The Christian Cannibal Culture
Do you ever just grow weary of something? Just throw your hands up and say, “I’m tired of it”.
I know I do. Sometimes I am justified. Sometimes I am selfish. Sometimes I am just, well tired.
Well, I am tired of the lack of civility, honor and lingual responsibility shown by our Christian subculture of bloggers, tweeters and facebookers.
I am tired of reading another blogger attacking someone because they don’t agree with them.
I am tired of reading another tweet about how awful “the church” is from people who should be its biggest fans.
I am tired of seeing names thrown around by people who say they love Jesus about other people who say they love Jesus.
I am tired of seeing friends of mine called “Celebrity Pastors” by people who don’t know them, have never talked with them and simply don’t like the fact that they are funny and draw a crowd and said something stupid in a 30 second clip on youtube.
I am tired of there being such group think in our circles that if someone has an opinion and it does not match your opinion you get to roast them online personally and question their sanity, their love for God and their worth as a human.
One day, and I hope it will be soon, we will wake up and realize that the words we use are important, they are said about people who have spouses, children and church members who love them and google them often. Shame on us as a community that we fight in the public square like a hoard of middle school girls fighting over a one direction backstage pass. It’s embarrassing.
I say stupid things from the stage sometimes. I tweet stupid things sometimes. Praise God I am not “celebrity” enough in the eyes of the Christian Cannibal Culture to get a weekly review of those things in print.
When will it stop? When will the sides of the Christian subculture stop dueling like the gangs in the movie The Outsiders and just do what God has called you to do? I hope soon for the sake of the world.
There should be room to have intellectual discussions, disagree on orthodoxy or philosophy without attacking a person. Without throwing around strong words with weak forethought of their consequences.
You and I probably have some different beliefs. If we were the same there would not be a need for both of us. How about this, I won’t call you names and you don’t call me names and maybe just maybe they will know we are His disciples by our love for one another.
Deal?
Agree 100% with you Shawn. We need to be able to have the discussions without devolving into a junior high school lunchroom.
I agree completely. When it comes down to it the only real issue we should have is “does this person know Jesus or not?”. Because that, in the end, is the only thing that will matter. Yes, salvation isn’t only about a ticket to heaven, it’s about a transformed life on earth too, but no issue about the process that we are all on should divide us. We are all works in progress. None of us are perfect. So to judge someone else based on their sin is hypocritical of us and not the goal of the church.
It doesn’t matter how you chose to take communion, or if you believe that you have to speak in tongues to have received the baptism of the holy spirit, or if christians are allowed to have a drink of alcohol. What matters is we are all being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that we are reaching out to those who don’t know Jesus so that they too may experience the awesome transforming power of Jesus.
I am not privy to all you speak of, but will comment on bloggers, tweets, fb, and texts…its a one dimensional form of communication. People say things they would most likely not say face to face. Its a sad reality. Listening to proverbs in the car lately…lots of talk about fools…like a ring in a pigs snout….my favorite proverbs says like a dog returns to its vomit, a fool returns to its folly…great mental pix
Well said! And you didn’t even get into politics and our tendency to confuse it with faith!
The Bible has a word for people who refuse to engage in such malicious activity. It’s “mature”.
Hi, I picked this up via Len Sweet and I’ll repeat the comment I made on his FB page:
“Well the main point is absolutely true, we seriously need a much more graceful way of dealing with each other, but Shawn Wood also seems to be saying, that we ought to be more tolerant of preachers and teachers whose public words are taken seriously and criticised – I think James 3 warns that those who teach have a higher bar to clear and need to weigh their words carefully. If you or I have been trusted with a ‘celebrity’ ministry (or any ministry for that matter), think carefully about the impact of every word.”
Absolutely agree. Friendly fire is anything but friendly. It is responsible for the demise of many great moves of God.