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This month’s question addresses whether or not disciples of Jesus are accountable for the things we say and share online. This member asks,
In the age of social media, are the things we ‘share’ and spread online subject to James 3? Will we be held just as accountable for passing along the written words or videos of others—to those we influence—as we will be for the vocal words we speak?
It’s a great question! And I’m sure it comes from observing what we all have probably observed at a heightened level in the last year where a surprising amount of Christians share misinformation about COVID-19, slander about certain political or humanitarian workers, or outright conspiracy theory rhetoric.
Do we carry responsibility for things that are said and done digitally?
Will people who said or passed along articles and memes claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax and not as bad of a sickness as the flu be held accountable for their words? Especially, considering that hundreds of thousands more people have died from COVID-19 than typically die from the flu?
Will our brothers and sisters who passed along the Candace Owens video in which she declared as truth several things about Ahmaud Arbery that were later proven to be false be held responsible for not only lying, but for participating in an unloving and cynical attitude toward another image bearer of God?
What about all those who insisted the election was “stolen” and passed around videos (or spoke it themselves) prophecies about Donald Trump continuing on as President?
How about those who left comments on people’s feeds suggesting that if a person takes the COVID-19 vaccine they are “basically grounding up little babies and injecting them into their arms”?
Does it matter that we flippantly, yet adamantly, throw these kinds of things around online?
Or is typing comments and posts out on digital social media somehow so much less of our real selves that there is a space for making sweeping—even untrue—statements without any worry of recourse?
James 3 addresses the power of the tongue. Though it be small and rarely seen, it “boasts of great things” and “sets forests on fire.” But it’s possible to type out a comment digitally without ever wagging my tongue. So, it’s different, right?
But James takes a turn in the chapter, moving beyond the effects of the tongue:
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
v. 13-18
Salvation through Jesus is not about getting to heaven; it’s about God rescuing and renewing humans through which He restores creation to Himself (Ro. 5:17, 8:18-26).
It is the way of corruption for humans to speak ill of each other, to pass along lies, and to argue bitterly with one another. When disciples of Jesus participate in this kind of activity, whether vocally or digitally, we openly shame God by demonstrating we are slaves to sin (Heb. 6:6, Ro. 6:15-16).
Maybe the idea of “shaming God” raises anxiety within you, as if I am promoting some kind of works oriented Christianity where I shame you into obeying God. Let me explain why I use this phraseology.
The Bible reveals to us that God’s purpose for creation is that it glorifies His goodness as Creator (Rev. 4:11, Col. 1:16). Because of mankind’s rebellion against Him—choosing to honor the created as God instead of honoring God as God—creation shames God by making Him appear as though He isn’t good (Ro. 1:21-25).
We as created ones now tend to hate, steal, kill, and destroy because we have honored the evil serpent by believing his words and we have honored ourselves by seeking to be our own gods (Gen. 3:1-7).
Jesus came to release us from the captivity of the serpent’s deception and to empower us to live in honor of God (Luke 4:18-19, Ro. 7:6). Those of us who take the name of Jesus yet continue to live in captivity by doing the works of our flesh (enmity, strife, fits of anger, dissensions, divisions to name a few) shame God by demonstrating that we still honor ourselves and the serpent as god above God, Himself.
If we truly walk in the Spirit, we will bear the fruit of love, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and other such things which demonstrate we have “crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Eph. 5:22-24).
We honor God as God when we function in all realms of relationship in ways born of His Spirit and not of our flesh.
When we speak truthfully with each other, speaking evil of no one and showing courtesy toward all people, we keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable and they see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation (Eph. 4:25, Titus 3:2, 1Pet. 2:12).
In other words, what we say and share online has the potential to cause the world to either glorify God and begin walking with Him or mock Him and turn their backs on their Creator.
What does it communicate to the rest of the world when people who claim Jesus as their King demonstrate a greater allegiance to their favorite talk show host who rants in fits of anger and kick other brothers and sisters under the bus because they have chosen to honor government regulations regarding COVID-19 or to stand in solidarity with minority peoples?
What does it communicate to the rest of the world when people who claim Jesus as their King demonstrate a greater allegiance to their favorite social justice advocacy group whose end goal is not necessarily conformity to Jesus and look with ridicule and despise at brothers and sisters who think that the very idea of “social justice” is not biblical?
Does the world glorify God when they see His people sharing things that confirm their bias regardless of its truthfulness?
Are people moved to explore relationship with Jesus when His people echo the dogma of Fox News, The Federalist, Epoch Times, CNN, ABC, MSNBC—you name it—without carefully interacting with the nuance of situations?
To answer the question simply: Yes, I do believe we as Christians are accountable for not only the things we actually verbalize with our tongues, but the things we say and share online as well.
Actually Listen to People
What the past year has shown me personally is the importance of slowing down, exploring, listening to understand instead of listening to respond, researching claimed facts, learning more history and context for statistics, and so much more.
Facebook and Twitter reward engagement, and highly emotional content gets more engagement. The polar extremes of society tend to produce more emotional content than the nuanced understanding of those who have a grasp on both sides. Quite frankly, it is because they hold a narrow perspective and only bounce it around in an echo chamber before publishing it online.
So, when the masses see these provocative thoughts, they react with either strong emotional support (those who also hold the narrow perspective) or strong emotional opposition (those who hold a legitimate perspective outside the narrow perspective that got published).
I sat in a focus group this fall and listened to a handful of conservative individuals share with great emotion how they felt ostracized and overlooked by the political Left.
The needs they felt were important were not only ignored but worsened by the way the Left has gone about addressing other needs. To them, they felt Donald Trump was the first President in their lifetime who actually “got them,” who understood their needs. They felt seen by him, and he followed through with addressing the needs they believed to be important.
Listening to these folks baffled me. I truly wanted to hear why they supported Donald Trump, so I gave no response. I just listened. But it was hard to do. Many times, I wanted to interject, “But what about _____?”
You see, I live in a community where some of the ways Donald Trump has gone about addressing the needs these people believed to be important actually ended up hurting the people around me. I’ve had neighbors and friends say the exact same thing about Donald Trump that the people in the focus group just said about the political Left: they feel ostracized and overlooked.
It was good for me to hear their perspective. I wish I could say the varying perspectives run evenly down a line of urban versus rural or Baby Boomer versus Millennial; but they don’t. They don’t even always run down ethnic or religious lines.
I’m still not sure what all to make of everything I learned in that focus group, but I came away convinced I need to spend more time listening and less time impulsively sharing things online.
If we want to live with integrity in our online world, we must recognize that a lot of things online simply aren’t true. Sometimes they are flat-out lies. Other times they simply fail to understand the complexities of what they are addressing.
I’m going to close out this article by giving three simple words to what seem to me to be the three most crucial areas of integrity for us right now as Christians interacting online: identifying truthful information, conspiracy theories, and deleting or editing comments.
A Word on Identifying Truthful Information
Many of us have settled into a sort of myth that we can’t know anything for sure. Sadly, this too often inadvertently discourages people from seeking for truth–even the Truth of Jesus Messiah. If we want our message about Jesus to be taken seriously, we need to be people of truth in all areas of life.
The people in my life who seem to have a good handle on reality all have three things in common: (1) they read many different sources, (2) they actively seek out sources that challenge their perspective, and (3) they understand that even after all of that they still don’t know the complete picture and that’s okay.
They don’t always have to be the one who wins the argument.
Too often, we are more focused on winning the argument than actually saying and speaking only what is true.
For more practical habits we can develop to help establish a rhythm for “getting to the bottom of things” in a way where the truth of current events makes more sense, check out this article on Getting to the Bottom of Things in the Middle of a Reality War.
A Word on Conspiracy Theories
It can be easy to sweep someone under the rug by saying what they are espousing is “conspiracy rhetoric.” No one enjoys being dismissed, and this kind of behavior resembles those who dismiss people who care about social justice as “cultural Marxists.”
We don’t need more blanket-labeling, so what I am about to say is not to be used as an argumentation tactic, but as a warning for each of us to “walk circumspectly,” because “the days are evil” and we need to redeem our time, not waste it on frivolous conspiracies (Eph. 5:15, 6, Col. 2:4).
Real conspiracy theories exist. And, surprisingly, they have infiltrated much of Christian rhetoric surrounding current events.
The nature of conspiracy theories are that (1) they have elements of truth to them, (2) they make “shocking” or “no will tell you this” kinds of claims without identifying an authentic source,* and (3) there is actually is no way of knowing for sure whether or not what they are claiming is true. . .except to let time play itself out. But their whole message is built around a sense of urgency and moral obligation that captivates people’s attention (and allegiance)—especially those who really do want to do what’s right.
*Conspiracy theories primarily rely on trusting the individual sharing the insight. They rarely give verifiable sources to double check their claims. Furthermore, these claims are often made by people who identify themselves as “whistleblowers.” A true whistleblower is someone who has actually been on the inside and knows what actually goes on. If you look closely, many conspiracies surrounding things like vaccines are perpetuated by people who claim to be “whistleblowers,” but have never actually been on the inside of virology and the development of medicine. They’ve simply “done their own research,” which can be wise. . .or catastrophic.
We are most susceptible to conspiracy theories when they have to do with things we don’t actually have first-hand experience about. Often, conspiracy theories have to do with hidden agendas or secret movements behind the scenes. We tend to miss that one of the best ways to manipulate people toward an end in which we want to get them is by creating a provocative story or message that appears to clue us in to things behind the scenes.
Conspiracy theories can, in fact, be manipulation in and of themselves. So while we are busy cracking down on sex-trafficking rings, the ones who told us the conspiracy are busy trafficking sex.
I strongly suggest that when it comes to things we don’t have training in or first-hand experience with we do our best to gather multiple perspectives on the situation and hold our opinions on the matter at bay.
A Word on Editing or Deleting Comments
Nothing catapulted us farther into the realm of confusion faster then Facebook enabling the ability to edit or delete comments. Sure, editing a comment is nice when you realize you spend “then” wrong. . .or discovered you spelled the word “spend” instead of “spelled.”
But editing a comment when you discover what you said is actually wrong, or deleting a comment altogether when it was biting and personally attacking is another way of simply covering up your sin. We should not lose our ability to acknowledge, “Hey, I actually got that wrong.” Or “You were right.” We should not forget out to say, “I’m sorry, that was not kind.”
Deleting the word doesn’t change the fact we actually communicated it. The damage was done.
Making changes simply gives the allusion that we’ve somehow made things right. The person we were communicating with, however, remains hurt. The people who we misinformed remain misinformed. And, worst of all, we remain unchanged. We continue our toxic behavior on other threads, with other folks.
In thirteen years of having a Facebook profile, and six years of having a Facebook page for this blog, I deleted the first comment ever the other day. It wasn’t my comment. My commitment to all those I interact with online has always been that if I say something wrong publicly, I will make it right publicly. The comment I deleted came from someone who dropped a rather insensitive meme about other people in the thread of a post I shared about people dealing with mental illness.
I’m starting to guard the atmosphere of my Facebook page more than I typically have, and there will be times I delete things because they simply should not be given platform. But I will not delete my own comments, I will not edit them except for grammatical clarity.
Conclusion
Living with integrity begins and ends with ourselves, individually. Do we practice integrity at every level?
James 3 exhorts us toward a wisdom that truly comes from a God of love and peace. How we behave in person or online reveals to the world, and ultimately to God, whether we really are yielded to the Spirit of righteousness and Truth, or to our own selfish desires.
Don’t spread lies. Don’t slander. Live in a way that causes even those who don’t know Jesus to honor Him as God and want to know Him personally.
Now, these have been my thoughts. What are yours? Does this help, challenge, encourage or convict you? Or does it make everything that much more confusing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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