Taking Facebook to the Moon

I believe we are all too familiar with legalism and the separation from others that it inevitably brings with it. In the song “To The Moon” by Sara Groves, she tells a tail of a congregation that decides they will take their church to the moon so they can escape those with other view points or ideas. Sara paints a harsh, but true, picture of Christians that will have nothing to do with any other denomination or Christian with differing ideas when she says:

"There'll be no one there to tell us we're odd

No one to change our opinions of God

Just lots of rocks and this dusty sod

Here at our church on the moon


We know our liberties we know our rights

We know how to fight a very good fight

Just get that last bag there and turn out the light

We're taking our church to the moon"

Having grownup in a church, a community really, that this song could have been written about, I understand that these people are really out there. I cringe in my spirit to know that some would rather judge, condemn, and separate from others then love, befriend, and serve them.

“What Have We Become” by dc talk asks the question that the title suggests, what has Christianity become. What has happened when we think it is acceptable to deny love to someone because we do not agree with what they do or who they love, but we have no biblical grounds for our beliefs? There are things that are clearly shown as wrong in God’s Word, but then there are gray issues. Things that the Word of God is silent on in the New Testament. One of those areas is the opening verse of dc talks song:

"A preacher shuns his brother 

Cause his bride's a different color 

And this is not acceptable 

His papa taught him so 

It was love that he'd been preaching 

But this was overreaching 

The boundaries stretching further 

Than his heart would choose to go"

Interracial marriage is just one example. Some believe that because the nation of Israel was told not to enter into marriage with other nations, that somehow tells people with one color of skin to not marry someone with another. These beliefs have no biblical grounds but still some will allow it to divide a family or church.

I suppose I will never understand why some would rather disagree and separate then disagree agreeably and have fellowship. Christ tells us that they will know we are followers of His by the way we love each other, but what if we don’t?

With the rise of myspace and especially facebook Christians now have a new way to show their separation. We befriend someone on facebook that we have known for years and suddenly are eyes are opened. We see their political view, moderate instead of republican. We see their religious view, follower of Christ instead of baptist, and for this reason many will deny fellowship with other Christians.

With facebook we are able to, in a way, see someone’s life on a web page. We see their views, friends, favorite things, and we are able to see snapshots of their life through their photos. Here is the problem with this, and with the internet as a whole. In the privacy of our homes we feel we can sit and evaluate and, in reality, judge someone’s motives and life by a few pictures, listing of views, and comments to friends. Facebook, although a great thing, can easily be used as a way for someone to bury themselves in anger and pride by thinking less of others and more of themselves.

I know someone that has recently been a object of someones separation tactics. They are a professing believer in Jesus Christ. They have a heart that reaches far pass the bounders of most to love those that others will not. They also live a life that has many qualities that, I believe, Christ would desire us to have and that He had Himself, and partly for these this person was separated from. Someone had seen their political view was not republican, and their religious view was not baptist. When asked why the separation this person went about to give a list of things that needed to happen if they would ever be able to be friends again. The list consisted of: being a good baptist, being a member of the republican party, stop using language that they did not approve of, and lastly, and the one I find the most sickening, they demanded this person denounce their gay friends.

This is what it has become? A list of rules, instead of a relationship?

What makes a good Christian? Is being a Christian mean being a republican or a baptist? Does being a Christian mean having nothing to do with people that lead a gay lifestyle? If all these things, and more, need to be a part of someone's life in order for them to be a Christian what was Christ? What was Paul? How can you reach someone that you will have nothing to do with?

I have have often wondered why Christians don’t act more like Jesus. Some will follow all the commands found in the scriptures but they fail when it comes to simply living like Christ. Some Christians will even create rules for themselves and others to follow that are in direct opposition to how Christ lived. Why do they want to make is hard to love people? Why do brothers and sisters push brothers and sisters away? If we don’t match up to someone else’s ideals we can not have fellowship?

This has not at all been an attack on facebook. This has simply been a frustrated man’s ranting and questioning of a group of people that claim something to be true in their lives, but this great power that supposedly controls their life seems to have no effect on their love of other, not even those that claim the same truth.

If Christ came to earth today, who would hang out with him? Would it be the same thing all over again (He came to His own and His own did not receive Him)? Would Jesus, the Son of God, be to radical for some Christians and Churches?

I fear we are failing as followers of Jesus. For if indeed we were followers we would live like it. We would live like Jesus. We would love not hate. We would unify not separate.