John H Armstrong

Is Rick Warren a Liar?

A few days ago someone posted on my Facebook page information warning people of my evil for sharing in the sins of Roman Catholics. There was only one thing I could do, besides pray for them. I de-friended them immediately! If there was ever a social-network term that was misused it is the word “friend" given how some use Facebook to address their “friends.”

Check out how many Christians, including some pastors among them, respond to Rick Warren. The comments on this site are enough to warrant an R label for many of these people.

I never cease to be amazed at how Christians treat one another. A nephew, who attends Saddleback Church where Rick Warren is the pastor, recently sought to encourage me with regard to the lies and attacks that are routinely used against me on the Internet. He knows these hurt even though I seek to ignore them as much as possible. Perhaps the darkest and cruelest of all blows is to be called a liar. On the whole I’ve made progress about how to respond to such criticism over the course of time, especially by addressing my own ego through intentional mortification of my pride. But no matter how you cut it the saying that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” is pure myth. Words hurt more than sticks and stones in some instances.

I could quote dozens of verses against this kind of “hate speech,” which is sometimes called tough love, or biblical apologetics. But it would do no real good to quote such verses. These types of people will just quote more verses back to me proving they are right. Have you ever noticed that this “war of Bible verses” never wins anything or anyone? I have never met a person who said to me, “I became a Christian because someone quoted the Bible to me against another Christian and this showed me how much Jesus loved me and what he did to save me.”

It was said of early Christians, “Behold how they loved one another.” Today we would have to say of so many Christians who write, teach and post on the Internet, “Behold how they oppose their brothers and sisters, condemning them to hell over their interpretation of some Bible verses.”

One of the reasons that the poorest and weakest believe the gospel is not important is because they have seen how we treat other Christians. I have not only heard this but I’ve seen its effect up close.

It gives me no real comfort to know people hate Rick Warren but it does remind me that those who do great deeds in Christ’s love will be hated, sometimes by the very people who one would think would love them. But then religious people have always been hard on people they disagree with. It actually goes along with religion of the sort that such people promote.

A Merry Digital Christmas

This is pretty clever. I sometimes have to smile at the creativity of people who make You Tube clips like this one. Enjoy and do, everyone who visits this blog now and then, have a Merry Christmas this day.

Cyber Church on Facebook

I guess I was not surprised by this but a recent article in the Reformed Church in America bulletin insert called “Today” told about a church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, that has begun a mid-week service for worship on Facebook. Yes, I am serious. You can check it out at www.facebook.com and then search for First Reformed Cyber Church and you will find it. I spent some time there to get a feel for what the church is really doing online.

Pastor Dianna Smith says “Worship at First Reformed Cyber Church is a very Reformed liturgical process.” She says this is just a new format that is being used to connect with younger people. Smith posts Scripture passages, music and videos, as well as litanies, all ahead of time. When the service begins she then guides those who take part from link to link. She will direct participants to read the Scripture text on their own and then, when they are finished, to respond with an “Amen” or by clicking “Like.” By this she knows when to proceed. Sermons are abbreviated and thus usually a sentence or two. (I am not making this up!)

Smith says the part of this that is most meaningful is “the joys and concerns” people share with each other. She adds, “They will post their joy and I will respond to it, and others respond to it.” People go back and forth encouraging and supporting one another. She adds, “The church is so excited about it, to see the young people that are a part of it, belonging to this way of worshiping.” She initially estimated 10-15 teens would participate but this has exceeded the teens of First Reformed and now draws 300 to 400 hits a week. She adds, “I’ve already had a family join the church that are members of Cyber Church only.” She employs many contemporary idioms and says this is really about “powerful worship.”

I have so many questions that I am not even sure where to begin. The first might surprise you but it is the whole issue of technology and ideology, something I have written about over on my ACT 3 Weekly articles; cf. www.act3online.com. While I obviously believe we can use technology in a number of very good ways I have serious doubts about building a worship community in cyberspace. And people actually join Cyber Church? In the flesh and blood world of the New Testament this gets as close to gnosticism as we can go while still having the words of orthodoxy in their form. Has the medium, in this case, become the message? It sure seems so to me.

I also wonder how the church does communion and baptism? Do you serve wine and bread to yourself and do you baptize yourself? I am not hung up on the clergy question here at all. I believe in the real priesthood of all believers! I am hung up on the question of physicality. I just do not know how you do church without real people in bodily form gathered together in some actual place. I understand that we can share and pray and serve one another by using Facebook. But can we do all that church is meant to be online?

What questions do you have? I am serious in asking this so I hope some will respond. If you want to defend this new type of church then please tell why. If you see problems tell why. Is this likely to “catch on” in other places? Will we see more of this happen in coming years? Is this a good thing? Why or why not?

The Social Network

The critics insist, rightly so I think, that one of the true blockbuster films of 2010 is “The Social Network.” The film, directed by David Fincher, opened in October in the U.S. to strong reviews and fairly large box-office success. It traces the beginning and development of Facebook into the cultural phenomenon that it is today.

Facebook began at Harvard in a university dorm room where student Mark Zuckerberg, and a few friends, imagined and created a new means of communication between students. The rest is the story as they shared their network and began to market it beyond the university environment in which it was created. Mark Zuckerberg is played by the brilliant young actor, Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg apparently gets very close to the real person in his portrayal of Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg is ambiguous, if not simply unlikable in the extreme. He destroys everyone who might be called his friend and consistently finds ways to ruin every human relationship he had or might have. Ironically, the guy who created the most used tool in the world for personal relationships is not personal or relational.

The film portrays Zuckerberg as an emotionally uptight genius with an avaricious appetite to control things and make a fortune from his work. In building his fortune he cut out his closest friend in the process and then paid off two other students who charged him with ripping off their part of the plan.

Jesse Eisenberg tried to learn how to understand the social network, to prepare for playing this role, but found it daunting and gave up. He decided instead to major on the emotional life of his character, a wise choice. His role is well-played, to say the least. Says Alessandra Rizzo, of Associated Press, “The actor was fascinated by what he said were Zuckerberg’s conflicting feelings---‘alienation, ambition, great social insight and yet kind of a complete detachment from other people.’”

If I didn’t know better I wonder out loud if Zuckerberg has some form of mild autism or Asperger’s Syndrome. He seems to be unable to judge the emotions and feelings of others in a social context, whether males or females. This is both the charm of the film and the sadness at the same time.

“The Social Network” is an important film if for no other reason than this---it introduces the viewer to the evolution of the most popular social network on the Web. I personally use Facebook though I am still trying decide how important it really is to me as a person who has both friends and acquaintances around the world. Does it really help me to build relationships? I think the answer is mixed. I can tell some great positive stories about Facebook. I can also tell some fairly depressing ones. Time will tell so far as I’m concerned. Meanwhile see the film if you want to know how all of this came about.

Cell Phones and the Brave New World of Hyper-Information

Make no mistake about this, the world is moving from an Industrial Age to an Information Age. The ramifications of this are still to be seen over the course of the decades ahead of us. Many think this is the worst thing that has ever happened. Education will be unduly ruined they tell us. (It will surely be changed and how people learn will be radically altered I believe.) “The sky is falling” is pretty close to their approach. Others think this will be a new golden age. Everything from cell phones to social networking will bring us all much closer to each other and to real community. I am of neither opinion. Just as in other great shifts in culture and life these will bring about much good. There will be some new possibilities for improving life and we can already see a few taking shape around us each day. But there will also be some distinct problems that will further erode the human condition socially.

I was reminded of this by a recent Common Sense Media survey done for the Pew Research Center on the use of cell phones.

The majority of high schools in the U.S. ban cell phone use during school hours. Yet problems, some of them serious, remain. Consider the following data:

70% of high school students carry a cell phone.

65% of high school students use their phone in school.

69% of high schools ban the possession or use of phones during school hours.

63% of students who attend schools that ban cell phones use their phones anyway.

440 text message, on average, are sent each week by high school students. 25% of these are sent during class time.

2/3 of all students say their classmates use their cell phones to cheat.

1/3 of all students admit to using cell phones to cheat.

The problems here are obvious. The issue is not first about cell phones but about self-control. We would not win any prizes for self-control in most contexts. Technology is useful. But technology without self-control is misplaced and becomes at best a major distraction.

At the other end of the spectrum some schools have argued that iPhones and BlackBerrys (which are essentially mini-computers) could be used with great value in the school setting. Perhaps the answer will be to provide a computer to each student and at each desk someday.

I wonder about your schools? Your students? Your thoughts? Is this a real problem and if so how do we positively address it? The technology is not going away so we had better come up with some thoughtful policies that are not simply massive over-reactions.

Slander: One of the Most Devastating Sins in the Church

While Christians currently debate a host of ethical issues that are very important to the life and well-being of the church I fear that too few of us are willing to actually address a sin that destroys the work of the Spirit as fast, if not faster, than almost any other sin. I refer to the sin of slander.

Slander, as I wrote two days ago, is false and malicious talk about others. Gossip may selectively use information, even truth, to just chatter and talk too much. This is bad enough, as we saw yesterday. But slander is much worse. It plunges straight ahead knowing full-well that the facts have been carelessly used or altered to suit the opinions and views of those committing the sin. Slander is listed in Mark 7:21-23 as one of those sins that comes from deep inside the human heart. It comes out of the “heart” and is “vile.” There are thirteen things listed in Mark 7 that defile a person from within. Along with sexual immorality, murder and theft, which many of us talk a great deal about, there is slander. The Law actually refers to “slanderous gossip” in the personal holiness code, showing that these two are very close. In fact, they are so close that it is hard to separate them at times. The gossip is very likely going to engage in slander even if they think they are not doing it.

In reading the Scripture about this a few days ago I discovered again that insults, false witness, lies and slander are all closely related in the biblical worldview. There are a number of ways to deal with this sin but one of the most important is to never listen to slander. “Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander” (Prov. 17:4, NLT). The basic answer to this problem is to recognize that the problem exists, then to devote yourself to getting a biblical view of how destructive this sin really is and to simply stop it!

I mentioned two days ago my own attempts to deal with this sin. I do not think I have ever been a vicious or malicious gossip. I do not think I have engaged, knowingly at least, in a great deal of slander over the course of my sixty-one years. But when I began to take honest inventory of my life, especially in the late 1990s when I came to see clearly that I was a sectarian in my attitude toward Christians that I disagreed with, I knew that I had to act. I began to pray that God would reveal to me times and places where I had committed this sin. As I prayed several instances of using public Christian leaders as “examples” for a point that I wanted to make came to mind. I would accurately quote this person, maybe from a sermon or a book, and then launch into my critique. I justified this by telling myself that I was seeking to lead people to the truth and exposing the errors of this person (I wondered if they were really real Christians on a few occasions) in order to protect people. I could marshal verses to support my case, especially from the pastoral letters. I paid little attention to context and felt good about my courage and conviction.

One time I was sitting at a baseball game, in another city, and talking to a well-known pastor. He mentioned a man I had routinely criticized in this manner. I asked him if he knew the man and what he could tell me about him? His answer disarmed me. The next week the same thing happened again in a totally unrelated context. Then I intentionally asked a brother who I knew, and who is quite a bit older than me, if he knew this same man. He warmly affirmed the character and ministry of this well-known leader. I was so deeply aware that I had used this man to frame my own public position in the past that I needed to write to him and ask his forgiveness. Thankfully he wrote me a precious letter, which I have kept to remind me of this whole episode. I did the same with several other men only to have some never answer me. Later they would again use me in a critical way in a book or spoken context. This whole experience showed me how much my pride and self-image were connected to the need to attack other people with whom I differed. The Spirit took me deeper into the love of Christ and showed me that I was to never engage in this kind of slander (or gossip) again. I may fail again but if I do I hope I will as quickly repent.

My other experience with this issue has come in the opposite direction. I have been slandered, with my views being considerably misrepresented, and frequently gossiped about. Let me make this as clear as I can. It is right to review what I write and to critically disagree with it in any appropriate way. No human teacher is above disagreement or challenge. I read reviews of my current book, Your Church Is Too Small, regularly. Most reviews are amazingly favorable but some are critical. (Some are written by people who clearly have not even read the book. This is about as bad as it gets I think.) I believe all of these reviews serve a good purpose. This is to be expected if you write theology. But there is a right way to do this and most of us know what that is; e.g, the way of love. Love involves more than civility and gracious tone but surely it can never allow for less.

I also believe that it is not the way of love to write or talk about a friend in public so as to cast a decidedly negative light on that person until you have first approached your friend in private. Even then you are not free to talk about that person in any way that you please. Clearly, you should never talk about them in a way that includes gossip and slander. I have experienced the effect of these particular sins on my life many, many times. Some friends have publicly spoken about me and my failures (even heresies they will suggest) and done so without ever engaging me in private. In some cases I have asked to meet with these individuals and they have refused. I have also offered evidence that I affirm a solidly orthodox statement of faith only to have these same individuals still question my doctrine in ways that slander me. (As an example, they will say I say one thing but clearly mean something else. I ask you, “How can you defend yourself when this approach is employed?”)

Disagree with me about any of my views. Please do. We can do this and still genuinely love one another. If you think I am wrong about something you have every reason to say so and to respond in the right venue if it is needed. If you are my friend then please help me. If you are my enemy then you should still love me even if you think I am wrong. But you should never slander me or gossip about me. There is never any place for this in the kingdom of God.

I have a number of deep and abiding friendships with Christians that I really do disagree with. I share friendship with many non-Christians and value these friendships very deeply. But those who have done me the greatest harm have been Christians. These Christians believe it is God’s will to tell everyone what my sins are and where they believe I have departed from the true faith even though they continually refuse to talk to me personally. This tells me “something is rotten in Denmark,” to quote one of Shakespeare’s best known lines from Hamlet.

Every Idle Word

I confess that the words of our Lord in Matthew 12:36-37 have long sent chills down my spine. Most of you have read them: “And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you” (NLT).

I think it is imperative that we get the sense of this text right. The traditional translation of the word “idle” should be challenged. The impression is that all random remarks will be judged and (this is what sends chills down our spine) if we are guilty there is no hope for us. If this were correct  then no one would be justified on the last day. A truer explanation is that the phrase here means “every deedless word.” Matthew 7:22-23 has already told us that we will give an account for all our deeds. Thus it seems to me Jesus is saying that on the last day people will give an account for their lives and this includes their words that resulted in deeds, or the lack of Christ-like deeds. The first “you” in this text really means every single person since it is plural. The word “every” suggests that the whole of one’s life is examined.

Having said this what hope is there for any of us? Matthew 3:6, with 3:2, indicates that a word of repentance, as in real confession, produces good deeds (i.e. “fruit in keeping with repentance,” in Matt. 3:8). That’s the basis for justification on the last day, confession of sin and trust in Jesus Christ revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees, in this context, had “convicted” Jesus’ innocent disciples (Matt. 12:7), thus they are condemned for their speaking against the Holy Spirit. The sin against the Holy Spirit is to not flee to Christ in confession for justification through his grace alone.

Having said this it is abundantly clear that the Bible speaks a great deal about the sin of speaking inappropriately. Such speech is not innocent or innocuous. The two major sins involved in speaking, besides just talking too much and creating an abundant context for sin, are gossip and slander. This is what I noted yesterday in regard to the Ergun Caner conflict at Liberty University.

Gossip, I noted, is idle talk. It is careless speech. It may be malicious and it may even be true. The gossip spreads rumors but sometime the gossip spreads facts to the wrong people, in the wrong context and in the wrong spirit. Webster’s New World Dictionary says a gossip is “a person who chatters or repeats idle talk and rumors, especially about the private affairs of others.”

Nehemiah 6:5-8 indicates that gossip (false rumors in this instance) was used to intimate Nehemiah in his leadership. One of the most powerful descriptions of gossip in all the Bible is in Psalm 41:5-6:

But my enemies say nothing but evil about me. “How soon will be die and be forgotten?” they ask. They visit me as if they were my friends, but all the while they gather gossip, and when they leave, they’ll spread it everywhere. All who hate me whisper about me, imaging the worst. “He has some fatal disease,” they say. “He will never get out of that bed!” (NLT).

We read in John 7 that the crowds grumbled about our Lord. John says, “Some argued ‘He’s a good man,’ but others said, ‘He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people.’ But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders” (John 7:12-13, NLT). And the little epistle of 3 John refers to man named Diotrephes, a church leader, who “made evil accusations” (verse 10) against the apostles.

Proverbs 18:28 says that gossip “separates the best of friends.” And a gossip is a person who “goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.” Proverbs 20:19 repeats this statement and then counsels “don’t hang around with chatterers” (NLT). Proverbs 26:20 sums this up rather well: “Fire goes out without wood, and quarrels disappear when gossip stops” (NLT). Stop the chattering gossip and the quarrel will most often end.

Make no mistake about the conclusion here: gossip is a sin. Paul speaks of confronting the church in Corinth and of addressing their numerous sins that will require him to deal with them on a future visit. Among the sins he lists are “quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior” (2 Cor. 12:20, NLT). Note how closely all of these are related to one another. They actually tend to fly together like a flock of Canadian geese heading south for the winter. Where you find jealousy, anger and arrogance you also find gossip, slander and selfishness, and vice versa.

In the particular case of Dr. Ergun Caner, which I referred to yesterday, it seems that a whole load of gossip was involved with some facts that were used to “make evil accusations.” The board of Liberty University, which no one would rightly suggest had any reason to cover up the facts if they found them worthy of letting him go, has retained Dr. Caner on the Liberty faculty. I think fair-minded and gracious Christians should leave it there. It is none of their business to engage in this dialog any further when proper channels of authority were followed and a process justly concluded that said the charges against Dr. Caner were not sufficient to warrant dismissal. My advice: Pay no heed to further discussion about this issue or you will likely be engaging in gossip yourself.

Slander, Gossip and the Internet

I was recently forwarded a statement written by Dr. Norman L. Geisler (photo left) in defense of Dr. Ergun Caner, the dean at Liberty University. Caner has been a major target of accusations about lying, and thus deceiving the public, for some months. The story of these accusations against Canter, and the school’s response to them, has been a feature of major news sources as well as fodder for massive Internet discussion.  What made reading this defense so interesting for me is the following:

1. I have no “horse” in this race. I do not know Ergun Caner or any of those who have attacked him regarding lies and deceptions about his Muslim past or his wider life experience in general. The link above will provide you with the entire list of accusations.

2. I am not a friend of either Ergun Caner or Norman Geisler. In fact, I have had friends and associations with other Christian leaders over the years who have routinely criticized Dr. Geisler's theology and approach to apologetics. I have met Dr. Geisler but doubt that he would recall the occasion. I was a very young pastor and he was the lecturer in a local church. He was on the faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School at the time. I have never heard, read or met Ergun Caner. I knew nothing about this debate until I read the news in Christianity Today. Furthermore, I know no one on the board at Liberty University.

3. I am more than willing to consider serious accusations against public figures and to act responsibly when accusations are proven as real moral failures and my personal responsibility makes a response necessary. I believe, in other words, that I have moral courage and will take a stand on clearly established facts.

4. In another public  controversy, regarding the doctrinal orthodoxy of the movement called The Local Church (Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, etc.), I have come to agree with those who believe that the Local Church is not heterodox and thus I do disagree with Dr. Geisler's open criticism of the Christian Research Institute's defense of this group. (This is a very developed, long-drawn-out controversy that would take some time for readers to understand but if you wish to see some this for yourself you can begin by reading here.)

Having said the above I think the reader can readily see I am not emotionally or personally invested in this conflict. I am, however, a Christian leader who understands the way slander, gossip and the Internet can work in tandem to create the perfect storm, a storm that virtually destroys a good person’s reputation and ministry. No, I have not been the subject of the blitz that Ergun Caner has undergone. Yes, I have experienced enough of this kind of slander and gossip to read Geisler’s defense with a great deal of appreciation and sympathy. Again, I urge you to read it to see how he argues and develops his case for defending Canter.

I have no idea what the relationship between Geisler and Caner is personally but I have to say that I respect Dr. Geisler for coming to the defense of a man besieged by such an avalanche of criticism. Whatever you think of Norman Geisler, and he has taken positions both theologically and practically that I disagree with, it says a lot of good things about him that he would defend Caner when he is down and under such a blistering attack. His arguments, explaining the various charges against Caner, are stated simply and answered cogently. I am sure, however, that Caner’s critics could (and will) refute Geisler’s statements with counter-statements. The facts here are clear: once this kind of debate begins it will never end. Caner’s future is damaged and many of his critics will not stop the gossip even if a court vindicated him completely.

After reading Geisler’s defense of Caner I went back to Scripture to study a few texts about gossip and slander. Gossip is a form of idle talk which foolishly or maliciously spreads rumors or (even) facts. The effect of gossip is division and brings destructive consequences to those who are spoken about. Some of the accusations against Caner involve things that he has admitted have elements of truth in them. He has even apologized for several statements about his own life story that were not entirely accurate. (Geisler puts these in a context that helps to show that these things can happen and are not necessarily real proof of the intent to lie!) But in the case of Ergun Caner there appears to be slander as well gossip. Slander is even more serious. It false and malicious talk. Slander harms those against whom it is uttered and it will eventually bring spiritual ruin to those who promote it.

Tomorrow I will explain more of what the Scripture has to say about gossip and slander and provide some personal reflection on how I have been guilty of these sins. More times than I care to remember I have been required by the Holy Spirit to repent of these sins. And these sins have, in turn, publicly harmed me as a servant of Christ.

I have found it compelling to ponder what Paul says about the depths of human sin in Romans 1. Romans 1:28 speaks of God abandoning sinful people to “their foolish thinking” and of how he “let them do things that should never be done.” Verse 29 concludes: “Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.” One of the sins that God gives people over to is “gossip.” It does seem quite clear that no amount of proof-texting about the necessity of exposing supposedly false teachers justifies the kind of response some Christians routinely promote, especially on the Internet. I do not think this is a minor problem. After writing on the Internet for nearly a decade now I think this problem only grows worse as more and more people use this medium to promote their opinions without faith, hope and love. The Internet has not created this problem. It has only allowed it to grow in terms of the freedom some people have to be empowered while they sit at a keyboard and write just about anything they want to write without any accountability for their words or actions.

The Power of Real Friendship in a Culture That Gives You Rentafriend

The writer of Proverbs says “A friend loves at all times” (Prov. 17:17). The Scripture says so much about friendship that it is staggering really. I am thinking through a future book on friendship to follow my current writing on the relational Trinity and how we live life in the Triune God. Clearly friendship is important to a healthy life, spiritually and emotionally.

The apocryphal book of Sirach adds this rather amazing wisdom:

Let those who are friendly with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not trust them hastily. For there are friends who are such when it suits them, and they will not stand by you in time of trouble. And there are friends who change into enemies, and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace. And there are friends who sit at your table, but they will not stand by you in time of trouble. When you are prosperous, they become your second self, and lord it over your servants; but if you are brought low, they turn against you, and hide themselves from you. Keep away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends. Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whosoever finds one has found a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; and those who fear the Lord will find them. Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright, for as they are, so are their neighbors also (Sirach 6:6–17).

If you are not in the habit of reading the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament I encourage you to read them now and then. There are, as most readers well know, debates among Christians about their inclusion in the canonical Scriptures but by never reading them many miss the wisdom and counsel of this precious ancient wisdom. The quote from Sirach alone demonstrates my point.

I thought about these various text recently when I discovered a new Website called Rentafriend.com. This site really does exist, as you can see, and it really does work. One employee of the site, named Jennifer Morrison, is a double, serving as a “platonic friend” to people in need. Rentafriend.com will provide “friends” who will show you around town, spend time listening to you and just be a human presence when you feel like you need one.

For those who think this is a cover for an escort service it is immediately apparent that this is not true. Jennifer Morrison earns anywhere from $20 to $30 an hour for her service. She is a mother of a two-year old who began work with her husband’s blessing. She admits that her first response was to think how sad it was that people need to “rent” a person to be there friend for a period of time.

Rentafriend.com receives 100,000 unique views every month and has nearly 2,000 members who pay $24.95 a month, or $69.95, a year for a login and password so they can peruse the photos and profiles of 167,000-plus possible pals. The dangers here seem obvious and several Web-based stories suggest scams.

Over the last few years the word friend has become a verb and often includes nothing more than a connection with someone via Facebook that you will never personally meet. Research indicates that loneliness can lead to depression, suicide and high blood pressure, to name only a few problems.

Does this work? Some say it helps get some people back into circulation and thus helps in the short run. Others are less sure.

This site is modeled after ones already in existence in Japan and other parts of Asia. Ori Brafman, co-author of the book, Click: The Magic of Instant Connections, said the concept “seems really tragic, kind of surreally tragic.” It clearly represents the tendency in our society to the worst kind of social isolation.

Question: If so many people are more and more alone, and lonely, in a busier and more distant world of communications what should the Christian response be? It seems obvious to me that “love your neighbor as yourself” provides all the incentive and perspective that we need to befriend the stranger and invest kingdom life into socially needy souls.

The Power of Social Media and the Internet Revolution

I listen to many people in my generation who remain skeptical about the impact of the media revolution that we are clearly in the middle of in 2009. There can be a certain smugness that comes from older people who believe that the young are always talking about things that are not going to happen or will not make a real difference in the end since this was not the way things were in our day. Well, my peers could not be more wrong in this particular instance. We are seeing a huge social revolution that is impacting everything from purchasing to learning. It has helped to elect a president and it is creating interest in the claims of Christ every single day. If you want to see just how much this revolution has already changed things, and get a good feel for what is coming very soon, watch this You Tube link. It is very impressive stuff.

There is no doubt in my mind that Christians will adjust to this revolution as they have adjusted to other such changes in the past. My real concern is how fast they will adjust. In the various changes that we underwent in the twentieth century Christians were always slow to respond. I am personally committed to not being behind this curve. This is why I use Twitter and Facebook every single day. These can be badly used, like anything else, but they can be used for great good. In fact I am using them a good bit more now than I did just two weeks ago. This is also why I have become more impressed with the power of blogging every single day.

It was pretty neat to host the first ACT 3 Luncheon of this season on Wednesday and to see Dan Jones meet Chris Crimminger in person. (Chris is a pastor who lives in southern Indiana and Dan is a student of mine who lives in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield.) Before Wednesday Dan and Chris knew each only via this blog site. Now they have met and become friends.

Look my friends. this media has great potential for real friendship if it is used well. The naysayers make a valid point now and then about abuses and the craziness of some of this stuff but overall they are the modern Luddites when it comes to the Internet and all that is associated with its vast potential. Watch this video and you will see what I mean.