Monday Morning Quarterback – Encouraging God’s people to be responsible, encouraging and uplifting in their use of social media.
I could probably spend the entire year using the recent “Phil Robertson/Duck Dynasty” social media frenzy as illustrations for this series of posts. I think we, as the church, probably showed a broader range of “how not to use social media” with that outbreak than with any other popular issue in recent memory. We may come back to that well often for these Monday Morning Quarterback posts!
One of the embarrassing things I saw happening (often) in the posts and comments, even from Christian leaders, was arguments which made it obvious the person had not even read Mr. Robertson’s actual comments. As an attorney, setting out to either attack or defend something I have not even read seems, well, a little crazy. But what I read was worse than that. I saw arguments posted that were just plain ignorant.
For example, I saw Christian leaders couching Mr. Robertson’s statements (and the A&E Network’s backlash) as being a “free speech” issue. And that’s when all the lawyers and genuine journalists (and other students of the United States Constitution) cringed with embarrassment. That is because people who have actually read the First Amendment of the United States Constitution know all about the requirement of “state action” in order to trigger a First Amendment argument. Here’s the actual pertinent language of the amendment, with appropriate emphasis added…
“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…”
When we, as church leaders, go public with our discussions of important issues (like the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights), we really do make the church look foolish when we do not do our homework. I’m not contending here that we have to be experts before we can post something on Facebook, I am only suggesting that, ANYONE who takes the 15 seconds to actually Google the Bill of Rights or the First Amendment can read the language I’ve cited above and can see that Phil Robertson’s situation had nothing to do with any law passed by Congress abridging his freedom of speech. Rather, it had to do with a private enterprise taking issue with something someone under contract with them said. Not a First Amendment issue at all. Not even close.
And, by the way, not only do we appear ignorant when we post such comments, but we appear ignorant when we link to them or “share” them or forward them in e-mails as well. In our haste to join the argument (or to be the first to get a blog post up on the subject), we don’t bother to do our homework and we end up looking ignorant. Or worse.
On the positive side of this concern, I also saw plenty of responsible church leaders actually making this same observation and “correcting” our brothers and sisters on these same issues. Of course, by that time, the embarrassment was already done…and the damage to the church’s testimony done as well.
And, in the final analysis, protecting the testimony of God’s people (and God’s message) is so very much what these issues are always going to boil down to.
One response to “Best Not to Comment on Things We’ve Never Read”
[…] 1. Did I actually go and see the movie…all the way through? If not, then say that clearly right at the beginning of your critique. And then stop and don’t bother finishing the critique, because nobody is going to read any further anyway. Frankly, it is just best not to offer a comment on a movie you’ve never seen, for all the reasons stated here. […]