For the most part I left Facebook at the beginning of 2023 because I was tired of the drama and the arguing. I still have my account because sometimes it is the only way to check in with some family members. But, I’m done posting Biblical thoughts, Scripture, ideas, etc. etc. I just don’t have the energy nor the desire to deal with people who just want to argue. It would seem that social media has created the perfect environment for this, a virtual MMA arena. I wrote a Substack awhile ago about David and Goliath. How Goliath does not represent your problems in life and that you are not David slaying them. I posted it to Facebook and in… 3… 2… 1… “This is so wrong! You are so wrong! I slay my giants! I’m just like David”.
So now I peruse the halls of Twitter and man oh man do we Christians like to argue. This is not “iron sharpening iron” this is “let’s see who can cut the other’s throat first”.
So here is what Christian Twitter is currently arguing about:
Christian Nationalism
Women in Ministry
The Doctrine of Election
The Free-will of Man
Bible translations - KJV Only
Gay Christianity
Submission of Wives
These are the ones that light up my time line like a Christmas tree, like the Christmas tree in Whoville.
I have memories of attending church business meetings growing up because, you know, “it’s important for young people to be involved in the church”. So for the next hour I watched grown men and women argue over what color the church carpet should be. In another meeting they argued over van tires and in another meeting I witnessed pastoral manipulation for a construction project which led to arguing.
Baptists…
At times I’m tempted to jump into the fray but then sanity slaps me across the mouth and I refrain. I laugh at most and become sad with others, I see a departure from God’s Word on some and hit men on high horses on others. This goes on all day everyday… to the glory of God? I’m not saying that we shouldn’t engage in debate or correction but my gosh our attitudes are to shoot first then ask questions later. There is no love here, no genuine desire for growth.
Brothers and Sisters we have to do better - John 13:34-35 demands that we do.
Of course if you don’t want to that’s fine, it just means more deviled eggs for me.
While there is no doubt that our immaturity is part of it, I think that social media is designed to bring out the worst in us. Lots of times substack is better in my experience. Anyway, I was told this story probably 20 years ago. Not far from my house there is a Dewberry Baptist Church No 1 and a few miles away Dewberry Baptist Church No 2. One day two of the deacons were arguing over predestination. Being a Baptist church in Georgia fried chicken was near at hand, and one of them grabbed the last piece proclaiming, 'I was destined before the foundation of the world to eat this chicken.' and the other one knocked it out of his hand screaming, 'I have free will!' So wanting to tell you this story inspired me to look it up and it seems to be the accepted history and /probably/ true as I heard it. As a neat addition it seems that a nearby dog wound up getting the chicken but that seems a little too perfect and stinks of an addition for moralizing purposes to me. https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/columnists/johnny-vardeman-story-retold-churches-divided-theology/