JW June 30, 2015 Joel A. Hess

Stop being a Facebook Christian

How in the world did America go from being a majority against same sex marriage to a majority for it? Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and bumper stickers.

Facebook allows for an exponential spreading of quick slogans. Period. And who is going to argue against a rainbow or against two people who are holding hands with the proclamation, “love wins”? No one. Within a day teenage girls are posting and sharing these slogans throughout the world with no thought involved at all. Hitler would have loved Facebook. Isis certainly enjoys the internet. Our amazing ability to communicate quickly is negated by the requirement of very short slogans and pictures!

Like the tower of Babel, great communication among blinded sinners produces dumb ideas! I promise you Facebook is the only reason America has changed its mind about same sex marriage. It is the tower of Babel effect, pure and simple.

God’s dispersion of people and confusion of language was a blessing not a curse.

But, just as Facebook propelled us into these confused times, Christians only make it worse as they try to play the Facebook game as well! Stop being a Facebook Christian! Stop flinging cute little phrases and mass accusations hoping that your enemy will suddenly be convinced! It ain’t going to work, and it makes you look like a jerk. I don’t care how incredibly convincing and clever you think you are.

Facebook forces us to categorize each other, box them up, and divide them into sides. Facebook wars rob people of their people-ness! This country is increasingly divided not because of one side that is way wrong – though I believe it is. This country is divided because the asinine political games we witness in campaign ads that cost candidates billions of dollars can now be achieved for free on social media!

Launching clever memes on issues is not evangelism or love. Your neighbors, your Facebook friends, your enemies are real people.

This past Sunday many of us heard the wonderful story of Jesus healing the nameless, poor, lonely woman on route to raising from the dead the powerful and rich synagogue ruler’s daughter. Two people on opposite ends of the many social spectrums. Yet they are united by death. By desperation. By fear and loneliness, sin and guilt. We are united with them.

And we are all united by the one cure, the one Savior, Jesus Christ. As Luther said, “we are just beggars, beggars telling others where the food is!”

That is your neighbor, your Facebook friend or enemy. They are dying. They are losing. They are scared and at night when the lights go off and the door is locked. They are afraid.

They don’t need quick little slogans, but long face to face conversations with words that are accompanied by mercy.

Get off your Facebook, get away from the bomb flinging, and “evil” and “hater” slinging. Walk your ass over to your neighbor’s house with a cup of water.

14Comments

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1

kirkskeptic on June 30, 2015 at 6:34 am

I’m no fan of social media, but all of the categorizing and boxing-up of people preceded them. Perhaps all that has changed is the nature of the slogans.

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Curt on June 30, 2015 at 7:35 am

We put people into boxes/categories because once we’ve figured out “where they belong,” we feel in control once again, and we all like that. Then we can move on to another group/topic and do the same thing. Social media is so addictive, hard to leave it alone…

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Jean on June 30, 2015 at 8:25 am

This article is a keeper. Thanks.

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Tom on June 30, 2015 at 8:55 am

I’d say that people under 30 are the biggest supporters of gay marriage and that social media has little to do with it. Their attitudes are very different from those of my generation.
I know a few gay men, and they are all upstanding, even accomplished, citizens and actually quite pious. Please don’t pop a vein, but the biblical prohibitions on men having sex with other men are probably in reference to pagan temple prostitution. I guess ancient Jews had to be reminded now and then to stay away from that cute little Ammon down at the local Temple of Baal.
I’m a lot more worried about the Kochs buying the next president than I am about a few gay dudes hitching up.

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  kirkskeptic on June 30, 2015 at 9:07 am
  
  No, the verses stand as they read, and the prohibition continues in the NT. If you have solid textual evidence to the contrary, please provide it.
  
  As for the Koch’s, better them than Soros and his current meat-puppet.
  
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Tom on June 30, 2015 at 9:59 am

Such fun to pick and choose from the OT. Should we eat pork or stick with only kosher foods? How about stoning adulterers?
Homos in the OT? How about David and Jonathan? Maybe not, but straight guys don’t often have those kinds of feelings for their buds. And then there’s Ruth and Naomi…
It is absolutely clear that Our Saviour Himself never explicitly condemned homosexual practices. He’s the Lord we are called to follow. The NT references I’m aware of are not in the Gospels and have to be read in the context of the times they were written in, not to mention trying to understand key words in the archaic languages of the oldest surviving copies.
When there is any doubt or ambiguity, Christian love and compassion should trump our own puny egos and flawed judgments. And sometimes, a simple practical approach will yield comprehension.
For instance, trying to understand what Paul meant, telling women to be silent in church. As I am surrounded by elderly Lutheran women chatting well into the beginning of worship every Sunday, it’s obvious that he was telling them not to gossip during the service!

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  kirkskeptic on June 30, 2015 at 1:36 pm
  
  It’s obvious that you approach the Scritours as a liberal, or yiu woun’t differentiate between what Christ said and what the Scripures say; you see , he gave it all. I no more need his explicit condemation of sodomy than I do for bestiality-God said it once, and is under no obligation to reepat himself. As for port, Acts 15 and basic covenant theology should guide you there…then again, you libs see yourselves as above the text, which you basically equate with Gilgamensh and other antiquated works.
  
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    kirkskeptic on June 30, 2015 at 1:41 pm
    
    Maybe you think Frodo and Sam were sodomites, too? Your exposure to Orental people and their customs appears to be minimal at best….also, try reading Civil War memoirs like /Company H/ – they wren’t queer either.
    
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hlewis2962 on June 30, 2015 at 1:49 pm

Joel,

Jesus did not limit his teaching and discourse to the synagogues to be heard only by those who went in. He went into the crowds, into the streets, among the people, and spoke in their vernacular. Paul (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23) does not compromise the message but makes it comprehensible in the terms of the hearers.

Facebook may be awful, but the crowds are gathered there. Personally, I can’t stand it and I don’t understand how my family does what they do with it. But, because it is not where I would go and not where you feel comfortable, there may be a call for evangelism on the platform. Where there are word and where there is dialog, God’s Word can come in. It may not be easy and it may take a special approach, but God may raise up a “Paul” of Facebook.

The reason the argument was lost is because the primacy of the individual to interpret a personal and unique set of beliefs which define his relationships is ingrained into the nation’s documents, law, and culture. It may be that a person chooses a particular set of beliefs shared by others, but it may not. How often have conversations included “the God I believe in…” or “I would not believe in a God who would…” without regard to God as revealed in scripture? If all that is good, like “love”, is what we determine it to be, each one of us, then anything we determine in our personal judgement to be good must be good. The alternatives are discrimination, choosing which individuals may have autonomy in moral matters, or insisting that morality is not a matter of personal judgement – support an institution of religion (and hope they pick yours).

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Chuck Huckaby on June 30, 2015 at 3:37 pm

Reblogged this on Missio Links and commented:
I certainly agree that pastors, Christians, disciplemakers all need more FACE TO FACE relationships to advance the Christian mission. Social media may be nice once those are established, but fundamentally we need to be seeing more people face to face as this blog suggests.

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D@mnItJim on June 30, 2015 at 9:41 pm

I think the writers of Jagged Word would be great Facebook evangelists. Internet communities (very much like this one) have become meaningful places for people to unite (such as our weekly refutation of following the pope). The internet is similar to Luther using the printing press: it’s just a new tool of communication (even if most of that communication is painful to read). Facebook is where the beggars are gathered: why not meet them where they are?

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  kirkskeptic on July 1, 2015 at 10:45 am
  
  True; much printed is also painful to read, but the work of the church is not about being comfortable.
  
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Barry on July 2, 2015 at 8:11 pm

If I understand the argument correctly, the author’s argument here is this:

(1) Gay marriage is a dumb idea. At least, that’s how I read this sentence: “Great communication among blinded sinners produces dumb ideas! I promise you Facebook is the only reason America has changed its mind about same sex marriage. It is the tower of Babel effect, pure and simple.”

(2) Everyone, or most everyone who supports gay marriage does so on irrational grounds. Namely, they are shallow thinkers who depend upon slogans on Facebook.

(3) It is bad to be a shallow thinker who relies on Facebook.

(4) Facebook causes us to treat others under categories, instead of as sinners needing grace. (it seems that the above responder kirkskeptic may spend too much time on Facebook as he is quick to label Tom, who admittedly is too flippant with Scripture, as a ‘liberal’ and thereby assume that that this category carries an argument, instead of, as the original post recommends, treating the person with mercy and engaging him as a human being. Shame on kirkskeptic for not taking the original point of the post seriously).

If I am right in understanding the argument, I find it wholly unconvincing and mostly question begging. The question, I think, is, in a pluralistic democracy, should the government have the power to restrict the union of two people who wish to make a lifelong commitment to each other? There is nothing in this piece that discusses this question. It simply assumes that gay marriage is stupid and anyone who thinks it must be irrational. And if they are irrational, it must be because they spend too much time on Facebook. But this is simply to launch an ad hominem attack without at all taking seriously that there may be legitimate reasons to think that gay marriage should be legal in America. (Were the Supreme Court justices spending too much time on Facebook? Or, did these highly skilled lawyers find legal and moral precedent for broadening the legal rights of gay couples? What arguments did they put forward? What legal grounds were there arguments based on? What about these arguments do you not find convincing?) If you would engage actual arguments, your piece would actually practice what it preaches, instead of being guilty of a performative contradiction.

In the future, I hope that you take your own advice, Mr. Joel. Engage people in argument; look at the arguments people put forward, instead of simply assuming that everyone but your side is an idiot who depends on irrational means to arrive at opinions that contradict your own. Perhaps, just maybe, there are people of good will who come to conclusions that differ from your own. Perhaps, just maybe, it is worth engaging them as human beings. Perhaps, and just maybe, there are good arguments on the other side that concern the legal code in America. Most definitely, however, you will never know if you dismiss everyone who disagrees with you as stupid and irrational from the get go.

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  joel allen hess on July 3, 2015 at 9:32 am
  
  thanks for your very thoughtful reply. seriously. i am sorry. you are correct i should have explained why gay marriage is ‘dumb’. Thanks for pointing that out.
  
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