In this day and age, there really is no escape from social media. It is the medium that the world uses to stay connected, share, and discuss ideas. Social media is, indeed, the “marketplace of ideas.” Yet, there is a politically-inclined progressive Christian sect that continues to paint social media as evil and dangerous while propping themselves up as one of the primary sources of “valid” information.
The Gospel Coalition recently published an article by Justin Taylor effectively telling people to stay away from television and social media when it comes to public political discourse. The argument is that television and social media are both “bad” at keeping us informed about current events and that print media better engages the mind.
Interestingly, The Gospel Coalition is “print media” and is heavily involved in telling people how they should engage politically.
The problem isn’t that social media is “bad” at anything — social media, itself, is a neutral technological medium. The problem is that people are free to express ideas online (assuming they’re not being censored by #bigtech) whereby sin that already exists in the hearts of people is more readily exposed. It’s not that people become more sinful on social media, it’s just that sin is more exposed.
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But that’s what we want, right? The Bible calls us to expose the unfruitful works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11) — social media in many ways can be a blessing that allows us to do so more easily. We have church leaders and pastors who tell their congregations that it’s okay to vote for baby-killers. Social media allows that to be exposed. We have well-known leaders promoting wicked Democrat politics, pushing LGBTQ inclusion, and promoting feminism. Social media helps us expose them.
The article also says we should try not to have an opinion about everything.
We are blessed to live in a country where we can believe and say anything. That doesn’t mean we should. Nor does it mean that whatever we say or believe has automatic validity.
The problem with this is that politics should be shaped and informed by our belief in the Word of God, and when we argue politics, our opinions should be grounded. There isn’t much room for “differing opinions” when we look at the objective truth of Scripture. And this is what angers so many opponents of conservatism — they want us to accept their progressive beliefs as valid alternatives to what we believe. Progressivism is not a valid political belief for a Christian, period, and we are under no obligation to accept them as though they are.
The problem isn’t that The Gospel Coalition and the ERLC want us to be “more civil” in public discourse, the problem is that these progressive organizations want to be able to freely espouse their progressive propaganda and anti-conservative rhetoric without challenge. And they know that if they can get people on social media to believe that the open and free exchange of ideas on social media is inherently “bad,” then they are free to imbue their constituency with whatever they want.
For more on The Gospel Coalition, see also:
