In my last post I lamented that Facebook groups usually don’t lead to meaningful discussion, or discussion at all. Most group pages sit there blank, all the while having hundreds to thousands of members. All these people gathered in one spot under the same name of one particular group, and we have nothing to say?!
The other end of the spectrum is when we have lots to say at each other, and anyone with differing opinions is close-minded or ignorant. In a society raised on tolerance and acceptance, many discussions in web forums are angry and exclusive. For example, I’m a member of Indy.com, a great forum for residents of Indianapolis to read interesting articles about upcoming events, movies, restaurant reviews, and also a place to dialogue with other Indy residents via chat and article comments. Indy.com also allows users to personally review restaurants, as I did this week. Another user blasted my review, not on a differing opinion about the restaurant or the food itself, but a personal attack about my opinion on, of all things, Applebees. Do I really want to spend my time online getting harassed about an American chain restaurant?
It’s not surprising then when you open up matters of faith, truth, God, love, and justice on a web forum that conversations turn vicious pretty quickly. But what if we realized that we all believe something, and if we took the time to share why we love the thing we believe in, rather than defend it? Sound familiar? Rob Bell says it much better than I do in “Velvet Elvis”,
“Because when it comes to faith, everybody has it. People often tell me they could never have faith, that it is just too hard. The idea that some people have faith and others dont is a popular one. But it is not a true one. Everybody has faith. Everybody is following somebody. What often happens is that people with specific beliefs about God end up backed into a corner, defending their faith against the calm, cool rationality of others. As if they have faith and beliefs and others dont. But that is not true. . .Think about some of the words that are used in these kinds of discussions, one of the most common being the phrase open-minded. Often the person with spiritual convictions is seen as close-minded and others are seen as openminded. . . An atheist is a person of tremendous faith. In our discussions about the things that matter most then, we arent talking about faith or no faith. Belief or no belief. We are talking about faith in what? Belief in what? The real question isnt whether we have it or not, but what we have put it in. Everybody follows somebody. All of us make decisions every day about what is important, how to treat people, and what to do with our lives. These decisions come from what we believe about every aspect of our existence. And we got our beliefs from somewhere. We have been formed, every one of us, by this complicated mix of people and places and things. Parents and teachers and artists and scientists and mentors we are each taking all of these influences and living our lives according to which teachings we have made our own. Some insist that they arent influenced by any person or any religion, that they think for themselves. And thats an honorable perspective. The problem is they got that perspective from . . . somebody. Theyre following somebody even if they insist it is themselves they are following. Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and somebody. We are all believers.”
So, we are all believers…in something. And when you take the time, effort, and faith to believe in your “thing” wouldn’t you rather then enjoy your thing instead of spending most of your time defending it? Once again Rob Bell sums it up nicely,
“You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you. Have you ever seen someone pull a photo out of their wallet and argue about the supremacy of this particular loved one? Of course not. They show you the picture and give you the opportunity to see what they see.”
To the Indy.com user who harassed me, I just enjoy Applebee’s, and I wanted to share my enjoyment. Granted, I have much bigger things in my life than Applebee’s that I want to share with people. But maybe we can start small.
To listen to Rob Bell’s “Love Wins” sermon: 
