You do all that anyway,
don't you?
You're compassionate,
kind,
loving,
courteous,
considerate
and, rather than curse,
you bless people.
Of course you do!
At least to everyone you meet.
But what about online?
[PAUSE]
It doesn't take long
on Social Media
before unpleasantness starts,
especially between Sci Fi fans
and, sadly,
religious groups.
There is a lot of media,
videos, blogs, groups
which have titles such as
"Craig destroys Oppy"
or
"Fradd shames White".
What they mean
is that Craig and Fradd
have put forward
convincing reasons
why Oppy and Tate are wrong.
Notice how the use of language
is sensationalist
and designed to get
an emotional reaction,
designed to make you post a message
designed to make you interact
and keep interacting
so that social media platforms
earn more money from
advertising and promotions
Craig, Oppy, Fradd and White
conduct themselves
with nothing less than
human respect and decency
in their discussions,
but the internet distorts their debates
into something that
has greater importance
than it deserves.
Do you notice
that social media
is trying to distort
your view of the world
and encourage you to be
angry?
[PAUSE]
St Peter wants to promote harmony.
Christians are meant
to be together,
to look out for one another
and those outside the Church.
He exhorts us to be caring.
To love rather than hate.
To bless rather than curse.
To run away from evil
and to embrace what is good.
This is easier in a physical community
in which we see people face to face
and recognise the humanity
they share with us.
But, social media is different.
You sit alone
and all you may well be doing
is interacting with a box of lights
that reduces a human being
to text on a screen.
It is because
the humanity of another
is obscured
that our sense of community
goes out the window.
It's easy to spread hate
when you don't see the person
whom you are hating.
[PAUSE]
St Peter doesn't need to know the internet
to help us know what we should be doing.
We are courteous and kind
for the good of other people,
but our motivation must come
from the love that we cultivate
within our souls.
We aren't courteous
because we fear the shame
that faces us if we are discourteous.
We are courteous
because courtesy is good.
We share,
not out of a sense of obligation,
but because sharing is good.
All good things come from God.
If we love God,
then courtesy,
kindness,
blessing and love
are things that we desire
precisely because they come from God
and not from Society.
Many people will tell you
that living the moral life
is something made by
the society around us.
This means that Society
thinks that the moral life
is something it determines
and thus controls
and, if you act in a way
that Society finds disagreeable,
then you will be held up
to ridicule
and hatred
and never, ever be forgiven.
But God is not like that.
From Him,
we will always receive love,
and kindness
and courtesy
even when things around us
are so black
that we cannot even feel
His love for us.
It's because of Him
and His regard for us
that we show the same regard
for other people.
[PAUSE]
The way we interact online
should be just as we react offline.
We may appear to be alone
in front of the computer screen
but God is with us
and we remain His Church
in everything we do.
Our conduct online
should be shrewd as vipers
in recognising the traps of the Enemy
to get angry and post things
that belittle others
or make a mountain
out of a molehill,
but we should also be
as innocent as doves
seeking always to interact
in a way that recognises the humanity
of the person we disagree with
and offer the same hand of friendship
that God has offered to us
still bearing the wound of the nail.
[PAUSE]
Both St Peter and St Paul
bid us to have God's mind,
and to hold it at all times,
especially when we are tempted
to think we are alone
and can't be seen.
This way Society loses its power.
But, faced with such a threat,
Society will seek to punish those
who refuse to recognise its hold.
That's when the hateful messages start.
That's when we respond
with the most profound blessings
we can muster.
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