Theological Debate in the Twittersphere

I haven’t been tweeting for long, but I must say that I have really enjoyed it!  I have made some friends and had very challenging conversation.  One such conversation occurred late last night, however it did not end well.  Not sure what really happened, but I think that I may have stepped into something.  Below is the complete exchange that I had with John Harrison (aka @tragic_pizza).

To give our conversation context, this was not our first exchange.  Even where we disagree, John has been very gracious with me and I hope I have been with him.  This particular evening I had observed that there was a fairly strong conversation going on between he and another twitter user (mentioned below).  As you can see below, I did not engage John, but rather commented to another user, Khad Young, regarding his reading of Acts 10:15.

Top 10 Posts for July

 

Here are the most clicked posts for July 2009:

1. Father Knows Best
2. Godwitter is Dead
3. The Evangelist and the Megaphone
4. Jesus Actually Meant It!
5. ‘Post’ Because of ‘Un’

And the award for most challenging comments goes to:

• ‘Religulous’ is Ridiculous?

As always, thanks for visiting, your challenges, and your encouragement!

The Evangelist and the Megaphone

Let’s face it: the church has a serious image problem.  The blessing of mass media has swiftly been usurped by the ability for any yahoo, myself included, to publish thoughts and opinions for the entire world to read and discuss.  It may be that technology has moved faster than what any of us are able to manage, maintain, and manipulate to send the majority message.

Tuesday Associated Press reported about Tony Alamo, an evangelist who took advantage of young girls and in the name of Jesus sexually abused them and ‘married’ several who had not reached the age of 15.  It caught the attention of international media and was reported on the internet, television, and print news.  I do not know what group of people agreed that this man was actually a messenger from the same God that I worship, but his “ministry” was worth millions (in fact former charges were filed by the IRS claiming that he owed the government $7.9 million).

This “evangelist” was given a megaphone by the media.

Web 2.0 and Christian Relevance

As a testimony to the speed and growth of technology, specifically in terms of the internet the term Web 2.0 is soon to retire.  A few months ago I attended a conference geared toward pastors of small congregations which was mainly to educate them about Web 2.0 utilities.  Webster’s dictionary just added the term as well, so perhaps this is not another issue where the church is so behind the culture.

What is coming next is being recognized as “Web Squared.”  Perhaps the elementary school years of the development of the world wide web as a social network, many are not sure what it will actually entail, except that it will be different and innovative as more and more people participate in its inception.

The morale of the story: get on board with Web 2.0 so you are not completely left in the dust.  Create.  Imagine.  Take steps ahead to see what is around the corner.

The early church was so ahead of the culture that Paul wrote to them to encourage some steps back, for fear that they would alienate those in their immediate culture (i.e. 1 Corinthians 11:2-16).

Perhaps we do not need to go that far, but we can confidently take steps forward, knowing that it is easier to pull back for the sake of relevance than it is to catch up.

Foibles of Virtual Friends

from Non Sequitur