“New Christian Right” Pastor Joel Webbon tweeted last year: “Women should log off of social media and devote their attention to baking pies—apple, preferably.” I was not particularly compelled to log off and bake a pie by that. The post was annoying; Webbon accomplished nothing but farming for engagement, and I kept scrolling.
The Apostle Paul, on the other hand, gave us a masterclass in communication with his Areopagus Address. Paul preached the Gospel in a polytheistic city by acknowledging their religion and appealing to their “altar to an unknown god,” and in doing so, met the Athenians in their idol worship, convicted many of the truth, and delivered souls by the hand of God to salvation in the One True God.
But the way some Christians are using platforms like X, Paul might as well have taken a sledgehammer to the “altar to an unknown god,” cursed the crowd, and left.
Just as Christians are to be in the world but not of it, so too we need to be on social media, but not of it. For better or for worse, much of the world today happens on screens, and our fallen nature certainly follows us onto the internet. Visit The Christian Post for six practical questions to ask before publishing a post, comment, or video online that may offer a framework for Christian distinctiveness online.
