Venango County businesses were harassed based on social media rumors; again - We need to be better than this.

 

It is happening again.  For the second time in the last six months {see links at the bottom for my posts on the first incident}, local businesses have been harassed by hundreds of aggressive phone calls because of what people read on social media.  Don't misunderstand me, Venango County (and Franklin in particular) is a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family.  I'm blessed that we were called here in 2012 so that I could become the pastor of First Baptist, and blessed that this is where my daughter is growing up.  This is the community that helped us create and support Mustard Seed Missions and Emmaus Haven.  I'm proud of what we've accomplished here on behalf of those in need.  That being said, we have still have issues here because this town and county has plenty of flawed people, I know this because all human beings are flawed, myself included.  The thing is, all human beings are also made in the image of God (imago dei in Latin), which means they all have value, inherent value, that doesn't depend at all upon the circumstances of their lives.  Everyone who has ever lived was a person for whom Christ was willing to die so that he might redeem them if they'd repent and believe; every single person.

Which brings us to the harassment of the owners and employees of the Quality Inn in Franklin and the Holiday Inn in Cranberry, both co-owned by George and Sunny Singh.  Why were the phones ringing off the hook at these two hotels?  Because someone(s) started the rumor that the hotels were housing illegal immigrants, and then other people shared these posts and fed the flames.

The world is beset with issues about the flow of both migrants and refugees.  It is a global problem, and one that isn't going to ebb anytime soon.  Governments around the world have struggled, to put it mildly, to come up with solutions that value the lives of those involved, ours included.  Let's be honest, we're not going to solve the questions of immigration, legal or illegal, by what we say and do here in Venango County, but we need to be better than this.  We need to treat each other better here and now if we are to have any hope of honoring God with our behavior should the day come when our community has to actually participate in a small slice of this fraught issue.  If the response of many of us to a mere rumor is to harass fellow members of our community based on the possibility of the presence of immigrants amongst us, what hope have we that we would respond in a morally acceptable fashion should an actual need exist?

One of the reasons why this insanity keeps happening is that too many people don't take what happens on social media seriously.  They don't feel sufficient moral culpability for what they consume and what they like, comment, and share in cyberspace.  And yet, these actions have consequences, as we have just seen in our own community, that can ripple far beyond Facebook, X, Snapchat, and the rest.

We all know this to be true, and the thing is, God condemned this behavior thousands of years ago...

Proverbs 6:16-19

16 There are six things the Lord hates,

    seven that are detestable to him:

17         haughty eyes,

        a lying tongue,

        hands that shed innocent blood,

18         a heart that devises wicked schemes,

        feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19         a false witness who pours out lies

        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

By my count, today's article in the paper recounts examples of 4 or 5 of the 7.

We need to be better than this.  

To George, Sunny, and all of your family and employees: Our community failed you.

For that I am sorry, I hope and pray that moving forward you will be treated with the dignity that you deserve as a person made in the image of God.  I hope and pray that everyone who comes to this county will be viewed as a child of God, whoever they may be, and wherever they came from.

A final thought, why are you an American citizen, a person blessed with rights and one of the highest standards of living in human history?  It isn't because you were special, it is all the grace of God that has you living here in this time and place.

As John Bradford said while watching criminals being led to the gallows in England a few hundred years ago, "There but for the grace of God go I."

Below are the posts I wrote after the last social media inspired deluge of harassing calls to a local business in October of 2023:

What the furor over the Witch Walk in Franklin can teach us about Christian cultural engagement

An observation about social media comment sections in light of the Witch Walk furor

Light vs Darkness and the reason why Christians should be perpetual optimists

How Franklin moves forward, together: the Law of Love, Romans 13:10

An observation about social media comment sections in light of the Witch Walk furor

Let's be honest, the uproar that ensued after this week's post on the St. Patrick Parish FB page about the Witch Walk brought out the worst in a whole lot of people.  Like many of you, I read a good number of the comments (before they were all restricted somewhere north of the 3k comment mark), and the vast majority of them revealed a level of anger, pettiness, and judgmentalism that we sadly have come to expect from the worst aspects of social media.

My follow-up post on the subject: What the furor over the Witch Walk in Franklin can teach us about Christian cultural engagement was received with much less rancor and positive interaction than the original St. Patrick post was written in response to, thank you to everyone for that.  Much of the difference can be attributed to the nature of the posts themselves, one inflamed passions and the other was trying to calm them, but I've notice a significant difference when comparing the comments that have since occurred about my post on my personal page vs. on 1st Baptist's page.

What's the difference?  For those who know me, at least well enough to be FB friends, the comments have been almost universally polite, even kind.  But on the 1st Baptist's FB page, where those commenting have been much less connected to myself personally (and my comments appear as the institution speaking, not a specific person), the comments have been significantly less gracious, with several veering off into being argumentative, even mean.  This same phenomenon held true when I posted the link to my blog post on someone else's thread, with those responding not being my own FB friends, but friends of that person instead, the end result was less civility, less grace.

{FYI, I've noticed this for years, as a person who maintains a blog, I share posts in relevant threads online from time-to-time, the reception of them there is almost always worse than when sharing the same content on my own feed only.  The level of misunderstanding increases, especially when it comes to people assuming that I have horrible motives behind my words.}

It is as if (and this is no novel observation), that lack of human relationship between people, even one as tenuous as a FB friendship can be, acts as a permission to be the worst jerky versions of ourselves.

As a Christian, this says something to me about fallen human nature, it echoes the lesson of William Goldin's Lord of the Flies that, "the beast is us," and it only takes the addition of a little bit of anonymity to unleash it.  It is a reminder of our universal need for a Redeemer.

When it is Christians, or at least those claiming to be Christians, who are using anonymity to behave in this reprehensible manner, it tells me something deeply sad about the health of the Church in America today.

But it also reminds me of something I've always known, something that buoys my optimism about the future: Relationships matter.  No matter how much of our daily lives gets sucked into our phones, social media apps, and anonymous interactions online, we crave real genuine face-to-face contact with people who know us and care about us.  We can't help it, our Creator made us as relational beings.  For this reason, I'm not putting stock in the future of online churches.  You can't get a warm handshake, even a hug, see someone else's smile, hear their laugh, when you're interaction is through a screen.  If your church, like my church, actually welcomes new people with kindness and genuine acceptance, you have something that people in this world need, and something that our society is leaving them more and more desperate for.

Long story short, we shouldn't be surprised that after the St. Patrick Parish's Witch Walk post went viral, and the majority of those commenting had no idea where Franklin is, what St. Patrick Parish is like (ie. that they run a food pantry that helps people in our community every month), or even the name of its priest, that the commentary became meaner, darker, and uglier by the minute.

Do yourself a favor, spend less time in front of a screen interacting with people you don't really know, and more time in the same room as people who know you, can grow to like you, and by the grace of God love you too.

Looking at my own FB activity since COVID-19 started

Given how much of our communication of late has been online, I thought it worthwhile to examine my own posts/shares to Facebook since March 12th, the first day that COVID-19 was a part of one of my posts.  The results were enlightening, at least to me.  I'd be happy to respond to your thoughts on this as well, and perhaps you too should scroll back and see how this pandemic has affected your online persona.

In just over two months, I have posted to Facebook 114 times.  Here are the categories (which I created, of course) to differentiate them {the numbers won't add up to 114, some posts go into two categories}:

1.  Local announcements regarding the Church, Venango County Christian Ministerium, etc. many of which revolved around COVID-19 cancellations: 26 times

2. Covid-19 related Hoax/misinformation correction, including regarding the End Times and Mark of the Beast: 24 times

3. Sermon Videos and Bible Study podcasts (this number doubles when considering that I provide this information to Church FB page as well): 22 times

4. Inspirational messages, encouraging news: 22 times

5. Theology on a variety of topics: 16 times

6. Family news, most numerous for this period are walks in the woods with my girls: 11 times

7. Humor, I'm not big on sharing these, only the geekiest typically: 8 times

What are the sources of my posts?  The vast majority are from material I've created, whether that involves writing announcements, creating the content for sermons and Bible Study podcasts, or writing my own blog posts.

1. My own sermons and Bible study podcasts: 22 times

2. This blog, my own original material, even when commenting on things written by others: 15 times

3. CNN.com : 5 times

4. Christianity Today: 4 times

5. The New York Times: 4 times

6. The Detroit Free Press (an excellent newspaper): 3 times

7. Things written by local pastors: 2 times

8. The rest of these, only once per: Fox News, Vox, The Gospel Coalition, NPR, Snopes, 538.com, Politifact, Science Magazine.org, and Academic Logos.

How then has the COVID pandemic affected my online persona?

1. The primary source of what I share online remains my own mind, for better or for worse.

2. The primary focus of my blog and my FB feed remains ministry related (about 2/3 of all posts)

3. I've shared more news articles since the pandemic began than is normal for me.

4. I've made the choice to attempt counter the misinformation about COVID (vaccines, Bill Gates, Plandemic, etc.) that has flooded my FB feed.

5. Responding to End Times / Mark of the Beast misinterpretation was necessary.

Well, there's some honesty and transparency, the first time I've ever gone back and actually counted and examined my own FB posts.    

In praise of a gentle spirit - Philippians 4:5

There are a couple of popular phrases used by Christians either among themselves or when trying to explain their attitudes to others regarding how confrontational they choose to be: "Hate the sin, but love the sinner" and "speaking the truth in love".  The first phrase is pretty popular, although it is not Biblical, the second is a quote of Paul from Ephesians where he urges it as a mark of Christian maturity in response to false teaching.  It has become apparent, however, especially in the realms of social media and politics, that many Christians (and/or those claiming the name of Christ) struggle mightily with actually loving the sinner and with combing love with truth.  It has been the experience of many that hatred of sin spills quickly over onto the sinner and that zeal for the Truth drowns out love in an effort to "win" the debate.  A mature and balanced Christian will avoid both of those mistakes, thus their prevalence is a sign that many within the Church lack the maturity which they ought to be striving for through the power of the Spirit.
Which brings me to Paul's words in Philippians 4:5, "Let your gentleness be evident to all."  Of the Christians you know, how many would you describe as gentle?  How many would you describe as disagreeable, harsh, or irritable?  In a healthy Church, the answer to those two questions would result in a 90/10 split or higher, with only a few immature people who display angry and rude behavior.  In the Church today, at least here in America, that ratio has slipped, too far, tarnishing the reputation of Christ's Church and imperiling the message of the Gospel of Peace.
How has this happened, what factors are pushing/pulling so many Christians toward confrontational attitudes where the unsaved have become the enemy rather than the mission field?  One of the most obvious negatively contributing factors has been the increasing presence in politics within the Church, as well as the over-identification of political goals and parties with Christian goals and Churches.  This has resulted in an us vs. them attitude, where those who disagree politically about everything from immigration to tax policy, let alone things like abortion or homosexuality, are viewed through a political prism as the enemy to be conquered and destroyed rather than the lost to be invited home to our Father's forgiveness.
A second factor which has negatively impacted the gentleness that Christians are supposed to be displaying is the pseudo-anonymity of social media.  Things a Christian would not say to someone's face are somehow acceptable when responding to a post in your Facebook feed.  This phenomenon is not particular to Christians, online rudeness is rampant throughout society, but it ought not be among a people called by God to make their gentleness evident to all.  As a Christian, are you displaying gentleness both in person and online, or have you decided that the battles you think you must fight give you an excuse to ignore God's Word?  Is your gentleness evident to all?  It should be.

Sermon Video: Tame Your Tongue - James 3:1-12

How potentially powerful are the words that we say (and by extension the things that we write)?  Historical examples abound of the power of communicated ideas, and we all could find an example of the impact of what someone said or wrote in our own lives, for good or for ill.  James takes this level of acknowledgement of the power of the human tongue a big step further by warning us that what we say has the potential to ruin our lives (and/or the lives of others).
As Christians, we have an obligation to control our tongues, to utilize the gift of communication to promote righteousness, and not to spread evil.  In addition, we must always bear in mind that each person we communicate with is, like us, an image bearer of God.  How can we, as his people, praise him on Sunday, and with that same gift, curse those made in his image the next day?  In the end, taming our tongues may be the most difficult challenge of overcoming temptation that most of us face, but it is a crucial task, and by the grace of God we will achieve it.

To watch the video, click on the link below: