone off before I enter churches. Once or twice, I forgot to do so, and I felt horrible. Those times that I forgot, when it did ring, I did not look to see who it was or answer it. I immediately turned it off.
Two Christian dinner guests were at my home. One of them engaged a number of times on her cell phone while we were engaged in dinner and fellowshipping. After several of her phone conversations, I mentioned to her that that was rude. She disagreed.
One of my relatives mentioned that she and her husband transported a married couple for a long distance ride for Thanksgiving. The husband, they stated, was on his cell phone for most of the ride.
