Top Twitter Links: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Here are my picks for the top links tweeted by my twitter pals:
Finding Jesus at a Georgia Truck Stop
Tag Archive - twitter
Top Five Twitter Links – Tuesday 9/22/2009
I follow most all of the links that get posted in my twitter feed. These are my five favorite from today:
Jesus Health Care Plan Would Include Everyone
How Mercy Triumphed Over Judgement
Agree to Disagree
I’ve noticed something recently. There is somewhat of a phenomenon on Twitter among some of the people I follow, in which they post an update which almost immediately causes several of their followers to stop following them. This even happened to my friend* Jon on his Facebook (you can read about that here).
It seems that many people cannot disagree with someone, without then disassociating themselves from those with whom they disagree. I see this occurring more among people who claim to be Christians, which makes this even more alarming.
Have our interactions on the internet turned us into the kids on the playground who get mad and say “I’m not your friend anymore!”, in some immature attempt at comeuppance?
I think the roots of this attitude extend much farther past the online world. I’ve seen too many people leaving churches, churches firing pastors, or churches splitting in much the same way. But it never seems to be an issue of outright heresy or theological inaccuracy, it is usually a difference of opinion.
I’m not saying that we should compromise our convictions. But, each one of us is responsible for our own life, and it is not our job to project our convictions on others. And even if ‘our’ way is the right way, showing disrespect to the ones with whom we don’t see eye-to-eye us destroys our ability to influence them positively. We can’t convict people of their wrongs, but our lives can reflect an example for them to follow.
Where does this leave us? The things keeping us at odds with one another are affecting our ability to positively impact the world around us. We’ve got to get over ourselves, love one another through our disagreements, and focus on what we can agree on: we have a message the world needs to hear. It will be a lot easier to get that message out, if we can do it together.
[*Friend in the facebook sense. I don't know Jon personally, but would totally be his friend in real life too.]
