Thursday, August 15, 2013

Christianity and Social Media



If God saw your Instagram profile, would he follow you? Better yet, if God already followed your Instagram, would he consider deleting you based on what you post? (BTW, considering he is omnipresent and omniscient, he's already seen everything you've posted and liked)

Christianity and Social Media

Social media is great. You can connect with old friends, share your thoughts, photos, etc. It's also a way to get to know what people are interested in. You can get a feel for what people like based on what they've posted and "liked". But enough of that, I doubt any of us need a lesson in social media 101.

Realize I am now talking to Christians. This doesn't apply to you if you are not a Christian...because it's about to get judgmental up in here.

I once heard someone say that they prefer to not put a "Jesus fish" or any type of Christianity-based symbol on their car because they know they drive like a maniac. By not doing so, that person would avoid making Christians look bad with their speeding, lane-switching-without-a-signal, red-light-running, impatient tendencies. Fair enough. I see their logic; it prevents themselves from giving Christianity a bad name.

This was so fitting. Its social media and the Jesus fish in one picture!

Sometimes, I wish people would follow this logic on social media. All too often, I see too many examples of people with a metaphorical "Jesus fish" on their Facebook and Instagram profile, but are out there posting what is not characteristic of a Christian.

I see profiles that say "child of God" or "I love Jesus" but you scroll through their picture feed and see pictures of them doing drugs, in strip clubs, degrading men or women, or those weird pictures of words saying all kinds of odd things. (Type the number of what you think about me! 1 = you're cute! 2 = let's make out, 3 = I can't live without you, 4 =...use your imagination where this eventually leads, and I've seen it go up to the number 18).

And it's not just what you post. It's also what you "like". There's a big inconsistency when instagram user Joe4Christ's last 8 likes are of a Bible verse and pictures of naked women. (To my knowledge, Joe4Christ is not a real person.) You can tell a lot about a person based on the pictures they like. What are you telling people about Christians when you like things that you shouldn't?

 Part of the problem is that you actually like those things in which you need to examine yourself and figure out why you are enjoy these certain sins. But even if you do truly like those things, you don't need to tell the world that the self-proclaimed Christian on Instagram/Facebook enjoys what the Bible calls sin.

Understand my point here. Every time you post and like a sinful status or picture, you are misleading all of your followers/friends on what it means to be a Christian. You are effectively saying, "Hello world. I am a Christian and I approve of this status/picture." When Christians approve of things that God doesn't approve of, that's sin.

Romans 1:32 - And knowing the judgment of God, that those who commit such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but have pleasure in those who do them.

Here is the above verse in the New Social Media Translation: And knowing the Judgment of God, that those who post such pictures are worthy of death, they not only post the pictures, but like other user's pictures who post them. (no, that Bible version does not exist. But if it did, it would probably say that.)

Let's think through the scenarios of what can happen when you post or like something you shouldn't have. One of these two results will probably happen:

  • Non-Christians will see hypocrisy on the Christian's part, and further dislike the church
  • Non-Christians who are curious about Christianity and not very educated on doctrine (or new Christians, or anyone who looks up to you such as your younger siblings) will assume that kind of behavior is okay because you posted/liked it, misleading them as to what Christians actually believe and leading them down the wrong path

Please realize this is not me condemning you bunch of hypocrites out there. I'm guilty of this too. I have posted things for vain reasons and liked what I should not have. I'm as guilty as anyone, but I've repented of that. I stopped doing these things and I'm urging you to stop as well. As ambassadors of Christ, we have to be very careful of what we are telling the world with our actions. An ambassador for Coca-Cola wouldn't be caught dead with a picture of Pepsi on their daily Instagram lunch photo. An ambassador for Nike wouldn't have pictures of Adidas shoes in their feet picture. 

In a nutshell, what I'm saying is...If you are going to like those posts, then it might serve the Christian community better if you don't have a "Jesus fish" or whatever type of Christian symbol you have on your profile. In Joe4Christ's situation, maybe he should change his name to something else without Christ in it. Just like how the bad driver, knowing his tendencies, does not put the Jesus fish on his bumper.

Paul says in Romans 6, "We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" and in the same chapter, also says "Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. "

I think that our social media accounts can be considered "instruments" in this verse. And our accounts can either be instruments of wickedness or righteousness.

After saying all of that, I guess an appropriate question would be, "what is a 'righteous' social media profile look like?" I guess its easier to explain the negative aspect of this than the positive, because I don't really have an answer to what your profile should look like. I think as long as you are wary of what you post and like, you have freedom in that realm of your life to use it however you want. Go ahead, post pictures of all your meals, take another sunset shot, and lets see your feet picture again. (Easy on the selfies though, that might be a vanity issue).

Let's leave it at this - we as Christians simply should never take pleasure in sin, whether it's on social media or in real life.

My guess is there will be someone who reads this and thinks to themselves, "why are you judging so much? The Bible says don't judge. He that is sinless shall cast the first stone!"

I plan on answering that question in my next post. But I have yet to stick to my posting plans...

Until next time. Stay holy, my friends.


2 comments:

  1. This was very helpful

    Thank you for posting this very interesting

    ReplyDelete