If you're like me, you enjoy social media. It can be used for a ton of positive things and also a ton of negative things. Some people live for how many "likes" or "shares" or "retweets" they get and while I enjoy those parts of social media, I tend to use it instead to gauge opinions and thoughts. While it is not a definite determining factor into how or why people feel certain ways, it can absolutely serve as a window into someone's thought process and what is going on in their minds and often times, their hearts.
For instance, a scroll through my twitter feed, you'll see that I like sports, I have a black eye, I am in love with the GRACE that Jesus gives us and I love Hope City. A look at my facebook feed reveals similar thoughts. When I scroll through facebook at any given time of day, I see people are upset with our President because he hasn't used enough force (although it is certainly being used) in the middle East to combat ISIS. I see people are upset because this country is allowing homosexuals the right to marry whomever they would like. I see people are upset that other people are upset because we have unarmed teenagers being shot, unarmed men being choked to death. I see Christians absolutely beside themselves over issues like this and oddly enough strangely silent over the shooting deaths of 3 Muslims in Chapel Hill, NC on Tuesday.
Am I solely gauging Christian response to this tragedy off of facebook and twitter? Absolutely not. But in this day and age, in this generation, it seems like every thought we formulate ends up on some type of social media platform. Yet again, oddly enough, silence abounds in the social world from my friends about this tragedy. And while I might completely miss the mark here, I would ask what these platforms would look like if roles were reversed.
Suppose 3 Muslims murdered this innocent white man in Chapel Hill. What would the headlines read then?
Terrorist attack on our home soil!
Al-Qaeda strikes at home! And what would our facebooks look like?
"Should have dropped a bomb on 'em when we had the chance!"
"Oh great, the libs will try to make this about gun control now."
Both of those I actually seen. 3 innocent lives cut amazingly short and at least one person thought of gun control before thinking of losing human lives.
"Christians who don't defend innocent, murdered Muslims, as passionately as they defend innocent, murdered Christians, forfeit credibility." - John Pavlovitz
That quote from John sums up perfectly my thoughts on this matter. Lives matter. Christian or not. Black or white or any other shade on the color spectrum. Senseless murders, perpetrated by any race should be condemned. Instead we stay silent...perhaps out of fear of defending Muslims. That's speculation of course, but I know a couple people at least that would rather just stay silent than defend anyone in the Muslim race. Maybe thinking their avoidance of saying anything negative is somehow a positive--but for me, it is the exact opposite.
"For God so loved the world..."
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