I saw Mark Driscoll’s tweet almost immediately after it appeared on twitter yesterday……it probably wasn’t the smartest use of twitter i’ve seen so far in 2013…..
Here’s what he said;
“Praying for our president, who today will place his hand on a Bible he does not believe to take an oath to a God he likely does not know.”
However, what followed was pure carnage!
Actually, I’d imagine the disagreement and replies will go on and on for days and days!
For the record I think his tweet was a little bit dumb….but, sadly not as dumb or painful to read as thousands of the replies he was receiving within seconds!
I love Mark…..I am [for the most part] on his team [as he would put it] even though Christianity and belief is not about teams [or is it] …..we are [for the most part] on the same page! Be that, as it may…..he often says things that upset people and he appears to still have a long-standing filtering issue between brain, mouth and internet!
But, yesterday some of the worst reaction to his tweet was from Christians, many of whom managed to make a point of criticism and, then contradict their very own point in the 140 characters of one single tweet………..quite stunning to read!
And meanwhile, the world watches……..laughs, shouts, blogs and tweets about Christians and their fine example of love.
Left, right…..democrat, republican……….leaders, pastors………..yesterday, many of you made fools of yourselves and shamed the name of Jesus…….
So, here’s a hot tip for you if you cannot deal with disagreement on the internet…
Stop following the people who offend you!
If you hate Driscoll and what he stands for and have massive criticisms of everything he says………unfollow him, de-friend him………stop reading!
It’s not worth reading the stuff you know you are going to disagree with and, then losing any reputation you may have in a moment of fury and rage……….
Yesterday’s meltdown is not how we are supposed to deal with disagreement and difference of opinion! Ever!
A well formulated post, but once again I make my point… (generalisation removed) A huge problem with Christianity is this idea of “Famous Pastors.” The fact that we’ve made them, or they’ve made themselves, the focus, leaves us in a position where we argue over what they’ve said or how they’ve said it!
Yes, we’re entitled to agree with opinion, or even debate it, but the “fame” side of things blows it up and makes it seem more of a debate than it needs to be… especially to an outsider!
The sooner Jesus becomes the central focus of our faith, rather than someone’s thoughts on Jesus, the better.
I agree with this
“the “fame” side of things blows it up and makes it seem more of a debate than it needs to be”
But, I think Jesus can be 100% the central focus of someone’s faith with a definite need for other people’s ‘thoughts on Jesus’………we wouldnt know all we know about Jesus without someone else’s thoughts on Him….
I hear what you are saying though….
Iv wrestled with the way the celebrity christian world works for a long long time…….
Of course, we need discussion and debate; how else would we learn… It’s the celebrity factor I think we can live without!
I hear ya
Agreed! I like to “follow” people online who have all sorts of different viewpoints on stuff I’m interested in but must admit I have a fairly low annoyance threshold! Pretty quick to unfollow or hide you from my feed if you’re annoying, inappropriate or wind me up – especially if you’re not bringing anything of value to the table. My FB newsfeed is pretty short
Also mostly stopped listening to or watching the news these last few years because that winds me up too most of the time! I think you’re right that it’s not a good idea to put yourself in the position of wasting time or emotional energy being angry with things or people you cannot influence.
Reading the comments on almost all popular news or blogs has to be the worst though!! Very rarely do that now either as it always leaves me with the feeling that most people in the world have seriously twisted minds or are mad as a box of frogs!
“I have a fairly low annoyance threshold!”
me too Iain! Me too!
thanks for commenting
On the one hand, that makes sense, but on the other if everyone who disagrees unfollows him then he’ll be given a free reign to say anything he likes completely unchallenged.
The tweet in question doesn’t offend me tremendously though.. I suspect he may just be correct about Barack Obama..
Interesting post.
The problem, as I see it, is that many people are following Mark Driscoll simply for the sake of disagreeing with him or being annoyed by his tweets. I do not follow Mark Driscoll because I know I am not ‘on his team’ as you say. I know his tweets are, IN MY VIEW, going to be ignorant, misinformed or wrong. But like I say, this is my view.
I would note that if everyone who disagreed with Mark Driscoll or follows him to disagree with him publicly stopped following him he would probably lose a lot of his notoriety. This is the irony of the matter – they follow him to disagree with him in order to discredit him or his opinions but the very fact that they do so only increases his influence.
That, and it goes back to the old granny proverb – if you haven’t got anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. I, of course, often need to heed this advice more than others!
My issue isn’t so much that he says dumb things, we all do. My prob is he rarely admits, when he does, or he makes a statement that causes controversy but then doesn’t engage with the ensuing conversation. Makes him come off as arrogant or above it all, or categorising people as “haters”. I unfollowed him a while ago, but then retweets put min back in my timeline…. Ugh!
I’ve got to second Lucas – a few years ago I quite regularly followed Mark’s teachings, and I reckon he has a lot to offer the general conversation – but the disengagement thing does annoy me. I recall he would make frequent, quite humorous references to bloggers and internet trolls, which is fair enough. But with a succession of seemingly off-the-cuff comments that he just throws out and leaves, it feels a bit like he does it himself.
To behave in that (a) conscious of the huge public fanbase that he has (and it is a fanbase, not even just a following), and (b) knowing full well that he either does not have the time, or the desire, to follow up the conversation he starts is poor. In this case, for example, his statement is knowingly loaded with both political and faith-related connotations. He’s making big insinuations to a huge audience, with no follow-up or discussion – or lesson. The first couple of times, it’s funny and/or wise. After that, you’re just the drunk guy on the train.
Never mind the man he is talking about would probably call himself a believer, and Mark is openly calling him out in the most public way possible.
(Said by someone with both feet in his mouth most of the time…)
It is interesting how all/most of the comments and thoughts about this still seem to hover around what Mark said……[Iv already stated that I think it was dumb] ……..
I almost get the sense that some of the ill-judged reaction is being overlooked because Mark started it…….
Should he have to be answerable to [all] his followers?
I do agree that he shouldn’t just throw stuff out there and allow it to land anywhere with no apparent concern for the consequences or angst it may cause but regardless of all of that……….i still have a responsibility to act accordingly…….no matter what I think or how confused I am by the famous pastor……
p.s. this is not a criticism of any of the above comments by the way, just trying to see every side of it and also consider how I can learn from it
I think it was around the time when “Love Wins’ was about to be published that somebody well-regarded stated the obvious: “As Christians, we need to disagree better.”
I do think you’re right about unfollowing those who you constantly struggle with: not to make us oblivious to conflicting opinions (which we should try and at least be aware of); but rather, to avoid the temptation to type first, think later – and/or have our minds and time consumed by them.
“As Christians, we need to disagree better.”
I really like that! So true!
You know you love a good shuffle-step with Driscoll, Supersimbo!
Great comment as ever……
I’m wondering though…….”your dont follow those who offend you comment.” Is there not value, training, provocation towards godliness in listening to those who are of different persuasion that you? It roots you more clearly in what you believe, causes you to search more as to what is true…..and why you’re hacked off too!
isn’t generousity and grace a dimension in the kingdom of God?
so humility is key….and a lesser see quality….
thanks for pushing this around as ever! JD
It’s not so much that I don’t follow those who offend me…… Or who i disagree with.
I do in quite a lot of cases but there are lots of others where iv had to decide that the content/conversation was unhelpful…..
But I appreciate your thoughts because looking at myself and what irritates me and why I can be intolerant has been a bit of a recent thing for me so glad of the further challenge on grace & humility
Again? Driscoll puts himself in the firing line again? Is he doing it for his glory? Or His glory, I wonder.
My feelings on celebrity preachers, pastors, and generally, people standing at the front of a church meeting ‘leading’, are quite clear.
http://mrnickheath.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/celebrity-pastors.html
..I think Driscoll needs to be a bigger man, and resign from public life. His fame, arrogance, foolishness, wisdom, intelligence (etc) are totally in the way of the message. Which is, simply, Jesus is love. As opposed to “look at my cool instagram style photo – nice font too eh? Isn’t the web awesome..? By the way I’m a christian.”