Christians And Social Media (what you post matters… greatly)
Remember when Facebook was all about “Poking” people, getting FarmVille requests, and sharing cat photos? Those were the good ole days… Now it seems every post is an attack on someone with opposing views. And that’s not limited to Facebook, this trend spans across all platforms. In this new reality, how should Christians use social media?
I’m not really going to go into all the reasons why people say the things they do on social media; that’s a different article. But a quick side note that I think is important to recognize is that the picture we get of our country on social media is very skewed. Our country isn’t nearly as divided as one might think. Just go outside and talk to your neighbor, and you will find that the level of hate on social media isn’t often lived out in the real world (though we still got problems).
What I really want to get at in this article is what Christians post on social media. It seems like every day I read a cringe-worthy post or tweet from a Christian. And that needs to stop.
Christians And Social Media… What You Post Matters
Here’s the bottom line: What you post online as a follower of Jesus tells those reading it something about God, good or bad.
I just can’t think of a good reason to EVER post something hateful or damning directed at another person, political party, people group, or organization. It’s not effective, and it doesn’t show God’s love to others.
I know I know… You’re passionate about your view. But you can be right in your belief and wrong in how you live your belief out. And I’m convinced that arguing on social media will never do any good.
Arguing on social media is kinda like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, he will just knock over all the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like he won. It’s just not worth it.
You will never convince anyone to change their political stance, religion, their social behavior, or whatever, by engaging in an argument over a computer screen. You just won’t. All that will happen is that each side will become more entrenched in their own opinions.
What you will accomplish is losing your credibility. You will give a poor representation of what Jesus looks like. You will miss out on the community with others. And most importantly, you will push more people away from the God that loves them.
You Represent Jesus (even online)
As Christians we are called to represent Christ everywhere we go. That includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, the comment section on your favorite news source, and everywhere else you go. You don’t get to decide if you are going to represent Jesus; you get to decide how you will represent him.
I get it, you are passionate about your political leanings. And they are important. But the message of the Gospel is so much more important. So don’t alienate people by posting ridiculous things that won’t convince anyone of anything and will just piss them off. There’s no point.
What would a democrat think if they read your latest tweet? How about a republican? Is that rant about gun control, the latest social trend, Obama-care/Trump-care, or whatever actually worth it? Is that going to accomplish anything? Or will it just alienate people from you?
Maybe you are thinking well I don’t really want to associate with “those” people. Whoever “those people” are in your book. But you might want to rethink that. Jesus is for ALL people. And that includes the people you cannot stand.
When you post something bashing a person, a president, a leader, a group of people, a profession, or a political party, you are bashing someone that Jesus died for. You are spewing hate at someone that Jesus told you to love. You are doing the opposite of what the Gospel says to do. Let that sink in.
People need to hear about Jesus before they hear your own opinions. But often people know what we are for and against RATHER than who we follow.
Think Before You Post
I’m not saying that you should never post anything political or controversial. But we should start thinking about what our posts are telling others about God. And we should pursue unity with those that view the world differently than us. Community with each other is more important than our freedom of speech. We need to recognize the distance that our posts can put between us.
Here’s a good question to ask yourself: Is this something I would say to someone’s face?
Here’s another one: Is this something Jesus would have said?
If you claim to follow Jesus we are told we have to die to ourselves, daily. Maybe for us, that means watching what we post on our social media accounts. Maybe that means that we have to sacrifice some of our freedoms for the sake of the Gospel.
Listen, Christians, we have to start being careful of what we post on social media. There’s a lot more at stake than whether or not you can own a gun or what kind of healthcare you will get. Those are important. But not at the cost of damaging your relationships with others. Jesus is more important.
If you follow Jesus be careful what you post. Stand up for your beliefs but don’t alienate people in your life who view things differently than you do. Choose unity rather than being right.
When we learn more about Jesus and grow in our relationship with him we can represent him better. Here are some books that can help you in that process:
Love the awareness your bringing to the Christian Community Mr. Poor.
As you may notice from my website CureCandidaCureCancer.Com, I don’t believe in sugar coating anything, not if it will save the lives of others; especially in ETERNITY. Since being able to get the word out about the “dark side” in this world (in total opposition ofcourse), I’ve given it a rest, Social Media, that is. Not even the TV gets watched as often, because it’s the same negative filth that gets spewed out on the public for people; young and old to watch.
Overall, I also agree with “nombre de la pluma.” You can’t always be non-offensive when trying to save a life in the “afterlife,” that’s why we are told to “be not conformed to this world, but transformed; by the renewing of our minds with the ‘WORD”‘ and the one who is the living “WORD” from the beginning.
Excellent points. One thing I think many Christian social media posters miss is that when Jesus spoke truth and offended someone, it was almost invariably a religious leader or politician, not just your average powerless Jew like Himself. The few exceptions were to his own disciples, and then to their faces.
Very true… Jesus offending people very differently then we do.
Well said!
Excellent post. Thank you.
I absolutely agree with this post 100%. That said, my blog must offend everyone, and for much of it, I apologize in advance. Some Christ-followers would be offended if they’re put off by my feelings of being sidelined, sidetracked, and ignored, and only thrown a table scrap to live on once in a while. Nevertheless, I press on the best I can, if you know what I mean. Non-Christ followers would be offended if they’re put off by my insistence that Christ doesn’t represent just ONE way to heaven, but THE way, And my insistence that the whole Bible is true and you can’t cherry pick what you like and ignore what you don’t like. I have faith and actions in spite of my experiences and my feelings about them. But I write expressing my feelings and my real life experiences. It’s undeniably authentic.
Not everything I do is right, but then not everything other Christ-followers do is going to be right either. I might offend, but it’ll be the truth. And not everything I say is going to be said in the best possible way. I’m not Jesus. I think Christ followers can miss the boat in several ways:
1) when they think people should present themselves as examples of perfection, because that only pushes people with that burden to hypocrisy. I see fake people all the time, at church and also in the secular world. We all try on masks sometimes:
2 a) when they try to overemphasize love at the expense of truth and they forget Jesus called people to repent;
2 b) when they overemphasize the truth and forget that Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for them It has to be a balance. All knowledge does is puff up and lead to hatred and condemnation;
3) when they present their beliefs as if they were doctrine, when what they’re saying isn’t actually found in scriptures, or when they try to validate someone else’s beliefs without fact checking (see also Acts reference to the Bereans);
4) when they don’t really know what the Bible actually says; they’re too lazy to read it; and they try to go with the flow of whatever’s currently popular or BS their way through questions, use what they thought they heard the pastor say, or something they think they remembered from Sunday School. The oldest trick in the Book, literally, was Satan asking “did God really say…?” Satan is still using the same old trick, and if we don’t know what God really said, we are toast. OR, perhaps a refreshing approach would be the honest one: “I am sorry, I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can research it and/or discuss with my pastor and get back to you,” IS a perfectly acceptable answer. Or, “I’ve never heard that from the Bible before. What book, chapter and verse is that?” is a perfectly acceptable response.
There certainly are things that will offend people that are good. Jesus seemed to always be offending someone. I don’t think being offended/offending is wrong. It just matters with what you are offending others with.
Nice post!! Couldn’t agree more.
This needed to be said, and you said it very well. J.
I can’t like this post enough. I weigh – or try to weigh – everything I write, share it even like to test what it says about me, about what I believe and whether it would needlessly offend anyone. Thank God for delete buttons and backspace!
We all have to take back our words sometimes!