I've posted warnings about Facebook since 2010....alienating friends and family in the process. My concerns have been that it has dumbed-down the Christian church, drugged (narcissism) the American public in general, and set in place a platform for potential tyranny on a worldwide scale. One recent news report was titled...."Former Facebook exec: Social media is ripping apart society".....and in another about Sean Parker....a founder and former president of Facebook...."Sean Parker unloads on Facebook 'exploiting' human psychology"....in which he is quoted...."God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains.....We understood this consciously. And we did it anyway."
I wrote this in 2012...."Ask the average Christian if they know who William Carey was and most will probably say "no" even though he has had seven colleges named after him around the world and is considered the Father of Modern Missions. He was a cobbler, a shoemaker, who felt the call to take the Gospel to the world, and his story is one of one discouragement after another. He finally arrived in India and it was seven years before he saw his first Hindu convert. Mark Zuckerberg is infinitely smarter than William Carey for it has only been eight years since he founded Facebook and he already has 900 million converts including 45 million, or almost 4%, of the Indian population."
Facebook is under siege right now by those who finally see a problem in this social media monstrosity but they....particularly Christians....need to go one step further to see if the extended narcissism from ten years of Facebook use may not only have compromised their own privacy but hurt their overall discernment on other things!
Trying to get this message out is difficult for we tend to think that the race is going well....but in reality we are ten boat lengths behind....all our oars are out of sync.....and our most experienced coxswains have long since retired....replaced by the President Trump's beamed in disjointed cacophonous tweets.
Visit My Facebook Page......When Cows Fly......April, 2017
We have a new grandchild.....and he's our first grandchild! When the guys at my work used to come around with pictures of their grandchildren, I'm retired now, I would smile...seem interested in the pics...and make nice comments. I now know what all the excitement was about! But wild horses....wild horses couldn't get me to look at a Facebook page even with pictures of our precious grandchild on it....such is my utter distaste for that social media from it's germination on Harvard's campus to its social media hegemony throughout this world. I'll wait for the Pony Express riders to come in with the mail before I partake of that medium.
Have you read the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the Harvard twins...whatever their names were...and the Napster guy? Have you read any of the enormous amount of research on the harmful effects of Facebook? And the word 'harmful' is an understatement. Have you ever just sat down and thought about what Satan might possibly come up with if he wanted to somnabulize the entire world? Well, you don't have to...he already did! Have you considered....even for a moment or two....the potential tyranny for such a monolithic entity that Facebook has become?
So what can we do? Nothing....sorry to say.....absolutely nothing.....except avoid it....not be a part of it. But alas there are so many good things associated with Facebook! Let me count them.....hmmm.....OK there's nothing good about it. But what about the person who may come across Ligonier Ministries through Facebook....where they might never have encountered the gospel elsewhere? OK....so the world is awash in a narcissistic trance through Facebook but in the process a certain number of people get saved....even Donald Trump wouldn't go for a deal like that! You are essentially telling me....are you not....that God could not find those people without Facebook? God whittled 32,000 of Gideon's men down to 300 but this is different...He needs Facebook!
Hardly a day goes by without a news story coming out on the abuses or inordinate growth of Facebook... or the negative psychological effects. Folks, these are not merely abuses, they are natural outgrowths of the phenomenon, and they will only get worse.
Time alone will have to prove this out. Actually it already has....but apparently more time is needed! In the hands of a Christian ministry Facebook poses no immediate problem....through it R. C. Sproul shares the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in a marvelous way.....if only that were the extent of it.....but it's not.....it also encourages people to participate in Facebook....and to bring along their children and friends. In other words it perpetuates the problem instead of identifying it or warning of the many and varied potential disastrous consequences to not only individuals but entire nations and the entire world!
NOTE: If I could only do one thing with these posts I would want it to be leading people to Ligonier Ministries (ligonier.org).....and I try to do that often.....but there is a lesson here in the last paragraph.....not Martin Luther nor John Calvin nor Charles Spurgeon nor Jonathan Edwards.....nor Billy Graham nor R. C. Sproul (who have since this post have gone on to be with their Lord and their Savior).....were perfect.....nor would they want to be considered perfect. (nor are our pastors perfect....and it would benefit the church if they more than just perfunctorily admitted this)
I wrote this in 2012...."Ask the average Christian if they know who William Carey was and most will probably say "no" even though he has had seven colleges named after him around the world and is considered the Father of Modern Missions. He was a cobbler, a shoemaker, who felt the call to take the Gospel to the world, and his story is one of one discouragement after another. He finally arrived in India and it was seven years before he saw his first Hindu convert. Mark Zuckerberg is infinitely smarter than William Carey for it has only been eight years since he founded Facebook and he already has 900 million converts including 45 million, or almost 4%, of the Indian population."
Facebook is under siege right now by those who finally see a problem in this social media monstrosity but they....particularly Christians....need to go one step further to see if the extended narcissism from ten years of Facebook use may not only have compromised their own privacy but hurt their overall discernment on other things!
Trying to get this message out is difficult for we tend to think that the race is going well....but in reality we are ten boat lengths behind....all our oars are out of sync.....and our most experienced coxswains have long since retired....replaced by the President Trump's beamed in disjointed cacophonous tweets.
Visit My Facebook Page......When Cows Fly......April, 2017
We have a new grandchild.....and he's our first grandchild! When the guys at my work used to come around with pictures of their grandchildren, I'm retired now, I would smile...seem interested in the pics...and make nice comments. I now know what all the excitement was about! But wild horses....wild horses couldn't get me to look at a Facebook page even with pictures of our precious grandchild on it....such is my utter distaste for that social media from it's germination on Harvard's campus to its social media hegemony throughout this world. I'll wait for the Pony Express riders to come in with the mail before I partake of that medium.
Have you read the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the Harvard twins...whatever their names were...and the Napster guy? Have you read any of the enormous amount of research on the harmful effects of Facebook? And the word 'harmful' is an understatement. Have you ever just sat down and thought about what Satan might possibly come up with if he wanted to somnabulize the entire world? Well, you don't have to...he already did! Have you considered....even for a moment or two....the potential tyranny for such a monolithic entity that Facebook has become?
So what can we do? Nothing....sorry to say.....absolutely nothing.....except avoid it....not be a part of it. But alas there are so many good things associated with Facebook! Let me count them.....hmmm.....OK there's nothing good about it. But what about the person who may come across Ligonier Ministries through Facebook....where they might never have encountered the gospel elsewhere? OK....so the world is awash in a narcissistic trance through Facebook but in the process a certain number of people get saved....even Donald Trump wouldn't go for a deal like that! You are essentially telling me....are you not....that God could not find those people without Facebook? God whittled 32,000 of Gideon's men down to 300 but this is different...He needs Facebook!
Hardly a day goes by without a news story coming out on the abuses or inordinate growth of Facebook... or the negative psychological effects. Folks, these are not merely abuses, they are natural outgrowths of the phenomenon, and they will only get worse.
Time alone will have to prove this out. Actually it already has....but apparently more time is needed! In the hands of a Christian ministry Facebook poses no immediate problem....through it R. C. Sproul shares the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in a marvelous way.....if only that were the extent of it.....but it's not.....it also encourages people to participate in Facebook....and to bring along their children and friends. In other words it perpetuates the problem instead of identifying it or warning of the many and varied potential disastrous consequences to not only individuals but entire nations and the entire world!
NOTE: If I could only do one thing with these posts I would want it to be leading people to Ligonier Ministries (ligonier.org).....and I try to do that often.....but there is a lesson here in the last paragraph.....not Martin Luther nor John Calvin nor Charles Spurgeon nor Jonathan Edwards.....nor Billy Graham nor R. C. Sproul (who have since this post have gone on to be with their Lord and their Savior).....were perfect.....nor would they want to be considered perfect. (nor are our pastors perfect....and it would benefit the church if they more than just perfunctorily admitted this)
