Facebook’s Nanny State Hurts the World

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder [Image by TechCrunch CCBY 2.0]

Facebook, the world’s largest social media website is censoring art, while allowing graphic violence and all manner of foul language. Why censor one but not the others? Why censor at all?

 

Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. allow their audiences to self-censor. Why can’t Facebook do that?

Most social media sites let each user determine what types of content they want to see on their own page.  Facebook, on the other hand, is censoring what it thinks you shouldn’t be allowed to view. And its censorship is incredibly arbitrary.

Up until just recently they were removing pictures of nursing mothers and breast cancer survivors. They stopped that because of a public outcry, but they’re still censoring art. I think most people know the difference between art and pornography and would be fine with seeing the former in their timelines (or being able to self-censor it if not).

I believe that the only way they will change is by a massive amount of pushback such as that from the Norwegian Prime Minister and others with clout, and perhaps from regular folks sharing articles like this and talking about it.

Prime Minister Erna Soldberg said, “It is highly regrettable that Facebook has removed a post from my Facebook page. What they achieve by removing such images, good as the intentions may be, is to edit our common history. I wish today’s children will also have the opportunity to see and learn from historical mistakes and events. This is important.”

Professor Philippa Levine, Ph.D, the Mary Helen Thompson Centennial Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, writes in the Dallas Morning News:

“In 2015, after altering its community standards, Facebook classified nudity alongside hate speech, self-harm, bullying and violence. That is an interesting combination. Why should the naked body be classified as disgusting, hateful and harmful?”

Why is this such a big deal?

Basically it boils down to this: Facebook is an American company (and it owns the most popular photography sharing app, Instagram). Whether we like it or not, America exports its culture all over the globe.  When we allow deplorable practices like this (the shaming of the body itself) we only sow seeds that will harm future generations.

Do we really want to, as a people, export the idea that these simple human bodies, made in God’s Image (the imago dei) are “disgusting, hateful and harmful?” 

I don’t. This international issue is affecting people all over the world.  They are being forced into a very narrow viewpoint by a private company that serves up web pages for millions every second.  It’s time for Facebook to grow up.

What do you think?

What Does God Really Want?

In reviewing a chapter of the book I am writing, a friend mentioned that something I said reminded her of Isaiah 58. I was discussing the futility of earning God’s favor through asceticism (severe self-discipline) and it made her think of what God told Israel. Here’s what He said almost three thousand years ago:

“They seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the defenseless, to shield him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and

you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.

…for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

(Isaiah 58 ESV, mostly)

WOW. THAT IS SO GOOD.

God is good — and He doesn’t change. He’s been trying to tell us all along that he is not interested in treating our relationship with Him like a monetary exchange. He does not need us to pay Him off with bribes and He does not respond to our acts as though He is required to perform.

The Gospel — the good news — is that God sent His Son to pay the ultimate price for us so that we could be free again. He bought us out of the slavery of sin and judgment and adopted us as heirs. And He isn’t asking us to pay Him back. The price is too high. We can never accomplish it.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

So what does God really want? He asks us to humble ourselves and to accept that freedom — and then boldly mount up and follow Him.

There are adventures to accomplish. Let’s go!

The Why

I don’t write what I write in order to prove myself right. I write it to set people free from their chains.  “It is for freedom He set us free.” (Galatians 5:1) – Jason Stern

What Do a Pufferfish and a Bikini Have in Common?

Ready to Graduate from Felt Board Christianity?   [makeitcozee]

Continued from “Can a Blind Man Lust?” Part I of the Coming to Our Senses Series

Do you suffer from “felt board Christianity?” If so, it can seem like the Bible is a simplistic bunch of stories with generalized rules for life. “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” it has been called. Do you want to go deeper?  At some point, I think we all do.  We have to peel back the layers and dive in.

Everything Jesus is trying to teach us about the Christian life begins in the heart.

In the last post, we defined what lust is and what lust is not (see this if you don’t know what I’m talking about), so now let’s talk about how the word has been redefined and dumbed down. Large swaths of Christianity presently equate the recognition of beauty in our gender differences as wrongful lust.  And because of this lowering of the bar, new concepts have been added in to compensate for the change of definition.

Sight itself has become the bogeyman.

Everywhere we look (no pun intended), it seems there are things and people to see (and I guess that means danger!).  When we pop our heads up, we hear this refrain of warning: Men are visually stimulated.  Heads down, men. Look away!

Stimulating, isn’t it? —  Photo Credit: Ibrahim Iujaz (CC)

It’s the subject of radio programs and talk shows: Men are visually stimulated. Volumes have been written around the postulate that men are visually stimulated. I wonder how many millions and millions of dollars are changing hands based on this mantra that men are visually stimulated?

Perhaps we should follow the money.  Pornographers and anti-pornographers all benefit financially by continuing to chant this mantra, but never utter this secret truth: women are visually stimulated, too.  Simple biology tells us that human beings have senses. One of those is sight.  Placing visual stimulation in our targets as the problem only creates a missed opportunity for success and creates a vicious, vicious cycle of shame.  Relationships suffer and real problems go unsolved.

The combination of the visual stimulation mantra and the watered down definition of lust have been well crafted into a deadly recipe.  The visual stimulation lie wrongly makes women responsible for the conduct of male human beings and takes volitional control completely out of the picture.  Men have a responsibility to control their thoughts and their actions.  Our self-control problems are not the responsibility of the the fairer sex.

This idea that men are mere predatory animals bound to their wild inhibitions and bursting at the seams with wrongful desire is childish and foolish.   And I propose that pointing to visual stimulation is the wrong place to conclude a discussion about lust.  Stimulation is a bogeyman because stimuli will always exist.   We have applied the wrong labels to the way our bodies react.  Stimulation is not sin.

The real test of a man (or a woman) is how s/he learns to respond to that stimulus.

People have tried for ages to remove sin by removing the potential for temptation. In this case, the common strategy is to consider that if men are visually stimulated, the stimuli must be removed.  Except, stimulus is not the cause of wrongful lust, is it?  Stimulation is only a sensation, placed by God in our very real, very flesh-and-blood bodies. This strategy will fail.

We’re alive. We feel. We see. We smell and taste. We sense. We respond because we’re alive.

Let’s make this real.

The Sky is On Fire! [Jason Stern]

Close your eyes and step outside into the breeze. [It’s ok, you can come right back.] Feel that tickle as the air move across the delicate hairs on your skin? It’s stimulating. Walk into the kitchen when someone you love is baking bread. Take in a deep whiff. Smell that? It’s stimulating. Feel the seat beneath you. Press your foot into the floor. Your sense of touch is being stimulated.

Oh, look, a person! Any person. Maybe it’s a woman. Maybe it’s a man. What are they wearing? What color are their eyes? Are they tall, short, brown, pale, thin, sturdy? Observe their facial expression and posture.

This is the Imago Dei. The Image of God. It really doesn’t matter what they look like, what they wear or what they’re doing–your vision is being stimulated by the greatest of God’s Creation:  a human being.

Don’t turn away.  God wants us to see–and be seen–by each other.

This is why Jesus, rather than condemning our bodies, constantly brings us back to the heart.*  But that is not all He did. He gave us the KEY to overcome wrongful lusting and coveting!

The pastor I spoke of at the beginning of my last post was healed by this key: He learned to see the truth.  Jesus renewed his mind–changed the way he thinks–in regard to the goodness of the body and set him free from the lies that had led him to seek out false intimacy as pain management.  He is still free of pornography today, and that addiction did not shift to something else.

As we continue in this series, here are some points to ponder:

1. God made our bodies, both male and female. They are good. Gen 2:25
2. Modesty is an attitude, not a dress code.
3. Lust comes forth from the heart and is the responsibility of the luster.
4. To the pure, all things are pure. Titus 1:15
5. A weaker brother does not have strong opinions; that’s how we know he’s weak.
6. We are to grow the weak to maturity, not leave them to stagnation.
7. Uncomfortable truth may not feel good at first, but eventually we feel its freedom.
8. Truth does not equal American Culture or even Christian traditions.
9. Cultures change, yet Truth remains.  And it sets us free.

As I have learned to come to my senses on what lust actually means–that it is a heart-directed, neutral term–it has freed my mind to focus on people as whole individuals, rather than divide them, body and soul.

Freedom to walk in the spirit enables us to follow Christ wherever He leads.

Have you embraced this truth? Do you see people as whole, or does that idea cause fear? If so, what stops you from really seeing others, body and soul?

*Yes, I realize Jesus once said tear out your eye and cut off your hand. That was metaphor, friends. metaphor. Remember, we’re going beyond the felt board. 🙂

Clear the Stage

Mile after mile. It is a long drive from Louisiana to Washington, DC.  Back in 2006, I was on that trip, riding a charter bus as a leader/chaperone with 50 college students.  We were hosting a Leadership Academy and visiting the nation’s capital, Philadelphia and New York City.  In the evenings, as we were relaxing and stretching our legs after the long day’s monotony, discussions of theology and philosophy would often ensue with many of the bright, hungry-for-knowledge students.

I remember a long talk we had about how the experience of “church” for first century Christians was so radically different compared to today. Followers of Christ back then did not even call themselves Christians. They were “followers of the Way.” They met house to house and shared meals, family and life. Their Christianity was as natural as life for them.

Though we had been up to our eyebrows in leadership and activities as part of our own local church, I felt that genuine “living lifeblood” of community was lacking in my own life.  It isn’t that we didn’t try. We “went to church” every time the doors were open, singing songs, listening to teachings, having a little small talk once it was over.  And we had done our duty.  We had fallen into the trap of compartmentalized Christianity. In other words, 20th/21st century church.  I find this hollow.

I shared with the students how I longed for real, honest, transparent community with local believers and told them of my sadness that it seemed so far out of reach.  While they sympathized, simple choices are often very difficult to make.  The choice to share yourself means vulnerability–and that means potential pain.

In my experience, most people are pain-averse and uncomfortable being vulnerable.  They often have painful pasts and may have unknown secrets that they fear will cause more pain.  And even though we all cognitively know that Jesus actually offers freedom from pain, many people do not know even how to begin to let go of it and trust Him.  It’s safer to put on a happy face and robotically go through life without sticking your head up out of the trenches. Might get shot off or something.

Despite all that, I decided that I wanted to be a person who offered transparency, community and reality.

While riding down the highway the next day, one of the young ladies walked up and told me she wanted me to listen to a song she’d found somewhere. She didn’t know who wrote it or sang it, but thought I should hear it. She said it reminded her of what we’d discussed the night previous. Handing me her ipod, she disappeared back to her seat.

I plugged in, pressed play and heard a clarion call to get away from the layers of traditions piled upon the simple gospel of Jesus.

I knew God was saying something to me.  It was literally a turning point in my life.  I listened to this song over and over and let its words sink in.

Clear the stage and set the sound and lights ablaze
If that’s the measure that it takes to crush the idols.
Chuck the pews and all the decorations too
Until the congregation’s few, then have revival.
Tell your friends that this is where the party ends
until you’re broken for your sins you can’t be social.
Then seek the Lord and wait for what he has in store
and know that great is your reward and just be hopeful!

Take a break from all the plans that you made
And sit at home alone and wait for God to whisper.
Beg Him please to open up his mouth and speak
And pray for real upon your knees until they blister.
Shine the light on every corner of your life
Until the pride and lust and lies are in the open.
Then read the word and put to test the things you’ve heard
Until your heart and soul are stirred and rocked and broken.

Cause you can sing all you want to.
Yes you can sing all you want to
you can sing all you want to
And don’t get me wrong, worship is more than a song.

Anything I put before my God is an idol.
Anything I want with all my heart is an idol.
Anything I can’t stop thinking of is an idol.
Anything that I give all my love is an idol.
We must not worship something that’s not even worth it.
Clear the stage and make some space for the one who deserves it.

Cause I can sing all I want to.
Yes I can sing all I want to
I can sing all I want to
And still get it wrong, worship is more than a song.

King, Ross (Copyright 2002). Clear the Stage [Recorded by Ross King]. 
    All the Decorations Too... Catapult. (2002)

It was time to Clear the Stage. What was on my stage?  Well, here’s transparent for you. I decided to do a personal inventory.

For me the main thing that I saw was Pride. I was a know-it-all.  I had it all figured out and I was living my life as a legalist. I thought (and was taught) that the Bible was made for us to turn into rules. I had classifications for people and things. Rules of Dos and Do Nots.  Now, I wouldn’t have said it like that. Part of being a legalist (which is basically the same thing as a Pharisee) was looking good on the outside and feeling the duty to convince you I was right.

So, the Lord showed me that this idol had to go. I had to allow Him to soften my heart and let go of pride.  The last thing I really wanted was for ANYTHING to get in the way of Jesus being center stage of my heart. And He knew that. And He loved me enough to bring a random song into my life when I needed to hear it.

Clearing the Stage is not easy.  It has changed my life and my outlook. I can honestly say that I have now experienced the freedom of Christ.  Once that stage was cleared, I could more easily hear Jesus giving me direction and hope for the adventures He planned to send us on.

Because worship is more than a song…

What Can We Do for Forty Dollars?

Herbie made it to McCall

The Sky is On FIre!

Time to head home…

Octopus (Andrea’s favorite sculpture)

Flower Garden Detail

Flower Garden (my favorite sculpture)

Frozen Lake Payette Fun

8 of 10 with a Giant Snow Cupcake

Winter Flare

Well, at the latest prices, $40 is about half a tank of gas for our 12-passenger van.  So we drove up to McCall, Idaho Saturday to have a little family adventure. It was the last day of the Snow Festival and we wanted to see the ice/snow carving competition.

I found myself counting to ten all day–no, I wasn’t angry. I was counting chickens children. 2, 4, 6, 8. 10.   2, 4, 6, 8. 10.  The last two were easy because I was carrying Miriam in a toddler backpack and Andrea had Iain in a baby sling. It was the other 8 that I had to keep my eyes on!

Actually, we spent more time on the road than in McCall, but it was a fun family outing. We really don’t get the whole family out often enough in public.

So, nothing really epic happened, but life with ten children sludging around in the snow looking at ice sculptures, breathing in the cold air, feeling the weight of a two year old on your back after missing a turn and hiking a mile and a half up a hill out of the way to get back to the van–this, too is adventure.

Seeing God’s handiwork in the living sculptures He has created and then seeing how creative people can be–with snow!–reminded us of how creative He really is.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1 ESV)