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Steve Whitney
May 9, 2000
Prophets - Essay 3

This is the Temple of Technology

I had initially planned to write this paper on the lack of affordable housing in the Silicon Valley, where my wife Eleanor and I lived until last August, comparing it with the situation faced by the eighth-century prophets.  Though housing prices and rents are surely part of the problem, they are not really at its root.  I claim that skyrocketing housing prices, high-tech salaries, and stock-market valuations of Silicon Valley companies share a common source – a sense that the boom in technology, particularly Internet-related technology, cannot fail.  Indeed, the situation there is more like that of Jeremiah trying to convince his contemporaries that Jerusalem and the temple could and inevitably would fall, and that what truly mattered was the way they lived their lives, not where they lived them.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.  Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”  For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.  (Jeremiah 7:3-7, NRSV)

But what does this have to do with Silicon Valley?  Are the alien, orphan, widow, and innocent being oppressed?  Are people going after other gods to their own hurt?  Absolutely.  Let’s start by looking at the change in housing prices in the last year.

The median price of a single-family home in Santa Clara County rocketed through the half-million dollar mark in March, rising nearly 39 percent from the same period a year ago….  Using a real estate rule of thumb that buyers can afford a house 2 1/2 to three times their annual income, a $500,000 median means a buyer would need income of $180,000 to $216,000. The general rule doesn't take into account large down payments funded from cashed-in stock options….  Statewide, the median price of a single-family home rose to $238,870 in March, a 12.5 percent increase from March 1999, when it was $212,330. [1]

What we see here is that a family income of $180,000 to $216,000 per year is required to pay the mortgage on the median home in Silicon Valley, assuming that it’s possible to make a down payment.  That means that with two incomes, each would have to earn a minimum of $90,000 per year or full time at $45 per hour.  Clearly, people without college degrees won’t make that much.  Many or most of those who do have college degrees won’t make that much.  Certainly those in service jobs who sell the food that technology professionals eat, maintain the systems that provide water and remove waste, and clean the office space that they live in cannot afford that median house.  And with fewer people able to afford home ownership, rents have also gone up forcing many to commute two to three hours from distant, but more affordable, locales, but even that requires a car, gas, and insurance since public transportation from affordable cities is usually untenable [2] .  Two or three hours each direction in a car takes a big bite out of the time available to spend with one’s family, adding to the injury.  The alien, orphan, and widow are in considerable peril.

The damage being done to the most vulnerable members of society is clear, but it is difficult to point a finger at any obviously responsible party.  I claim that the reason for these conditions is a deep faith in the religion of technology.  Jeremiah warns his audience not to “go after other gods to your own hurt” (Jer. 7:6), but that is exactly what technology professionals have done and are continuing to do.  I have known people whose faith in technology’s power to make them rich and fulfilled has driven them to accept things they would never tolerate under other circumstances.

One friend and co-worker left a job he enjoyed with reasonable hours and good pay in order to take a job that didn’t interest him at all but that would provide a larger salary and stock options that could potentially be worth millions if he stayed at the company for four years.  He plans to work in a job that makes him miserable – a job he describes as “not unlike hell” – for four years in order to buy his freedom and retire at 36.  Rather than live his life as he would like to, using the gifts God has given him, he will do whatever that company asks, restrained by his “golden handcuffs” [3] for four years.  He believes that money will make him happy and that technology will provide it for him.  Certainly worshiping this “other god” has indeed been to his own hurt.

What other than faith could make people sign on the dotted line for 30-year mortgages on houses that cost 36% more today than they did just twelve months ago?  Are the same houses really worth that much more now?  People seem to believe that the prices will continue to go up or at least remain level without some kind of down market, despite the gains they’ve experienced in the last five years.  It wasn’t long ago that many Silicon Valley homeowners were willing to let their houses go to anyone who would take over the mortgage when the last real estate boom ended. [4]   They also expect to be able to earn the large salaries provided today by the high-tech industry for the next 30 years.  The same kind of faith and devotion have driven technology stock prices into the stratosphere.  Even with recent corrections, technology stocks are still worth no less than they were at already high price-earnings multiples back in November.

Jeremiah doesn’t just make an empty claim that Jerusalem and the temple can fall.  He supports his assertion.  He says, “Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.” (Jeremiah 7:12, NRSV)  And this isn’t just academic to Jeremiah – he is widely believed to be a descendent of the priests at Shiloh.  The temple can fall.  Similar analogies are available to the adherents of the technology faith.  What has happened to automobile manufacturing cities?  What of steel manufacturing cities?  What of defense-industry supported cities?  We could even go back to the gold rush.  Even though some people thought they would go on forever, all of these booms ended.  In the same way that Shiloh fell, Jerusalem could fall too.

Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.  Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations?  (Jeremiah 7:8-10, NRSV)

Perhaps if people weren’t quite so sure about what their stock options would be worth in four years, they wouldn’t be willing to perform absolutely any sort of act asked of them.  Perhaps they would be forced to seek out a God with true power who loves all people rather than Baal, the harsh and inequitable taskmaster of the high technology industry.

Perhaps if people had less faith in technology, they would be unwilling to prop up house prices with yet another year of double-digit price increases.  Perhaps they would realize that “trees don’t grow to the sky” and be willing to pay only a reasonable price for housing.   If they realized that their positions were not secure, they might be more concerned about the situations of others, leading them to realize that the whole community is part of the same system, and that if people whose families have lived in San Jose for generations could no longer afford to live there, it affects everyone.  Technology workers may be in the same position when the next market shift occurs.  The God of Jerusalem, the God of Israel, was the God of all, not just the ruling elite.  Recall Jeremiah 7:5-7:

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. (Jer. 7:5-7, NRSV)

We need to make a change to this unsustainable system soon. [5]   While life is already very difficult for some of those living and working in our community now, it will not be good for any of us if things continue and God has to tell us something akin to the message that Jeremiah delivered to those of his day. 

And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh.  And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.  (Jer. 7:13-15, NRSV)

On that day, the temple of technology will fall, and it will fall hard.

Bibliography

J. Blenkinsopp, A History of Prophecy in Israel, rev. ed. (1996).

M. L. Chaney, Prophets Class Lectures: February 1 – May 2, 2000.

P. Dutcher-Walls, “The Social Location of the Deuteronomists: A Sociological Study of Factional Politics in Late Pre-Exilic Judah,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 52 (1991) 77-94.

Sue McAllister, “Home Prices through the Roof,” The San Jose Mercury News, Internet Edition, April 26, 2000.

J. M. Miller and J. H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (1986).

Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (1989).