Anyone who is using social media is broadcasting something or another, whether the audience be large or small. Whether it be instant reactions, measured opinions, definitive judgements, spears of hatred, seeds of hope, or inane detail of the daily grind, it all gets broadcasted far and wide.
With a few clicks here, a few swipes there, off it goes into the world. Like a rock thrown into the pool, it’s ripples fan out far and wide. For some, another rock is launched before the ripples have reached the shore, and another. Others sit at the water’s edge and just watch the waves caused by the endless rock hurling. Words, reactions, and responses are fired off as soon as something is triggered - for good and ill. Petitions for change can gather helpful momentum, or the groundswell of hate can become a destructive and divisive force. I have become more and more disturbed about the latter, especially in the manner I see people respond to one another.
When I wrote God’s Biker, I had to assume the book might end up in all kinds of places. And indeed it has. I’ve had invites to maximum security jails where it has done the rounds on the wings there. I know it’s in motorcycle club clubhouses. It’s even been read by my children’s school mates and I’ve overheard conversations at the supermarket, between elderly people discussing what they read in it. Wherever it landed, I wanted it to connect and if it’s to cause offence and challenge, I want it to do so for the right reasons.
I had to make some compromises to do this. Changed a few names, changed some language, chose my metaphors carefully and also made sure I got some wise heads to proof read particular sections that I had concerns about. It was a long, creative and editorial process. Once it’s committed to print, it’s out there. No going back. Seven years on, there’s not much I’d change in it thankfully. Investing energy into writing a book, is reciprocated by those who buy it, and read it - there’s a commitment to engage productively with it. If you don’t like the sound of it, you don’t buy it, or you stop reading. The same could be said of music, the arts generally or good journalism.
But for some reason, I guess because it’s just there right in front of us, reading, watching and engaging with social media doesn’t work like that. We doom-scroll our way into either a rage or oblivion. There’s neither the careful editing, nor the investment to engage beyond a superficial response. Emotional knee jerk reactions, a swift swing of an axe to assassinate a person’s character, an allegiance to die for and create a target for abuse, are all so easy to do from the comfort of whichever island we’re sitting on at the time. The couch, the toilet, the train, the meal table, the pew or the classroom. Such is the way the complex algorithms work in these platforms, they will do all they can to make sure you see the stuff that provokes a reaction, enticing engagement, looking for confrontation - a bit like the guy in the bar that’s looking for a fight.
I have almost completely withdrawn from posting on social media. I seldom post anything these days that isn’t carefully considered and well thought out. Not because I worry about upsetting someone, but because I no longer have the same emotional capacity, thanks to my Parkinson’s, to sit and argue the point with a stranger, or indeed a friend. That’s probably what hurts the most, when you see two people you actually know, in real life, slogging it out with one another in the comments. You know that if they were actually sat around the table in each other’s company, they’d get on pretty good.
I lament this because social media has been a useful space to reconnect, share news and stories and promote stuff I’m passionate about. But it’s become like the unruly bar with brawls, even on a Tuesday lunchtime. It’s no longer a healthy place to be. I want to share good stuff, have sensible debate and enjoy the vibe, but the community of the bar has descended into a bear pit with good people ripping lumps out of each other, vulnerable people getting hurt, and bullies smirking and celebrating broken teeth. I’ve spent enough time in bars like that over the years to know that eventually, almost everyone leaves and goes up the road.
In a recent video broadcast for the Journal of Systematic Theology*, Rowan Williams, (who wrote the foreword in God’s Biker), describes the current state of affairs in the world as, “pure tribal bellowing … dinosaurs bellowing across the primeval swamp”. Like me, he too is baffled how people can seriously think this is a sensible and sustainable way of living. He continued, “The person who disagrees with me is still going to be there tomorrow morning. What am I going to do about that?”. This bellowing at each other is very unlikely to bring about any change, because it’s not dialogue. Very rarely is anyone persuaded to change their position as a result of a shouting match, with no commitment to hear what the other is saying.
At least in an actual bar you have the chance of human engagement, even diffusing hostile engagement. Social media does not afford us the possibility of eye contact, observing body language, facial expression and the effects of a belittling, cutting remark or a low blow. We become one dimensional screens and memes. We lose our humanity.
A simple social media meme, and a statement ‘truth’, cannot possibly contain all the arguments and conclusion to a complex argument or discussion, any more than the four spiritual laws, or a few proof texts can contain an entire theology of the kingdom of God. They may well contain key elements of truth, but they’re certainly not the entirety of the truth about God and the Kingdom of God.
In the same video, Rowan Williams also suggested that one of the biggest challenges of our time, is “How we use the Bible”. Rather than seeing it as “dependable communication from God on who God is”, it’s used as a weapon towards each other, rather than a “coherent voice of hope”. Bono picked up on this with his tribute to John Smith^, when he noted that Smithy, did not see the Bible as “some handbook on religion”. It was not a “sop for mankind’s fear of death - it was an epic poem about life”, speaking about culture, politics and justice.
Jesus didn’t just give us a series of proof texts and memes to give us a ticket to heaven. He gave us an example and a way, ‘The Way’. God saw fit to give us a remarkable compilation of inspired story, law, history, songs of lament, calling to account with prophetic challenge, pastoral letters and visionary dreams to help us see who God is, and live in the light of that.
Social media does not lend itself well to debate, any more than a bar full of drunks deciding who’s the smartest among them. If our heart’s desire is to persuade others who we may disagree with to shift their position, we need to get beyond the shouting and get to a place of understanding. If we’re going to make any sense to anyone who we disagree with, we need to understand why they hold the position they do. If we’re just looking to win an argument, looking for a victory of some sort, we’re not going to make sense if we present ourselves as the enemy. Social media does not afford us the luxury of sitting down at a table a sharing food together. But that’s the spirit we need to aim for, unless we’re just satisfied with hurling insults across the swamp.
If I’m to take the Jesus ‘Way’ seriously, it implores me, for example, to challenge injustice and to love my enemies. This is a challenge, because it’s easy, for example, to make enemies of those who I see as purveyors, or supporters of injustice.
What might Jesus have to say about all this I wonder? If Jesus was on social media, what might that look like? How can I interpret what Jesus taught his mates into this situation? How can I interpret the Bible, if indeed it is God’s dependable communication on who God is, and not just a rule book to win an argument?
The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew’s Gospel chapters 5-7), continues to lay the gauntlet down in encapsulating a different ‘way’ of operating, by challenging the core motives that sit within the human heart. We’re perhaps familiar with the phrases, “Don’t judge, or you too will be judged”, and the ones that follow, “Why do you look for the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own”, but perhaps less familiar is the sage advice that follows. Jesus continued, “Don’t give to dogs what is sacred; don’t throw your pearls to pigs”.
Jesus picked his fights carefully. He laid down a challenge for everyone, but not everyone, all of the time, had their listening ears tuned in.
- Some just weren’t interested, as they’d already decided nothing good could come from that dirty back water place, Nazareth.
- Some weren’t interested, because he broke the rules.
- Some weren’t interested, because his allies and friends, included their enemies.
- Some weren’t interested, because his idea of religion seemed to be at odds with theirs.
- Some weren’t interested, because he didn’t turn into the rebel leader they were expecting.
Then there were others who found all of this very interesting, and asked questions, and engaged with what he was talking about. How could he say the things he did, and have the friends he had and live and die like he did?
Jesus seemed to moderate who he told what to, and when.
- There was a time for secrecy and private debate, and a time for public speaking.
- There was a time for direct action and confrontation.
- There was a time of withdrawal into silence.
- There was a time for a silent stand before the authorities, as punches were thrown at him.
- There was a time for an admission of his mission, which would lead to his execution.
I aspire to that kind of moderation, that kind of wisdom, that kind of stand, that kind of communication and persuasion. Somehow we need to find ways to keep the conversation going, without just shouting across the swamp. Words matter. How we use them, to who and when, matters.
Maybe our biggest failure will not be, ending up on the ‘wrong side’ of an argument, it will be our failure to love.
A few years ago, I came across a short reflection put out by the diocese of Oxford on the Beatitudes**, (also in the Sermon on the Mount) and Social Media. I have revisited it and developed a few of the themes, adding some more comment. It follows this piece. I hope you find it an encouragement and a helpful challenge. These words of Jesus continue to inspire me to engage with the whole of the bible, to try and understand what it is God would really want us know and how best to comminicate with each other.
The Beatitudes and social media.
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commends eight beautiful qualities.
Diocese of Oxford – Green text.
Sean Stillman all additional colours.
What do the Beatitudes mean for social media and life online?
- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
I will remember that my identity comes from being made and loved by God, not from my online profile.
We are not the sum of a single social media post, but that is what people see.
If this one post is all someone sees of me, what does it say about me and what might it say about the kingdom of heaven who I may represent to them?
Does my value, worth and contribution to the world depend on reactions to social media posts, numbers of followers?
- Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted
This world is full of grief and suffering. I will tread softly and post with gentleness and compassion.
Those who drink in the water of the ‘social media well’, are often thirsty. Wanting to be heard, to belong, to be seen, to present something of who they are, or alternatively nothing of who they are, or maybe just to pick fights. It is navigating the school yard on a colossal scale.
Do I notice other people’s pain, mourning, emptiness or sadness? Do I ever consider asking, ‘why are you so passionate/angry/upset about this issue?’ before disagreeing with them?
Is what I post, and how I post it adding to someone’s pain, or does it bring comfort?
- Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth
I will not boast or brag online, nor will I pull others down.
Whatever it is we may feel the need to brag about, there will be someone else who has lost this, or who is never likely to experience this.
The meek person doesn’t take pride in having the last word or the insistence on winning the argument. Their satisfaction and peace in this world, is elsewhere.
- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled
There are many wrongs to be righted. I will not be afraid to name them and look for justice in the world.
It is important that as we seek righteousness and justice, we do not commit an injustice by being rude, derogatory, slanderous or malicious. If it is possible to protest peacefully in real life, maybe we must find ways of peaceful protest online.
If I am to criticise anyone, and question whether their cause is righteous or not, am I prepared to consider that I might be wrong, and they may be right?
Desiring meekness, poverty of spirit, mercy can help us consider this.
Is winning the argument what satisfies me, or sowing the righteousness and justice we find in Jesus’s teaching about the Kingdom of God?
- Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy
I will not judge others but be generous online. I will be conscious of my own failings.
Algorithms can work in a way to make sure those with opposing views see your posts.
Social media does not foster an environment that leans towards mercy, but can be a breeding ground for judgement. Jesus ministered in an unmerciful time, the early church grew in a deeply unmerciful, often brutal environment.
How did he, and they, encourage each other to live?
How do we respond publicly to those we disagree with?
Who are the enemies Jesus calls us to love?
What did Jesus say about judging others?
Do we always have to respond publicly?
- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God
I will be truthful and honest, and I will not pretend to be what I am not.
Social media is awash with; rumours, speculation, conspiracy, propaganda and headline grabbing ‘click bait’.
Do people see God in us by what we share, how we share it and whether we have even considered exploring whether something is true or not?
A good lie is very convincing. Social media is only ever going to be as good or as bad as those who fuel it.
Am I adding to truth, honesty, integrity, purity of heart, to a thread, or just adding to the fuel of a fire?
- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God
I will seek to reconcile those of different views with imagination and good humour.
When previously you would need to go to the local bar for fight, now it can be done on your phone.
Consistently down through the centuries an expected mark of a follower of Jesus has been someone that contributes to peace-making.
Too often the church has failed in this.
Social media possibly presents the most accessible public battlefield of our time.
Even in matters that can divide opinion, whether that be theological, social or political, we must find ways of disagreeing honourably.
Meekness can teach us a lot about peace-making.
Peace-making is not about winning. It requires listening as well as talking, conversation NOT SHOUTING.
- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
I will not add to the store of hate in the world, but I will try to be courageous in standing up for what is right and true.
If I am to accumulate enemies, lose friends and be gossiped about, let it be for only for righteous and just reasons.
I can be the world’s biggest advocate for the poor, but if I do this with arrogance, I am not highlighting the plight of the poor, I am simply trumpeting my rudeness, losing any credibility I might have had. “…if I surrender my body to martyrdom and have not love, I am but a clanging cymbal…”
Let us commit to learning what it was that Jesus was persecuted for.
How did he communicate what he did, and to who.
If we want to choose a hill to die on, let it be one that finds the love of Christ at its centre.
When we do that, we find the gift of the kingdom of heaven is when justice is done and winning the argument no longer matters.
Of course, working out what the righteousness of Christ looks like, will cause debate and division, but this is our task – to do it well, with diligence, commitment and a willingness to ongoing change in our lives before we expect to see the change in others.
To do this honourably, as a starting point, I suggest we spend more time engaging with the Gospel texts than we do with social media…. And there, lies a genuine challenge.
Sean Stillman, April 2025, "Social Media, Unruly Bars, Pigs and Pearls"
* Journal of Systematic Theology, “Rowan Williams on the biggest theological challenges today” YouTube https://youtu.be/nASPZd2LkTs?si=SFJ2FLkxoqrnRuDc Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.
^ Bono’s tribute to John Smith https://www.eternitynews.com.au/culture/u2s-tribute-to-smithy-revealed/ Rev. Dr. K.John Smith, God's Squad CMC, author, speaker, activist for justice and academic. Bono of rock band U2.
** The original Diocese of Oxford reflection can be found here: https://d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net/61f2fd86f0ee5/content/pages/documents/20210101-departments-beatitudes-social-media-v01.pdf