Jeff's Journal

I have a dilemma.

Yesterday, there was a post on my Facebook page.

I clicked on it to enlarge it. Then I read what it said.

   What I saw first was a picture of a man

      with a colander on his head.

The real subject matter was atheism.

   He thought all religion was false.

    To prove his point that religion was a farce

        he insisted that he be allowed to wear a

        colander on his head for his drivers' license photo

        as a representative of a fabricated "religion"

        called something like religion of spaghetti colanders.

He was denied his request. But he fought it and

   three years later, the courts ruled that he could

   wear the colander. His point was that all religion is

   as stupid as wearing a spaghetti colander and calling

   your "church" the religion of spaghetti colanders.

This was posted on Facebook by someone I know, but do not

   know well. They "friended me" a while back and I accepted.

I clicked on the picture again and there were more pictures.

   Often people "collect" pictures and cartoons, etc. and allow

   them to be viewed when they put something on Facebook.

I was shocked! What was revealed to me was a series of profane,

   racist, neo-Nazi and sexist (not sexy) messages and pictures.

I learned I did not share one shred of anything in common

   with this Facebook "friend."

What you need to know about Facebook is that any one of the

   150 or so people I have "friended" on Facebook can go to my

   page and view the same thing I viewed. I don't want that.

   I can "unfriend" this person, but should I? (Keep in mind

   "friending and unfriending" have little to nothing to do with

   true friendship).

Ministers live in a sort of bubble. While we know of all the trouble

   and sin in the world, others often present the best side of themselves

   to us, and we slowly become out of touch with how people really think

   in the world and how some act on what they think. I have learned things

   about people on Facebook that I would have not learned otherwise —

   mostly good things, but sometimes the ugly edge of personal disclosure.

This works in reverse too, you know. When my Jeff's Journal is posted each

  week, it goes to all my Facebook "friends." Probably very few read it, but

   it is available nevertheless.

I am learning to negotiate the new forms of media and deal with

   ethical dilemmas presented there. I will not unfriend this person nor

   will I shut down my Facebook page. But when they are of age, I will not

   allow my grandchildren to have access to it (and they will probably not let

   me have access to theirs either).

On the other hand, if we looked at it together, it would give me an opportunity

   to tell them, " I believe in the one God and his son Jesus Christ. I believe that

   all people have value regardless of race, religion, sexual preference or political

   persuasion. I believe love is more powerful than hatred and that profanity is not the

   best way to express how you feel. I would tell them, that how you interpret the Bible

   is critical to your understanding and we cannot and do not always take it literally or

   use one verse "proof texts" to support what we want to believe.

May God guide us in our use of social media and our struggle to use it for good.

Moving to the deeper places,

Jeff