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