As a person of the Christian faith, and a 23 year old in the age of social media, I interact with multiple web-based Christian platforms on a daily basis. What a wonderful thing it is to have this free access to sermons and blogs and other resources from millions of churches, foundations, .coms and .orgs. There are so many of these that if you type “Jesus” into a simple Google search, you can pull up “About 884,000,000 results” (in 1.12 seconds). If you decide to refine your search and inquire, “Does God love me” you’ll get about 17,000,000 results. Typing in “Why does suffering exist if God loves me” will give you over 3,000,000 results. Ten minutes online reveals that, for anybody who is curious and has internet access, there are “answers” that exists for almost every single question we could ask about Jesus, God, faith, life, death, eternity, sin, etc. Each search result has millions of related but distinct answers you can download in the form of PDF or listen to as a Podcast.
In fact, so tailored are these “answers” that you can Google to find out whether or not your depression is a sin, how to evangelize to a dying person, and which presidential candidate you should vote for if you are a real believer (This of course depends on which Google page you decide to find your answer: the first page you’ll probably find at least 5 sources that say go GOP; the tenth page says that democracy is unbiblical and a vote for either a democrat or a republican is actually a vote for Satan). It’s a unique age we live in. Before the explosion of the internet, to find answers to big questions within our faith, we were forced to turn to our family, our local church congregation, and the wealth of novels written by our faith fathers and mothers. Interesting how, now, it is easy to replace this intense spiritual discernment with a few clicks around on the screen of our smartphone. It seems, too, that every ministry is eager to provide this media, answer the same questions in different (but definitely from “God’s perspective,” or the “correct Biblical interpretation”) and so to get as many webpage hits and subscribers as possible. The internet has awesome power. People have been saved from suicide, from acting out on an addiction, from abandoning their faith completely through the encouragement and guidance that these online sources can offer. And the vast treasure trove of online information and opinions about Christian life can also be a Pandora’s box of condemnation, judgement, and manipulation. In vulnerable times when I have been isolated from a healthy and thriving faith community, deeply troubled by some difficult circumstance I wanted to find meaning in, simple searches sent me into a dark online world of faceless and disembodied Christian voices who were carrying guns loaded with singular verses, cocked and aimed and firing rapidly back and forth. Condemnation and disgust spewed as words divorced from their writer were tossed around about the controversial topics of our day: homosexuality, mental disorders, evolution and politics... Here’s another common manifestation: the 50 comment long Facebook posts where people are trying to prove that their position on an issue is the right one (which, in our community, is essentially us trying to prove what God thinks about an issue based on our interpretation of what Holy Scripture means). We have to acknowledge and be aware that the cyber culture of bullying, finger pointing, hatred and discrimination is one that exists within the Christian online community. We must refuse to engage in it. The internet is an easy place to cast stones and judge aspects of our culture that we believe are wrong. It’s easy because we can do so without the responsibility of standing and having to answer for our words. The virtual world is a place where judgement can replace the Gospel. And that’s something we must recognize and stand against. Now, more than ever, as hard questions and existing divisions continue to tempt us to tear each other apart, we need to insist on fostering healthy communities. Spaces where we are free to ask big questions, to find support instead of incrimination for our doubts and fears, to learn about Jesus from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, from a holistic and committed approach to unbiased Biblical investigation, and, so importantly, to learn from the lived example of those around us. I believe that this can happen over the internet, but it will take a great commitment to tolerance, to refusing to use our platforms (as small as our personal Twitter and as large as jesus.org) to elevate our interpretations or opinions at the danger of equating our view with that of the absolute authority of God and Christ. When Christians write literature for the internet, it needs to borne out of the fruits Spirit, those promised to us in Galatians 5:22. Authors of this content are able to recognize that they are but one voice among many, part of a bigger family, serve to create a jumping off point for searching souls and are not the final authority. Upholding this standard of gentleness and respect, invitation rather than fear-driven obedience, is vital as we are navigating how to be disciples of the God who is both absolute Truth and absolute Love in a world where the internet is increasingly where people are turning to find comfort, answers, and community. And may we remember as we express our views on faith and life via technology that “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!” (1 Corinthians 13:12 MSG).
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