The idea for this blog comes from my friend Amanda, who writes on her facebook status...
"And yet another "if you're not Christian, you are lost" 'friend' gets removed from Facebook. I respect people's beliefs (stop laughing, I do). What I don't respect are people that use whatever medium they can to try to push it onto others like they're on some personal holy crusade. Don't like it? Kindly remove yourself so I don't have to bother."
Amanda brings up something I think all of us deal with to some extent. The Facebook Evangelist. (Sadly after a Google search I see I didn't invent the term.)
The Facebook Evangelist comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes it is a younger person who has recently fallen in love with God, sometimes it's an older person that feels like God is involved in everything down to the frequency of their bowel movements and sometimes it's just you average Christian.
Before we go any further in the interest of full disclosure (not that any of you aren't aware) I am a Christian. I'm a God-fearing Roman Catholic who believes truly that salvation comes through Jesus Christ and that we are fortunate he gave us the Church as a vessel of salvation.
But you've never seen me type that on facebook have you? (If I have, sorry.) Sure my beliefs come through in my status from time to time, that's how it is for all of us. But I'm not trying to convert the world or show anyone how holy I can be via social media.
And last I sympathize with these evangelist. As a Christian I support conversion, but I just don't think it can be done with facebook. See my closing statement for more.
One person I recently hid on my list, and to be honest I can't recall how I even knew them, posts a bible verse about what they're thinking a couple times a day. Another is always relating God to their every move. For example if they were to go to the pool in summer the post would start "Thank God for the pool."
Another literally only posts God-related things.
From my experience on facebook I think we can catalog the Facebook Evangelist into 3 categories.
First with the worst...
1. Conversion Carl
Conversion Carls are the people Amanda was referencing I believe. This is the person who thinks that because they have 37 friends and facebook info tells them that 16 of them aren't Christians that it is their duty to beat them over the head with phrases like, "There is still time to come to God," "It's just so sad that not everyone comes to know the love of Jesus," or "Believe in God or go to hell, your choice."
Conversion Carls may have a heart in the right place, but they have no idea that they probably turn more people off to God than anything.
2. The Bible Thumper
This person literally posts bible statuses everyday. Some of them recycle the Good Book's greatest hits while others find more obscure ones but it serves the same purpose. Everyone on facebook gets to know that they read the bible, at least 140 characters at a time.
The Bible Thumper is under the impression that either A) They get brownie points in heaven for each scripture quote on facebook, B) That out of context scripture will somehow bring people to God, or C) that it's just fun to have bible statuses.
God love'em for trying....but they're still annoying.
3. Solomon's Army
I went with Solomon because he was a symbol of wisdom. Solomon's Army, to me, is the most tolerable of the Facebook Evangelists.
These well-meaning intellectuals of faith tend to at least be interesting. They say use wise-sounding sayings from the bible and other sources to get people interested.
I have a major interest in theology so these people don't annoy me that much, until I see their fifth status of the day on the same topic. Why can't they ever just type "Tired, want to sleep" instead of "In that sleep of death, what dreams may come? Ask Jesus?"
Closing Thoughts
Now I admit I'm being a little mean to my brother and sister Christians here but call it tough love. I think we can agree that no facebook post have saved a sinner or damned a saint.
I'm not saying there is no place for faith in social media, there is. Create a fan page for you topic if you want. If you are really concerned about someone's soul, use facebook to make contact and deal with them directly.
Spamming people with God won't help.
I believe in the Great Commission (which comes from Matthew and says "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
It is our job as Christians to spread the faith but have we learned nothing from the past? Badgering doesn't work any better than forced conversion. Only those willing to listen can even begin to be swayed by scripture or theological argument, spamming everyone is just wasted energy.
More than that, if as Christians we hope to show others that our way is the way to go, we need to bear good fruit. We need to do it by showing that the faith isn't an archaic clinging to rules, that it isn't a system of belief as much as it should be a way of life, and a fun one at that.
Live your life as a Christian, help without gain, don't rush to judgment, be accepting, dine with the sinners and love unconditionally. These are the things you can do if you want people to come to God. And if and when they ASK you, then you can tell them the good news.
But you can do that on a private message, not on your status.
Your thoughts?
I'm not on facebook, so I can't totally relate, but I have a hard time squaring myself with evangelism in general.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, if you're a Christian (who's anywhere near orthodox), then you've implicitly taken on the duty to evangelize. And although it's good that many try not to be dicks about it, "in for a penny, in for a pound" comes to mind. If you're going to evangelize, shouldn't you be aggressive about it? I mean, if the thing's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Right?
If you choose not to convert your friend the atheist, aren't you putting your secular relationship with your friend before your duty to God?
That's my problem with Christianity, it's a religion that you absolutely MUST water down if you want to lead a decent life. If everyone took the teachings of Jesus literally, we'd be a nation of bums because everyone would have sold their possessions, given away the proceeds and wandered the earth like Cain from Kung Fu.
A person should be able to follow their religion (or set of principles) LITERALLY and ZEALOUSLY without ending up as a crazy person, or the governor of Alabama.
I disagree. I think being reasonable about it is the way to go. U have to think of the likelyhood of success in these matters. Shouting on social media will not work but living in such a way that serves a good example as draws people to ask about the faith can. I've helped a few people this way.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of characters in the bible that don't swear vows of poverty. That's for some. There are those followers of Jesus that owned homes and let him stay at their places etc.
I don't see why something should need a fundamentalist approach for it to be valid.
Isn't that watering down the teachings? Jesus said if you want to be perfect then sell all your possessions and give to the poor.
ReplyDeleteI'm not denying that you can still be a valid Christian without doing that, but if every Christian was a perfect Christian, no one would own anything (except non-christians), Jesus wouldn't have a place to stay and the movement as a whole would have probably been stamped out completely because wealthy pagans who ended up with all the hocked property would have brought hammer down on those ragged mooches.
It only works if some people are wishy washy about how far they take the teachings. If every Christian perfectly obeyed the "turn the other cheek" commandment, we'd all be speaking either Arabic or Latin and Christianity would be an obscure idea from a very distant past.
But scripture also says that we cannot be perfect. I need to reread me some bible this weekend.
ReplyDeleteHaha I'm causing you to lose your free time.
ReplyDeletePerfect or Not Perfect - all that's just a semantics argument. Jesus is certainly saying that it's BETTER to give up your possessions and give away the proceeds, and it's better not to retaliate against your enemies. Whatever else he says, it certainly doesn't negate those points.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of advice is that? Is that the kind of advice you'd give to a single mother who's got a responsibility to see that her child gets fed? "Ma'am my best advice is to sell your meager possessions and take your self and your baby to the streets. Somehow the Lord will provide"? Is that responsible, let alone moral?
I don't know. I read about 80 percent of Matthew on Sunday and I didn't take away from that passage that we should all swear vows of poverty.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to give away your possessions to the poor, but I do not see where it is required. Like you said Jesus says that's a better way to go but there are other ways to go that are still acceptable. It's similar to where Paul says those who can remain celibate should, but acknowledges many cannot.
I don't see how that's watering down.
I only know of one instance in the bible where Jesus tells someone to give away all your possessions and that is said to a very wealthy man who is basically trying to show off how perfect he is. Jesus gives him a whole list of other things to do before giving away all his possessions. I believe that tithing is a more prevalent concept that appears in the bible. I believe it specifically states that 10% of your earnings should be given away, not all of it. I don't know if this is helpful at all to the debate, but I hope it is.
ReplyDeleteHi Kelly, the 10% number is from the Old Testement and does not really stick with the Christian Church
ReplyDeletein the New Testement it shows Christians living together in communal setting with shared wealth
i would also argue that while this was done by the early Church it is not clear that all christians must follow that example
John...
ReplyDeleteYou described yourself as God-fearing?
Alex, yes....are you the judge of that?
ReplyDeleteI can not judge your soul
ReplyDeleteI can judge actions
Kelly & John -
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jesus would certainly give the "thumbs up" to tithing. What I'm saying is:
If I'm a 17 year old boy who read that passage, had an epiphany and said "I want to try to be more perfect, like Jesus told that man!" and decided to cast off my possessions and join a monastery, would I be in the wrong? Would I be misinterpreting Jesus's words?
No. You'd probably applaud that decision and say something like "Good for you for your determination to go the distance for Christ".
If 1000 people from different places across the globe had the same epiphany would there be a problem? No, still meeting with praise.
If everyone in the christian world simultaneously had that epiphany? Suddenly you're saying "Well now.. What Jesus MEANT was.. uh.. what with the tithing... um... You're really being too literal. You don't have to do this..."