A Christian Response to 'The Social Dilemma'...

This season has me overwhelmed with grief for so many reasons, but the main reason is the division within the Church—the Body of Christ—here in the United States of America. Having recently watched The Social Dilemma, I am heartbroken to see confirmed what I’ve known about social media in a more shallow way than I realized.

The algorithms of these social media platforms create echo chambers that dangerously shape our (mis)perception of our own opinions into hard facts that we then perceive as Truth. I truly believe that different memories in different communities in this country have created different stories passed down that have turned into different narratives about how things work and thus, have spurred on different solutions to the same problems. And those solutions are what we see as people’s personal politics. Of course different people think different solutions will work, yet, we’ve allowed social media to feed us lies about “the other side” so regularly and frequently, that the Body of Christ has almost begun to behave as if it has a series of autoimmune issues in the middle of a painful and dangerous flare up.

Like someone with an autoimmune disorder would do, we need to immediately and drastically change our diet from one that inflames to one that heals. It is a simpler diet for sure—with the nourishment known to only heal as opposed to harm—worship, prayer and studying the Word of God. I’m not saying you can never have that chicken and broccoli casserole again, but I am saying that right now, you should probably grill that chicken and steam that broccoli. Go to the Source for your definitions and how they should play out in real life as a Believer. Go to the Bible to look at justice. The Bible pairs justice with righteousness and with mercy, something our society never seems to do, and it’s causing issues among Believers as we choose a “side” that can’t possibly hold the weight of God’s side in its entirety. Yet, we settle for these sides in order to win, or these days, not lose.

It’s too much, and we have to wake up! Like in Revelation 3:2, we must “wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die.” We have to be honest about the lack of the fruit of the Spirit to be found in our land among the CHURCH and preserve the little that we have for survival. We are not in a good place! We are adamant about what God cares about only in the ways we choose to be affected! We have joined the world’s sides and called it justified as a means to the ends we’ve decided are worth the means, but what does God say?! Do justice and love mercy at the same time.

So what do we do? We de-inflame our diet. We take out of what we consume those things that are processed, that the world has put through its own factories and sold to us. We turn off the 24-hour news cycles that exist to get us emotionally riled up for their profit’s sake. We put down our phones/social media as it plays on those same emotions. We need to go back to God’s definitions of justice and even abominations—ALL of them, not just the ones that we choose to talk about. After we start letting the Holy Spirit lead us, then we can embody God’s justice and righteousness and mercy that produces GOD’S results, so that the world will see us and glorify God, many wanting to be a part of the Kingdom of God themselves.

But how will that happen if we stay on the sides crafted to us by the world and fed to us on the spoons of media/social media for the sake of enriching the few already wealthy hoping for the chance to get to feed us foolishness in order to make more money. I mean, we’re either sheep hearing and following the voice of Jesus, or we’re not. Do know that we are certainly sheep following someone’s voice. The question is: whose voice are you actually following? If you’re not sure, look at the fruit of your life. Does is look more like the list of the fruit of the Spirit or the lists of those attributes against which the Apostle Paul warns in Galatians 5? Be honest about which list better explains our fruit these days. Is our life, our time, our work, our attention, our words producing more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-Control, or has it produced more strife, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, enmity, idolatry, etc.?

The Good News is that as Believers, If we walk by the Spirit, it will be the antidote for our flesh rising up as dominant. So, let’s “make our way through life” based on how the Holy Spirit leads as opposed to “our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5), edging our flesh out of our decision-making processes.

Please.

Because things can get worse. In every direction and on all sides.

Can we stand together, Church, on God’s side—unaffiliated with and unconfined by any human entity?