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i can’t prove this, but when it comes to social media, i’m probably one of the better connected 57-year old guys that you will find. i live by email. i barely use 300 minutes per month on my phone plan, but send hundreds of texts each week. i rely heavily on facebook for staying up with people. i think twitter is amazing. and i blog 4-5 times per week.
most of my friends who are in their 40’s and 50’s don’t understand my love of social media. i wish they would see the bigger picture. old dogs. sheesh.
but for all the good that can and does come from these mediums, bad stuff can happen. especially on twitter.
backstory: i’m not a deion sanders hater. i’ve liked the guy for a long time. i believe his faith in god and commitment to christ is genuine. i struggle with the cultural box where he lives out his faith, but if my years working side by side with people from other cultures groups has taught me anything, it has showed me that christians don’t all see obedience to the bible the way that i do. and they can still be christians.
i’ve seen the mansion where he lives in a community north of dallas. i know of the bentley he drives and the jewelry he wears. i’ve seen the reality show he did with his wife. i’ve also listened to the sincerity of his message. i’ve read of his compassionate concern for kids on the edge. i willingly give him the benefit of the doubt when he is criticized.
but not this time. yesterday he wrote about the domestic violence going on in his house. live. as it happened. on twitter. he wrote about his wife attacking him in front of his kids. and he tweeted pictures of his kids in the middle of the chaos…along with his commentary.
unbelievable. unbelievably. stupid.
he deleted those tweets soon after he came to his senses and recognized what he was doing to his children. but the damage was done.
deion has nearly 400k followers on twitter…including me. many of them saw it. they retweeted it. the story was posted on blogs and websites almost immediately. and his foolishness has given a watching world another reason to ridicule the church and grow cold and cynical to the truth.
look, i’m not criticizing his behavior. we all make mistakes. we all do things that bring dishonor to the kingdom and confusion to people who are honestly looking for hope. nobody is perfect. we are all hypocrites and sometimes we are really poor examples of what it means to be christian.
i just wish those who claim to be followers of christ who have celebrity status or are in highly recognizable positions would just stop doing and saying stupid things in the media.
is that too much to ask?
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