WWJP?

Lately I’ve been considering my social networking time.  There’s a really good reason why we’ve never had video games or cable TV at home.  Addicting.  I’m sorry to say that after all these years I have still been unable to set good boundaries with my personal entertainment, so I’ve found a workaround – don’t have it available.  The few leisure activities I do have are enough to fill endless hours if I allow it.  

One of those activities is checking and posting on FaceBook.  It’s fun and seems harmless enough.  Today I started to wonder though – What Would Jesus Post?  I have an eclectic group of friends (loose term here) on FB.  They are all harmless I believe and I don’t really take an issue with anyone.  If I did, I’d simply “unfriend” them.

Instead, the thought came to mind that as a Christian, I need to be careful of what I say, how I say it, and speak up in love when something is just wrong.  I have a hard time doing this so instead, I just try to ignore a post and wait for others to take its place.  Sometimes this works, sometimes not.  The ones that especially get me are the “Please copy and post to your page if….”  I don’t know who starts these, but I hate to see them coming.  I don’t have a lot of FB friends (83 is minimal compared to most people) but even so, there are some posts that come my way that make me cringe.

If Jesus were alive today would he have time to FB?  Maybe – it would be a great way to get a message out there!  But then again, he was more of a face-to-face kind of guy who took his time really getting to know people and making a real difference in their lives.  But let’s just say for the sake of argument that he has a page out there and has access to mine (he really does anyway, you know??). 

Posts that attack a specific group of people are probably top on my list of “dislike”.  I don’t care what your political beliefs are, and you are certainly entitled to them, just as I am to mine.  But when you take on a whole group of people, nothing really good can come from it.   All Republicans are not alike.  All Democrats are not alike.  All Arabs are not alike.  All Mexicans are not alike.  All Americans are not alike.  Taking it a little further –Not all illegal immigrants are criminals. Not all American citizens are law-abiding.  Not all Christians are Christ-like. 

 

Political rants that attack one party or one candidate are by default ignorant.  Yes- I said it.  Ignorant.  You cannot possibly speak on behalf of an entire group of diverse people.  Unless you are ranting about yourself as a candidate or elected official, you probably don’t know the whole story and while you can and should make informed decisions, labeling people is just wrong.

I don’t know the answer to the Miss America all-time question regarding World Peace.  But I do know that we get further away from it every time we carelessly dash an entire group of people to the rocks without considering who they are as individuals.  I don’t believe Jesus would post comments about the fall of America and blame it on illegal aliens.  I’m pretty sure he also wouldn’t condone the posting of profanity or lewd comments and photos, but I’ll save that topic for another day

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My prayer for today:  Jesus, help me to consider my words, my thoughts and my actions BEFORE I hit the “Comment” button.  Remind me to ask WWJP.  Amen.