Social Media – The Rev

Over the last month my Facebook habits have changed dramatically. As a result of my changes I have noticed that I am sleeping better, I am more relaxed, and I am more present with those around me. Here is what I have done: 1. I post primarily family stuff. 2. I intentionally do not post about politics as I would prefer the in person conversation. 3. The only religion stuff I post is my own writing (because I’m a pastor and all). 4. I no longer post about sports (unless it is my own kids). 5. I try to avoid commenting on political, religious, and sports posts (this weekend I made the poor decision to comment on a sports post). 6. If I do comment and the conversation goes sideways (which it almost always does) I turn off notifications for that post. 7. I unfollow people who are consistently filling my timeline with negativity. 8. I turned off Facebook notifications on my phone. I only look at FB when...

There have been a few (and by a few, I mean more than you can shake a stick at) posts by people responding to a book by a Christian famous pastor and author. It’s reaching epidemic proportions. Almost to the point of being annoying.I am not going to write about the pastor or the book (I haven’t read it, actually it was sold out at my local bookstore, so I couldn’t buy it).What I do want to write about is the nature and tone of the conversation.I am appalled.I am appalled by the tweets, facebook posts, and one liners.Social media is short form and is not the proper place for the kind of interaction that topics like this need. There are some topics that require more than 140 characters. Issues of Heaven and Hell certainly fall into that category.This hit home for me last night after a weekly conversation called, Coffee/Doubt. We spent an hour dealing with this topic and...