Apple 2

Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer Inc.) is an American consumer electronics company that was the world's most valuable company (for a time) this month. It changed the way the way people buy music from physical formats (CDs) to digital downloads, and will probably do the same with video.
Many people simply like and buy their products; but for some, there seems to be a 'brand loyalty' that borders on the religious.

I ventured into the world of Apple because of the iPhone. That was the top of a slippery slope and I now have 4 or 5 Apple things. But I hope I keep them in perspective.
For some years though I have known people who owned Apple Macintosh computers that insisted on telling me how their Mac was better than my Windows PC. In most respects they were probably right. The interesting thing is that they really felt the need to tell me. If only everyone in church was as enthusiastic about evangelism as some of the Mac owners I've known!

Apple devotees (fanboys) sometimes even develop the idea that Apple are always right, even when they are wrong, and need to be defended against the ignorant masses of unbelievers. In reality Apple make mistakes (e.g. Newton, one-button mouse, MobileMe reliability, bits of OSX Lion) - and these should be admitted and amended rather than denied and defended. But in some people's eyes, the Apple is perfect.
There is of course a doctrine of the perfection of God; but a parallel I see in this is more to do with defence of some more literal beliefs based on one reading of scripture, in the face of anything to the contrary.

According to many fans, Apple's resurgence in the last decade has been down to their esteemed leader, Steve Jobs (who today stepped down from his position of CEO due to ill health, though he remains chairman). He made famous appearances at Apple's staged events where he told the faithful how well Apple was doing and what they'd just invented. He was greeted with cheers whenever he appeared. Not many multinational company bosses get that kind of treatment. He has special clothes that he wears (black turtleneck & jeans) for giving his sermons to the faithful Apple congregation. And recently there was a kind of resurrection appearance. Mr Job's health is not good, but he came through a liver transplant well enough to take to the stage again before his retirement today.
I think I've done quite enough Messianic allusions there.

According to Andy Crouch (in an interesting article in Christianity Today), Steve Jobs peddles a 'secular form of hope'. In the first place, this hope is exemplified by technology itself. Because technology is maybe the one thing that clearly has always been improving. (This has a parallel in postmillennialism.) Apple has a knack of coming out with the shiniest, best-looking, most advanced new technology and bringing it to a market that it helps create with clever advertising. Technology is tangible, and so takes less faith than belief in any transcendent deity. If it is sold in a way that appears to provide some of the benefits of a 'proper' religion then it will have many takers.

But technology in general, and Apple in particular, have far less to offer than true religion. Tech can improve the lives of people (who can afford it) in the here and now. But in far less radical ways than the Christian gospel. Technology can be made to serve the gospel, but must never become an end in itself.

A shiny new Apple gadget can be exciting, and even extremely useful - but ultimately it can become a distraction from the real issues.

It can help us communicate, to stay in touch. But it can't create the love that makes us want to do that in the first place.

Then there is the ultimate reality of death. Even including some pathetic attempts at cryogenics, there is no technology that can keep people alive for ever. There is no technological hope beyond the grave. And so tech-hope itself is only short term.

The Apple faithful believe that there's always going to be a new Mac or iPhone just around the corner. But real faith is to believe that there is a purpose to everything, not just a user-interface paradigm that makes things work nicely together.

Christianity cuts across everything. Not just the small area of our lives that is enabled by technology. But it gives us a real reason for being. For wanting to create, belong, imagine, love, give, help, celebrate and all the important things in life. Technology can help us do those things, but it's never the reason why.

1Corinthians 13 (NLT)
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.