Save me from Christian facebook groups!!!

I'm infuriated! Why must people create and/or join facebook groups that are so useless!? I don't think this post is ever going to stop idiotic groups from being created or people from joining them, but I need an outlet for my frustration. Ironically, as my brother pointed out, I'm complaining about complainers, but hopefully I'll get away with it by making some sense in my argumentation.

A few months ago I remember being invited to a group called "let's see if we can find 1,000,000 Christians on facebook" and another one called something like "spread the word, Jesus, the saviour of the world" with gospel presentations in them. The worst thing is that I saw some of my friends join those groups!!! What on earth is a group that has a few Christians on them going to do for the gospel cause??? The most recent one, "facebook MUST ban the group entitled: F... Jesus Christ" is even more stupid and insulting to my intelligence and principles. Why on earth should facebook, a non-Christian service provider ban a group of unbelievers from writing their foolish statements? Why should facebook, provider of a free service, listen to what anyone has to say about their programme, since these people aren't paying for anything at all (thinking about the group entitled something along the lines of "petition to make facebook ban adding friends to applications")! With all the amount of trash that's online, it would be lovely if it weren't there, but telling people they can't say stuff like that is certainly not going to do anything to win them over to Christ! The group itself was invoking articles of British laws against racism and religious offenses (which is weird, since facebook is American to start with), saying it is wrong for anyone to say something bad against someone else's religion... What on earth? Other people may stoop to these petty levels, but Christians know that we are promised persecution and insults by Jesus himself, why on earth should we complain when people discriminate against us??? How was the early church created? Out of persecution! We should answer with intelligent responses, not childish tale-telling.

On top of that, we believe in freedom of speech! Why should we expect people not to say what they wish to say, even if it is trash, when we want people to hear what we have to say? What's more, that kind of title, e.g. "F... JC" is clearly not an intellectual one, the guys just thought it would be funny, which granted, it's not, but I think Jesus doesn't need people to stand up for him in the playground, he's a big boy. What he wants is people to stand up for him in the courtrooms, in the lecture halls, in the real battlefields of the faith!

And I'm sorry to say, but at the same time, glad, that the internet is not one of them, in most cases. Chat forums, facebook groups, those are places where foolish and ignorant people can, with no accountability, vent their anger, uninformed thoughts and frustrations. How is getting loads of Christians on one group going to save anyone? I think it's actually counter-productive to spreading the gospel: how is anyone going to have an intelligent and mind-changing debate in one of these virtual places? Just take a look at the list of posts on the group I'm talking about! There are the racists, the over-sensitive prigs, the zealous followers, the zealous atheists, throwing insulting, self-righteous comments and ungratious internet grenades to each other, taking turns... Which ends up making them more frustrated and hurt, since words do hurt.Finally, someone in that stream of messages said something that made lots of sense, not that I agree with everything he says on this or other of his posts:

"Other than the name, there is nothing wrong with the group and even more wrong with this group. They may say what they wish. It's funny that more people have joined this group than the group in question, so you are making a mountain out of a molehill. You've given them more publicity than they deserved.They say something you disagree with, so you wish to ban them. Their group shows no similar desire to ban you or your groups. Live and let live.I'm off to join them as well. Call it a protest vote."

There's my case... I edit this note singing: "I lay my life down at your feet, cause you're the only one I need... One way, Jesus, you're the only one that I could live for."

Jude

20 Juin 2008

So, I’ve experienced my first few days with my nephew… It’s pretty surreal. So surreal in fact that I don’t take it in all the time and I have moments of realisation during the day where my brain actually understands that this cute little thing that is just under 60cm long and maybe 5kgs in weight is a full-fledged, brand new human being. He is just about seven weeks old, I think that’s the youngest baby I have ever handled, and the things that amaze me about him are the things that come to him naturally: he breathes… No one told him how to do that, but he has picked up that habit and keeps it going; he also loves his mum’s milk and attaches himself to her breast automatically (it was a little weird at first, but since she’s my sister, I can handle it); he swallows what he eats, doesn’t spit it out. These things are part of his instincts… He has blue eyes (for the moment), an inquisitive and very funny face, and twenty tiny digits on his hands and feet. It’s the detail that’s amazing. He’s generally very happy, but even when he cries he looks so sweet, with his cute little pout. The world revolves around him, whatever room he’s in, all eyes are on him. I find it hard not to look at him when he’s in the room, he’s just too gorgeous. He’s so fragile and needy… That’s the thing that makes me fearful and blows my mind the most: he was created totally dependent on his parents. Every time I handle him I’m afraid of breaking him like a porcelain doll, so I am most careful. Seeing his parents love him is a beautiful thing; my sister and bro’s hearts are melted when they talk to him, look at him, think about him… And so is mine. I’m overwhelmed by this new creation. I’m shocked at how God so carefully knit this human being into life and his effect on everyone around him, where old and young men will sing songs to him, old and young women want to play with him, and he doesn’t get bored of gesticulating, watching, lying down, sleeping, breast-feeding, burping, pooping, having his nappy changed (he loves that in fact) and starting over again.