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Free Speech Within the Social Media Influence

Gramster Rant: Free Speech and Human Nature

There is a huge impact by social media on how we interact with each other. People just feel a lot more at liberty with what they're going to put out there when they're sitting behind a keyboard and nobody can see their face. They've got their own persona out there.

Keyboard warriors have been a problem, but free speech is also a right that we cannot let go. I noticed something as the whole escalation took place in the Middle East when Iran and Israel were obviously at war and Trump sent in the bombs. I watched over the course of two or three days things unfold, and a couple things came to light.

First, we watched some amazing stuff that our military did. That was just flat out crazy stupid amazing. But here's the sad thing—remember when Reagan sent planes over to Kaddafi? We bombed Libya in '86 and we were stationed overseas at the time. The whole nation applauded. The whole nation just came together. The Middle East calmed down a little for a day or two.

The really interesting thing to me, not the most important but interesting, was just how the ebb and flow of thoughts and opinions on social media and even on TV news outlets really just vacillated tremendously—almost like a roller coaster. Just over the short period of two, maybe even three days, we watched liberals' heads explode (not literally). They came out with their irrational hyperbole: "He can't do this without Congress's approval. He needs to be impeached. He's breaking the Constitution." The list went on and on. The division is so deep and so wide. It's troubling to see.

But what was so blatantly obvious was how almost instantaneously we saw influencers, friends, family members, and people that we know respond by doing the same thing—picking up those sound bites and just repeating the exact same verbiage. It was really very odd. They were just making the same claims, using the exact same phrases. It was just like here's a pellet and they eat it. That's been going on for years where Democrats will use the same verbiage. They get talking points. They don't have original ideas. If one person uses the word "scheme," everybody uses "scheme" the same day.

This connects to the parable of the seeds being sown from Matthew 13. Jesus not only tells the parable but explains it in plain language that any common person can understand—there are four different ways when the word goes out: how does that seed take root? How does it grow? I'm seeing the description he used in that parable in different areas. Like where it talks about people getting excited about something first and then falling away.

As the bombs went off and reality struck us in the face, people started talking, and even some people that you thought were very solid in their stance suddenly started wavering. We had Marjorie Taylor Greene who went full-on opposing Trump when she has stood so strongly with him in the past. There were a couple of influencers I follow online, also conservative Christians, who were like "I don't like this, this isn't good." I saw these people who were formerly so solid, all of a sudden when trouble starts, they're starting to shake. They're starting to waver.

I'm not comparing Donald Trump to Jesus or the Bible. All I'm saying is these people were so strong and firm in how they stand and how they think. And all of a sudden they were like, "I don't know. I don't know what I don't like." It's like the political version of the seed falling on rocky soil—it gets hot and they just flame out. Hopefully there's people around them that can reassure them because that's what the church is for, to help them get grounded.

We also watched as events changed very quickly, so did responses to those changes. It was like looking inside a washing machine. Everything was just going back and forth. From my personal experience of being online when the bombs started dropping, I tried to just be encouraging. I even went to our governor's Facebook page just to see what she was saying—she's very supportive and I was glad about that. So I thought I'd give a thumbs up, "God bless and thank you for supporting the president." And wow. Some of the comments that came on my comment were just absolutely vile. They literally said that they wanted to see me tortured and wanted to watch me scream because I said "God bless you" to the governor of Iowa.

Going back to when I had my MySpace page, I never in my wildest dreams thought this is the stuff that people would be saying to me via online media. When social media started taking off—Facebook and Twitter really became mainstream in 2007—by 2008 most people had a page. That's when they came out with the term "keyboard warrior" because it wasn't long when all the niceties turned into "I'm going to create a fake profile and start ripping on people" and threats and cyber bullying.

In 2015, we learned a big lesson. I had a viral Facebook post—we're talking 500,000 likes and 250,000 shares. This was before they changed the algorithms. And we had over 111 death threats. That was keyboard warrior gone crazy. That's when I realized—that was 10 years ago—we're in trouble. Our society's in trouble when this is how we are able to communicate with each other.

Soon you wouldn't say that to my face? Well now we all say it to each other's face. We've taken that next step. You get bolder and bolder in your sin or in your vileness, and if you're allowed to practice it in private, eventually it's going to come out.

As I'm reading through all these vile messages, I realize this is a lot like those weeds coming up and choking things out where you have all these dissenting voices pushing and shoving for their voice to be heard. They want to shut other people down. Those weeds want to choke out those vegetable plants that have taken root.

We have a choice where we can take those oppositional phrases and statements and use them to grow better, smarter, and deeper. Or it can cause us to shrink back and decide "I don't want to engage, I don't want to put myself out there." It's much healthier if we use those dissenting voices, that threatening opposition, to really sharpen ourselves rather than just shrinking back and being quiet.

So here's my point. As I'm watching this unfold before my eyes, I realize what I'm seeing is human nature. It's following patterns I've seen before where people get all worked up and then just forget about it, or people shout things out of complete ignorance because they don't know what they're talking about but just want to rail.

This creates an opportunity for two things:

Number one, it's an opportunity to see opposing views. If I wasn't on social media, I wouldn't have even believed people thought or said such things. I would have thought, "No, we love America and so does America." So free speech is good. It's good to know where someone else is coming from. It's better to know than to not know because that's where you get deceived—deceived into trusting people you shouldn't trust or buying into ideas you ought not buy into.

Number two, it gives you the opportunity to really look into the things you've adopted as truth and examine them. "Okay, I believe this. Why do I believe this? And if I do believe this, can I explain to the next person why I believe this?" Because if I really think it's important, I ought to be able to do that.

The internet is like a full fridge. Because it's so accessible and so at our fingertips, we're satisfied with just getting little bites out of it. We're forgetting how to really sit down, take a book, and study it and know it and understand all the points and all the philosophy and understanding that's gone into that book. Maybe the internet and having this information at our fingertips is giving us that apathetic "I don't really want that" and we're not really seeking truth anymore—we're just looking for little snacks.

Gramster Advice

When the big things in life hit you and it makes you take a step back and you don't really know what to think or say, that's okay. What do wise people do?

Number one, look into what's actually being said. Don't be listening to just talking heads talking about it. Make sure you look into what was actually said. Look into: Is this true? Did this even happen? And read things for yourself. Take the time—and I think that's where we get impatient, we don't want to invest too much time. Take the time and effort to find out what the actual context is. If it's not worth your time, don't even get involved with it.

This applies to our spiritual life as well. The way people were reacting to the events unfolding in front of them was very much the way people respond to the gospel being presented to them. When it comes to our biblical walk, we have to ask when people start teaching or sharing: Are they quoting scripture correctly? Did Jesus really say that? Because we've got a plethora of people who will claim they know what Jesus said, but when you really lay it down next to God's word, it's not the same.

What does it actually say? Get the context. Who's talking? Who are they talking to? Why are they saying what they're saying? It's a big picture. And we, as a culture, have really forgotten how to do that. We just see 10 seconds of a video and think we know the whole story, and it's just not so.

This is a prime example of human nature. We can be easily moved. We can be easily deceived because we're lied to. It's so easy for people to lie to us, and then we can very easily jump to the wrong conclusions.

Let's take a look at God's word. Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen." It's using rational thought. It's seeing things around you and understanding what's going on around you, and then you can make a judgment. We're certain about things that we don't see because of the things that we've seen and heard before. That gives us confidence for the future.

Second Timothy 2:15-16: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth, but avoid worldly and empty chatter for it leads to further ungodliness." He's talking about diligence, working and handling things properly. There's some effort here. He's painting a picture of striving, of pursuing something.

Proverbs 2:3-4: "Make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline your ear to understanding. For if you cry out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for hidden treasures." Again, a little bit of effort there. You need to seek after it. You need to earnestly desire it. It needs to be searched. It needs to be studied. It doesn't come by magic or osmosis or just like I said before, wishful thinking.

Wisdom doesn't come just through sound bites. It doesn't come through cliché sayings. It comes from earnestness, a willingness to do the work, the time that it takes, and I might even add a little bit of humbleness.

So that's my rant for the day. Don't jump into these things willy-nilly. Make sure that you're informed about these things. And if you're not, that's okay. It's a good thing to get informed. Learn and grow.

The Show After the Show: Civility

Civility is based on virtue. Very much so. And when you have virtue, then you have a society and there's civilness. We have lost civilness even in churches, even in the average family. The value of civilness, the virtue of being virtuous, is gone.

Ben Franklin warned about this way back. Here's a quote: "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." That's where we are. And that's where there wants to be—do you not see the push from across the globe, the globalists to enslave the population, enslave the ones they can't kill?

I've gone on record as saying that there are many people, many people in high esteem, high office, high dollar people who are sad that COVID didn't capture more folks, didn't take more folks. Isn't that pathetic?

Edmund Burke wrote this: "Men are qualified for civil liberty in the exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites." It's no different than me in my diet being downstairs watching a hockey game going, "Well, I probably could go through the drive-thru." It'd be the worst decision I could make, but for a few minutes, you talk yourself into it because of what you just saw.

If we can't restrain ourselves as human beings, we will not have civility, which means we will not have society. Social media will be all that's left. And to be honest with you, a lot of people, that's all they want. All they want is social media.

Our hope is to just share the gospel and for us to try to rise above and live above it. That's what Salvaged by God is about. That's what No Apology with Emily and Chris is about. That's what the Christian church, the Christian Bible-believing church needs to be about.

I think it was John Adams who said that this form of government that we have is for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for any other.

Right On Way Off?

Statement #1: We should start referring to age as levels because I'm at level 60 and that sounds way more impressive than age 60.

Chris - Right On: "I'm about to hit level 60, you know. I'm leveling up. I think it comes down to like is that helping respect your elders so that you give them credit for being alive longer? I'm going right on. It's an idea and I'm for the idea."

Mike - Way Off: "I like the current system. I don't think it's broken. So I think this is an answer looking for a problem. What happens when you're level 42? Do you have a hit song in the 80s? Or is it like are we gamifying all the things now? It's too complicated. Who's going to set the standards? Are we appointing a committee to this? It's too much bureaucracy."

Verdict - Right On: The older you get, the more powerful weapons you get to have—that's a good idea. And not only that, it would bring a sense of respect again to the people who are older from the younger generation. Like they could actually look at older people and go, "Oh yeah, you've been there, done that, got the t-shirt 'cuz you're still standing." And maybe there would be a little bit more respect for the older generation.

Statement #2: Jesus promised an abundant life, not an abundant lifestyle.

Mike - Right On: "It's right there in the Bible. God will give you life. 'I will give you life and I will give you life more abundantly.' And then he also said that in this world you will have troubles. 'But take heart I've overcome the world.' Other times he said that if you've given up houses and family you will receive them back tenfold, doublefold, whatever it was, and in this life and the next with persecution. That's what he said. So you're not guaranteed a happy life. Jesus's goal in his life is for you to be more like him."

Chris - Right On: "John 10:10. 'I'll give you life and I'll give you life more abundantly.' And I just think that what your statement goes into is the prosperity gospel, which I think is the scourge of the church. It is really a part of the church that has cost so many people their faith because they did not get what they were supposed to get. When people say, 'Well, God's will is always for you to be healed'—that's part of the prosperity gospel, the word of faith. This stuff is dangerous. It's dangerous because it takes you off of mission for what God has got for you. And that is he's trying to make you more Christlike."

Verdict - Right On: According to GotQuestions.org, Jesus "comes that people might have a life in him that is meaningful, purposeful, joyful, and eternal." That's abundant. That's what he's talking about. He has a great plan for your life. And it's his plan. And his great plan for your life is that he's going to save you in eternity. And he's going to present you before a holy God as if you're perfect and never sinned. That's the abundant life.

Statement #3: New mandatory feature on vehicles. If your blinker isn't on, your car won't turn.

Chris - Way Off: "Can you imagine what the traffic would be like in Michigan? I mean, there would be accidents everywhere. I am all for people using their signal, putting their shopping carts back, picking up after their dogs. When you don't turn on your blinker, you have lost the ability to be considered part of a well-groomed free society. I don't use my blinker all the time, especially when we live in rural America, but I look in my rearview mirror and I look ahead, and if I've got a completely empty road, I don't use my signal. But most of the time I do. When I'm on the highway, it's a courtesy. But I don't think we can mandate that through technology into vehicles."

Mike - Way Off: "I'm kind of more of a freedom guy. Now people are jerks, and I have said so much through my windshield at them when it's like, 'Oh, nice blinker. Thanks, dude.' Because I could have turned 10 seconds earlier. But, you know, I make mistakes, too, sometimes. This really chaps me. I have a Subaru—you're really starting to annoy me. It's like every stinking time I get near the edge of the lane, or I have to press a button so that the engine doesn't turn off when I stop at a stop sign. I mean, it's just annoying. That's bad enough that the car manufacturers are doing stuff like that."

Verdict - Way Off: It would just turn into absolute disaster. We all know it.

Final Thoughts: Thick Trust and Thin Trust

Thick trust is what our society used to be based on in a wider swath. Thin trust was what kept us together. Thick trust has been described by people smarter than me as what you have in your family unit. And many good ground churches have that thick trust where they just trust each other on a thick level.

Thin trust is that you trust somebody's going to turn their signal on, or you trust they're going to put their shopping cart away. These fabrics of society that you're going to walk your dog in a public place in a public park, or I walk my dogs down at the fairgrounds a lot and I never leave anything behind because I still want that thin trust to be as thick as I can possibly make it, if it's up to me.

Thin trust is now just about evaporated in the world. There is no more thin trust. When I see somebody doing the right thing, I'm shocked. When just 20 years ago, when I saw them doing the wrong thing, I was shocked. So thin trust has evaporated. Well, guess what's happened to the thick trust? It's gotten a lot thinner.

And so we are now in our phones. We are now on social media. And going back to the theme of the show, we are now losing that thick trust even in churches, even in families. So now we have more along the lines of like a tweener trust between thick and thin is what most people are living in if they're living thick at all. Otherwise, it's thin to nothing.

Society with the civil breakdown, the civility of society breaking down, we are in major danger. What does that mean? That means that we have to have much more importance for our family and our church family. And the Bible calls it a remnant church. I'm preaching on the church of Smyrna this Sunday. And if that's not an eye-opener, nothing will, because these people were poverty-stricken. And Jesus told them they were wealthy, that they were well off because they had him. And they're one of two of the seven churches Jesus didn't have a word of correction for because they were living it out every single day.

That's what we got to try to do as the times get darker—we got to build up that thicker trust with each other.

The church of Smyrna had an abundant life, but they were poor. How does that happen? They were being persecuted, tortured, and killed. And they're in heaven now. We'll get to meet them someday soon. It's very contrary sometimes how the world works versus how God works.

In some communities, like in rural America, there's a thicker thin trust. We still have an opportunity to see recovery, one grandson at a time. We just got to keep doing that. We need to influence our own sphere.

My final thoughts for today is just a remembrance that in this country, it's all based on self-governance. And that is based on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ sets us free from sin. And we are no longer slaves to our sinful selves, but we are slaves to righteousness. And that is a reality. So our hope once again is in Jesus Christ.