I have heard brothers I respect make the case for free speech as a Christian value and to a certain extent, I disagree. Can the gospel be more easily spread within a free society? Sure. What comes with that however is an even greater responsibility to not be caught supporting disinformation as it brings disrepute to Christ. Forty million people have left the church in the past 25 years and the number one reason they say is hypocrisy. When the world sees people like Eddie Hyatt lying about DEI or the embracing of falsehood as virtue, it is not lost on them. Why would anyone listen to what you have to say about Jesus if you lie so casually about your own brothers and sisters eating pets? Here is a civic wakeup call - free speech is not absolute. That's right. We cannot shout fire in a crowded theater for example. There are always restrictions on our rights. We do not live in the purge. So, is spreading hate or disinformation free speech? Is curtailing it censorship? That could be a fantastic discussion, especially for Christians. The Intercept recently revealed the new trainings Zuckerberg provided for his staff regarding these changes. They specifically now say they will allow, for example:
"Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of sh*t."
"Gays are freaks."
"Look at that tranny (beneath photo of 17-year-old girl)."
Is this what we are now fighting for in the church? The right to say these things? To defend those that do.
Because you know, Jesus. Keep in mind that this is literally in the training. What has happened to people who claim the mantle of Christ today in this country? When it comes to Christians, free speech is not nearly as important as truthful speech. Or compassionate speech. Jesus had harsh words for the religious teachers of His day because they were false. I do not recall him calling them excrement based upon where they came from. The Sons of Thunder wanted to reign fire down on the Samaritans and pretended the cause was righteous instead of hatred for who they were and where they came from. Jesus rebuked them and said they knew not what spirit they were of. Neither does the church today. Zuckerberg also said that he will work with Trump on foreign countries that have disinformation laws, that he characterizes them as censorship. What nonsense. Truth is truth and the church should take a stand for truth. By the way, do not fall for the grift Zuckerberg is employing here. This was a business decision, pure and simple. Four years from now if the next administration goes in the other direction, Zuck will go right along with it. You think his idea to use the same model that Elon Musk is using on Twitter is good? Let me close with a personal anecdote. When Musk took over Twitter most said that it was heavily slanted to the left. I only used it to post when I had a new devotional on my website to a handful of followers. Six months out from the election I started to notice the primary post that always was up when I logged in was Elon Musk's post, which often was unhinged political propaganda in support of electing Trump. Odd since I never followed Elon and I unfollowed him when I realized it. Then the first post popping up when I logged in was Donald Trump himself. I unfollowed immediately also. Then I was bombarded with the most extreme right wing, pro-Trump posts that were out there. It was obvious that Musk had bought the platform for the sole purpose of turning it into a right wing dumpster fire of disinformation in order to help Mr. Trump get elected. So, I wrote a tweet explaining to my followers that I could no longer use the platform in good conscience. Nothing rude - just the facts. I did not close my account however but when I signed in last week, Elon had closed my account. No explanation. No email. I even emailed them asking what happened. No answer. Beloved, THAT is censorship. Closing someone's access because you didn't like something they said is censorship. Not posting a link explaining that Haitians are not actually eating pets if you insist to spread that hatful lie. That is not censorship.
Look, these are not easy subjects, I get it. There are people who had accounts closed on Facebook previously who swear they did nothing wrong. If there truly was no violation of the Terms of Service, that would be wrong. We do not throw out the baby with the bathwater, however. The truth should still matter to us as Christians. The narrative that prior to this Facebook censored people on the right by fact checking them is simply unsupported. The answer cannot be to turn Facebook into X, where it is the wild west of disgusting disinformation. What are we standing for as followers of Jesus Christ? To be clear, before this capitulation, Facebook still allowed most hate and disinformation. Those posts about Haitians eating pets for example, were allowed and I actually do not recall any fact checking attached to them. So, what changed? Well, according to the Meta training, you can now also call the Haitians grubby, pieces of sh*t.
Praise Jesus.
