Before I started this blog, I lived under the proverbial rock. I was rarely on social media and was blissfully ignorant of the online Christian community. But I had to come out of hiding to promote my blog, and it led me to discover Christian Twitter.
At first, I was excited to learn about prominent figures in the evangelical world and to be aware of the latest buzz rippling through the Christian community. It made me feel relevant and in the know. However, I did not expect I would also grow in my knowledge of controversies. I had no idea Christians bickered and disagreed so much among themselves. Nor did I realize the abundance of controversial topics in existence. Most of which come from clear biblical mandates or non-salvific issues.
My first taste of a twitter controversy came from the Jackie Hill Perry story in early August 2019. JHP shared a stage with some known false teachers, and Christians were either rebuking her for partnering with them or defending her choice.
Following that were arguments on whether a true Christian can commit suicide, Botham Jean and the Social Justice movement/gospel, Benny Hinn alleged repentance, the case of David raping Bathsheba, and probably the biggest one I have seen so far John MacArthur telling Beth Moore to go home. At the moment of this writing, Kanye West is the topic currently dividing Christians.
All these stories and controversies happened just within two months. And I am already exhausted. I used to log in on Twitter to share my blog posts and read inspiring tweets from brothers and sisters in the faith. Nowadays, I can’t scroll without seeing someone being offended by the smallest thing and act rudely toward others. It grieves me to see Christians conduct themselves in such a worldly manner and disgrace our Lord.
But as I have been thinking about this unseemly behavior Christians have adopted online, specifically American Christian, I concluded it is because of two main reasons.
First, American Christians are spoiled.
Disclaimer: I am not American. I am from a small third world country and moved to the US about a decade ago. And I have always believed Americans, in general, do not have problems. God has tremendously blessed the US, and it might have contributed to the entitlement of Americans. Everything must go their way. They protest ridiculous things such as Starbucks removing reindeer or whatever from their cups, the presence of “in God, we trust” on one-dollar bills because it offends non-Christians, and don’t even get me started on dumb lawsuits filed regularly.
Unfortunately, American Christians have an extra handicap to keep them spoiled: the lack of persecution.
America is one of the few countries in the world where you can be overtly Christian without fear. You can easily get a Bible and go to church without risking your life. This abundance of security and comfort has contributed to making American Christians indolent in their faith. So much comfort makes them take their eyes off Christ and focused it on the world and themselves. As a result, church attendance is decreasing, biblical illiteracy is rising, and false teachings are spreading all over the country.
With everything so easy, they lack the urgency Christians in persecuted countries have. I think if American Christians faced more difficulties, they would not be interested in bickering about ridiculous things. If they faced more persecution because of their faith, they would not so easily get offended by small matters. Instead, they would focus on God, seek His holiness, and use their spare time studying the Bible, going to church, praying, and making disciples, not bickering online.
There is a great gulf between the Christianity that wrestles with whether to worship at the cost of imprisonement and death, and the Christianity that wrestles with whether the kids should play soccer on Sunday Morning.
John Piper
The second reason behind the constant brouhaha on Twitter is that the church today has too many goats, and they speak louder than the sheep.
If you look at the largest churches in America by the congregation size, they are mostly seeker-sensitive churches or are led by false teachers. I cannot say that every single member of these churches is false converts, but a vast majority must be. And these false converts are mostly the ones stirring up arguments online, behaving rudely, causing discord and giving lousy reputation to the true sheep.
I am not saying all true Christians are perfectly well behaved online; some may still stumble. But I believe the vast majority are the goats, and their comments easily expose them. Their theology is questionable; they defend false teachers and lack discernment; they rarely give arguments with a biblical perspective. When they do use Scriptures, it is almost always out of context.
Moreover, they tend to disregard Scriptures in favor of their feelings or personal convictions. Some of them might just be immature. But since the way is narrow, I believe most of them are goats.
I read an article from Tim Challies, explaining why He quit Twitter and was now a “Kwitter.” I am tempted to follow his example and restrict my use of twitter to blog posts and ignore controversies. All it has done for me is waste precious time scrolling through various threads, few of which were beneficial to me in any way.
It might be time also to call it quits and be a “Qwitter.”
