By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
I witnessed a Facebook controversy where a local restaurateur’s accusations went viral worldwide, then collapsed under video evidence. The episode illustrates social media’s power to spread gossip, destroy reputations, and implicate hearers, urging Christians to remember God’s omnipresent witness and use words only to edify others.
I watched a social media blow-up last week on Facebook. Social media is a wonderful invention to help get the Gospel out, to edify the saints, and to offer links to content from long ago theologians we otherwise may not have known about. It is also a reputation destroying, conspiracy-theory promoting, evil satanic tool.
It’s a lot.
So there I was on a relaxing weekend in Georgia, scrolling my Facebook feed. For some reason this post from a town about 110 miles away popped up. It was written by a restaurant owner and it was a screed. I mean, the guy was big mad. He complained about an employee (who he named) who he said had called the health department because of a persistent problem with raw sewage. He railed against a local official, the town, the world. It was long. It immediately garnered attention. Why? Everybody loves a good fight.
My first thought was that’s not the way a local businessman should act. Secondly, I mean, raw sewage? That is a problem. Depending on whose page the man’s screed was re-posted on, people took sides. Some on some pages said the local official named would not act that way and the businessman is in the wrong. Others were more of a flavor of ‘yeah, businessman, ‘go git um’, that good ole boy network need busting up!’
As the thing grew, I saw a man from Ohio comment. Ohio?! That’s 700 miles away? Who knew a localized issue on Facebook would go that far?! Then a guy from England chimed in. England! He said he didn’t know why the post had come across his feed but it certainly looked like a difficult situation. England!
I refrained from reading further, it was unpalatable and unwholesome. I don’t know why ‘the algorithm’ thought that a post from that far away was of interest to me. But 5 days later I saw another post. It was a response from the Town. An official response. The announcement said that the Town was aware of the restaurateur’s post and had looked into the allegations. ‘Fortunately our local official was wearing his body camera when he made several visits to the restaurant in question. There was no wrongdoing on the part of the Town Official.’ And the Town posted all 4 videos for the public to see for themselves.
Doh!
The restaurant businessman…busted! It turned out that nothing the businessman had said was true. None of it. The businessman issued an apology.
I pondered the scenario. It had emerged solely on social media and blown up then like a balloon, had popped, then gone away with a whimper. But it leaves damage in its wake.
It brought to mind the utter devastation of libel (when it’s written) and slander (when it’s spoken). And the sister sins of gossip, rumor-mongering, backbiting, lying etc are equally devastating. God hates them.
Proverbs 6:16-19-
16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
Seven that are an abomination to Him:
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
19 A false witness who declares lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.
“Abomination” is a strong word.
Obviously, we should not use our tongues for any of those purposes. And since this is the era of social media, we should not write them either.
I was glad the Town Official had worn a body cam. It is for his protection as well as the townspeople’s. I was thinking as I pondered, we should always assume when we are in public, we should assume that there is a camera somewhere. CCTV is ubiquitous now. When the snow was supposed to hit us yesterday in Georgia, I brought up 511, the Georgia.gov site for road conditions. I could see live video of the traffic and the road conditions in towns all along the way from my apartment to church, 25 miles. I could make an assessment that it was safe to drive. A lot of cameras. In our lives these days, there are traffic cams, scenery cams, all kinds of cams litter our lives these days.
Never mind CCTV cameras…there is one very important cam that eyes us constantly. Jesus. He sees everything we do, hears everything we say, and even knows everything we think. Before writing or saying something, stop and remember: I am doing/saying this in front of Jesus. Picture Him with you in the room (because He is).
I had written before about the impact of social media in its influence. I was amazed watching a negative review from British hotel reviewer Hannah Ricketts had downgraded a London hotel’s Yelp standing almost immediately- within hours. Now in this case of the wayward restaurateur, we see the breadth of a post. It went from Georgia to Ohio to England.
I was reminded of the Jewish folk tale about rumors and feathers. The full story is at the Jewish site Chabad. Here it is synopsized:
Scattering Feathers in the Wind
An old Jewish tale well illustrates the consequences of spreading hurtful gossip. Told in various forms, the gist of the story is as follows. A man went about town slandering the town’s wise man. Later, the malicious gossiper realized his wrong and went to the wise man to ask for forgiveness, offering to do whatever was necessary to make amends. The wise man had one request: The gossiper was told to go and take a feather pillow and cut it open, scattering the feathers to the wind. Though puzzled by the request, the gossiper did as he was instructed and then returned to the wise man. “Am I now forgiven?” he asked. “First, go and gather all the feathers,” the wise man responded. “But how can I? The wind has already scattered them.” “It is as difficult to repair the damage done by your words as it is to recover the feathers.” The lesson is clear. Once spoken, words cannot be retrieved, and it may be impossible to undo the hurt they cause. Before spreading a bit of gossip, we are wise to remember that we are, in effect, about to scatter feathers in the wind.
Our words go far. They go far geographically and they go far into our hearts. Negative words, rumors, gossip, lies and other sins of the tongue hurt the heart. They damage.
Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. (Ephesians 4:29).
Did you catch that? About those who hear you talk? If a person is lying or gossiping or rumor-mongering, the hearers are being drawn in as participants. We should not be a stumbling block to the people around us.
Matthew 12:34 says You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. Proverbs 15:23 is about timely, good words. And there are many other verses to mention, so many. This is because Jesus is serious about wholesome talk.
All these admonitions are applied to me as well. Speak nobly, build up, use our tongue and our social media for godly purposes.
the-end-time.org 