Such Should Not Be

A long-time Facebook friend and fellow church-member unfriended me yesterday.  I’m not exactly sure what the issue is, but suspect that it has to do with the fact that I called him out on a post he made that was political/societal in nature.  I happened to not agree with the tone of the post, as to me it seemed as if it was advocating an attitude that in my mind is unbecoming of a Christian.

He is more to the right than I am.  I consider myself more middle-of-the-road and in fact am an Independent.  That had little to do with the post, however.  The post called out those rich who would sleep well at night even though they know that they are accumulating wealth on the backs and with the lives of many in developing nations.

My comments had to do with the fact that we all are rich in this nation and we all are guilty of doing much the same, while sleeping very well at night.  We purchase and possess diamonds and gold that could well have been mined in Africa by laborers making pennies a day in work conditions that would shorten the lives of anyone who labored there.  We buy sneakers, underwear, and other apparel that may well have been assembled by people in sweatshop conditions earning a dollar or less a day.  We know it; we know where the stuff we buy is coming from.  Yet we do anyway and think nothing of it.

The post itself, in my mind, presented the author (and by extension those who posted it) in a “more righteous than they are,” attitude.  Such an attitude is, in my view antithetical to the Christian world view.  And I let him know that.  And I was unfriended as a result.

In this global economy, it would be very difficult to divorce oneself from all instances of worker abuse.  We can try as best we can to do so, but the fact is that we will not be able to eliminate it from our material lives.  That wasn’t my main point, however.  My point was the apparent “more righteous than they are” attitude.  Just the fact that it was posted betrayed, at least in my mind, that attitude on his part.

So, for one Christian to unfriend me based on that exchange…I can’t help that.  I wish him well and trust he will continue in his walk with God through his life and I will see him again.  I have to wonder, though, just how many of these kinds of relationships have been damaged by a Facebook post or a Twitter comment.  How many people have severed ties with someone else based on an ideological disagreement or a political difference of opinion.

Such should not be.

Christians are not all Caucasian, heterosexual, western culture Republicans.  Christians come in all colors, flavors, and ideologies.  People from “every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,” are even now gathering at the throne of God to praise and worship their Creator and Redeemer.  We’d better be ready to be surprised at who gathers ‘round with us when that great day comes.