The Vancouver Sun reported this week that online news providers -- like AOL, Huffington Post and others -- are taking steps to tone down some of the rhetoric in comments regarding stories. The growth of social media like blogs and Twitter has coincided with (or contributed to) the rise of the Age of Nasty. Having been part of TransLink's cutting-edge rise in direct communications with the public, I've seen how easy it is for someone to launch a day-destroying (or even job-destroying) salvo and then duck-and-cover.
The main part of the solution described in the Sun article is exactly what we need: require commenters to use their right names. Nothing tones down rhetoric like making someone publicly accountable for their words. My mother used to advise me, "never say anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the New York Times", and there were moments in my career in broadcast and media relations that I rather wished I'd remembered that.
But the part that gives me concern is the suggestion that moderators on these sites screen out "offensive" comments: you know - racism, bigotry, violence, etc., etc. I get the notion of preventing blowhards from dominating a conversation or ensuring the follow-up discourse stays on-topic, but monitoring against "offensiveness" smacks of censorship. I've long maintained (and believe me, I used to be all-for stifling people whose views didn't square with my own) that truth is its own defense and doesn't need to hide behind rules and regulations. One person's bigotry may be another person's strongly-held belief; it's only when those beliefs are aired-out fairly that the truth becomes clearer.
About 20 years ago, the late Sam Kinison brought his standup comedy act to Victoria. A crowd of protesters -- including the Member of Parliament at the time -- picketed the Royal Theatre, demanding the show be shut down. I went to review it for Monday magazine, which at the time was an "alternative" weekly. "Are you going in?" I asked the MP. "Absolutely not!" he said. "I'll have no part of that bigotry." "Then how do you know what it is?" "I've heard."
And truth to tell, I found his act horrific. Certainly, the people who went enjoyed it, and unfortunately, they appeared to represent a particular mentality and lifestyle. Maybe Sam was out to hold up a mirror and get us asking why we found it funny to put down people of different ethnic groups, the homeless and impoverished, and so forth. Sadly, Sam didn't live long enough to tell us.
Maybe through being able to express even the most misguided of opinions, the person expressing them can get an idea of how misguided their thinking is. That doesn't happen if they're being suppressed, driven underground, or forced to yell their thoughts into a paper bag.
Make someone responsible for what they say by requiring them to associate their name with it, fine; moderate against domination and name-calling, great; but that should be all we need to improve the level of online discourse.
"Speak the truth in love," says the Apostle Paul; and "I do not agree with what you are saying, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," said Voltaire. The Internet is "growing up," as the Sun article says, and those two quotations can help make sure it matures, as well.
Showing posts with label Saint Paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saint Paul. Show all posts
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Thursday, November 28, 2013
And this is why we pray for them ...
"AwRIGHT, boysngirls, catsnchicks! This next one's going out to those two GROOVY guys, Rob Ford and Stephen Harper! Doug and the Slugs: "TOO BAD!"
The lyrics started coming back to me in the past week, watching the situation at Toronto City Hall and on Parliament Hill. Two politicians who obviously thought they were invincible, being brought down by forces within. (I'm sure Allan Fotheringham, who wrote Look Ma ... No Hands! about the Progressive Conservative Party, would refer to the Tories' Internal Destruction Engine being at work again.) Stateside, a recent piece of punditry laid out the decline in popularity and influence currently being experienced by President Obama.
But while it's quite obviously fun to watch the mighty fall or to distance ourselves from leaders with declining popularity (during Richard Nixon's waning days in the White House, license plate frames were spotted on cars from Massachusetts reading, "DON'T BLAME US"*), as Christians, we're called to act counter to our base human nature and lift these people up to God.
Aside from the fact that we're commanded to do so -- as Paul writes, "... all ... prayers ... and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quit and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." (1 Tim. 2:1-2) -- there's another extremely important reason for doing this. Whether we like it or not, these people are in charge of our countries and our lives. The current public circuses notwithstanding, they still are tasked with making decisions that affect us, both directly and indirectly.
Obviously, they can't do it in their own power. Who can? That's why they need God on their side, and we need to call Him in.
There's a passage in "Too Bad" that goes, "All your money/Was just insulation"; but I'm certain I've heard a version where Doug sings, "Was the Bible/No more than insulation ...?": a suggestion that when one gets caught, one falls back on references to the Bible. Rob Ford claimed he's had a "Jesus moment" about his drug use. Stephen Harper is a church-goer and I know many Christians supported him initially because they felt he'd bring Godliness to Sussex Drive.
I can't judge either, although given the laundry list of people we're supposed to avoid that Paul spells out in 2 Timothy 3, one has to wonder whether these are the sort of people the PM has surrounded himself with. But I, too, had several "Jesus moments" when I started coming to grips with my own sins and misdeeds. Talking about a "Jesus moment" may seem like a cynical play of the holy "Get Out Of Jail Free" Card, but so many of us only have those moments when our backs are against the wall, so I'm in no position to judge the Toronto mayor.
So Point One: we have to suppress our desire to snicker and gossip about the situations surrounding Leaders Behaving Badly and recognize that they are in trouble and as they go, so go we.
Point Two: we're the ones who elected them (no - DON'T say, "I didn't vote for them!" - that's not the point), so we need to pray for wisdom and for truth to be revealed during election campaigns so that, when we go into the polling booth, we vote for the person God wants us to vote for.
Once they're elected, we have to keep praying that God will give them strength and the tools to do the job and that He'll take care of the things they can't. Remember that the ark God commanded Noah to build was only 150 feet long by 25 feet wide and 15 feet high. Somehow, 14 of every clean animal and 2 each of every unclean animal, plus 14 each of every species of birds had to come to Noah and be crammed into the boat. But that part wasn't Noah's job: it was God who made that happen. God lays out a situation that needs to be solved, but He doesn't give the humans involved any more than they can personally handle. He takes care of the rest. We need to apply that thinking to our politics.
I've long believed that God puts the people in power that He wants to be in power, and sometimes, it serves to expose a reality that we've ignored, whether wittingly or no. The trick, if you can call it that, is to seek God for the reasons, and if they don't become apparent, get to your knees and pray for those leaders.
Pray, for example, that Rob Ford's "Jesus moments" continue and that he comes through this a changed man and Toronto comes through stronger than before. Pray that the evil surrounding Stephen Harper is cleared away and the good that is in the man (and I believe there is plenty) will be revealed and will triumph. And pray that politicians of all stripes, whether in power or no, will shake off the current fleshly concern with beating the other side and remember that there is a country to lead and ultimately, it's God who assigned them to do it.
---
*Massachusetts was the one state that Nixon did not carry in the 1972 US Presidential election.
The lyrics started coming back to me in the past week, watching the situation at Toronto City Hall and on Parliament Hill. Two politicians who obviously thought they were invincible, being brought down by forces within. (I'm sure Allan Fotheringham, who wrote Look Ma ... No Hands! about the Progressive Conservative Party, would refer to the Tories' Internal Destruction Engine being at work again.) Stateside, a recent piece of punditry laid out the decline in popularity and influence currently being experienced by President Obama.
But while it's quite obviously fun to watch the mighty fall or to distance ourselves from leaders with declining popularity (during Richard Nixon's waning days in the White House, license plate frames were spotted on cars from Massachusetts reading, "DON'T BLAME US"*), as Christians, we're called to act counter to our base human nature and lift these people up to God.
Aside from the fact that we're commanded to do so -- as Paul writes, "... all ... prayers ... and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quit and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." (1 Tim. 2:1-2) -- there's another extremely important reason for doing this. Whether we like it or not, these people are in charge of our countries and our lives. The current public circuses notwithstanding, they still are tasked with making decisions that affect us, both directly and indirectly.
Obviously, they can't do it in their own power. Who can? That's why they need God on their side, and we need to call Him in.
There's a passage in "Too Bad" that goes, "All your money/Was just insulation"; but I'm certain I've heard a version where Doug sings, "Was the Bible/No more than insulation ...?": a suggestion that when one gets caught, one falls back on references to the Bible. Rob Ford claimed he's had a "Jesus moment" about his drug use. Stephen Harper is a church-goer and I know many Christians supported him initially because they felt he'd bring Godliness to Sussex Drive.
I can't judge either, although given the laundry list of people we're supposed to avoid that Paul spells out in 2 Timothy 3, one has to wonder whether these are the sort of people the PM has surrounded himself with. But I, too, had several "Jesus moments" when I started coming to grips with my own sins and misdeeds. Talking about a "Jesus moment" may seem like a cynical play of the holy "Get Out Of Jail Free" Card, but so many of us only have those moments when our backs are against the wall, so I'm in no position to judge the Toronto mayor.
So Point One: we have to suppress our desire to snicker and gossip about the situations surrounding Leaders Behaving Badly and recognize that they are in trouble and as they go, so go we.
Point Two: we're the ones who elected them (no - DON'T say, "I didn't vote for them!" - that's not the point), so we need to pray for wisdom and for truth to be revealed during election campaigns so that, when we go into the polling booth, we vote for the person God wants us to vote for.
Once they're elected, we have to keep praying that God will give them strength and the tools to do the job and that He'll take care of the things they can't. Remember that the ark God commanded Noah to build was only 150 feet long by 25 feet wide and 15 feet high. Somehow, 14 of every clean animal and 2 each of every unclean animal, plus 14 each of every species of birds had to come to Noah and be crammed into the boat. But that part wasn't Noah's job: it was God who made that happen. God lays out a situation that needs to be solved, but He doesn't give the humans involved any more than they can personally handle. He takes care of the rest. We need to apply that thinking to our politics.
I've long believed that God puts the people in power that He wants to be in power, and sometimes, it serves to expose a reality that we've ignored, whether wittingly or no. The trick, if you can call it that, is to seek God for the reasons, and if they don't become apparent, get to your knees and pray for those leaders.
Pray, for example, that Rob Ford's "Jesus moments" continue and that he comes through this a changed man and Toronto comes through stronger than before. Pray that the evil surrounding Stephen Harper is cleared away and the good that is in the man (and I believe there is plenty) will be revealed and will triumph. And pray that politicians of all stripes, whether in power or no, will shake off the current fleshly concern with beating the other side and remember that there is a country to lead and ultimately, it's God who assigned them to do it.
---
*Massachusetts was the one state that Nixon did not carry in the 1972 US Presidential election.
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