there are some pastors I know who update their facebook status DAILY with complaints about how busy they are in their ministry… how much they need to be reminded of God’s goodness.. lots of really right-winged political statements…

and it just disgusts me. I struggle so much with not judging them.. but my gosh.

I posted on my fb status recently about how if we were to look at our status updates as testimonies of our faith, what would they say about us? my friend kyle said that Facebook is too new to use it as a ministry tool, and that response blew me away. isn’t it an extension of us? doesn’t it affect what people think of us or how they perceive us?

perhaps I’m just overly sensitive to this idea and refuse to update things when I am angry/unhappy/woeisme.. but I wish more people updated less and prayed more. probably a lot less offensive stuff and more beneficial stuff going on if that were the case.

that was a rant, and a bit irrelevant.

It was quickly brought to my attention the next day that it was a lame tweet, and it twas!

Often we plead for grace on so many levels, and then when someone like Piper goes a little extreme, we scream heresy and light our torches. Where is the balance? That’s my question.

Interesting thing: Piper’s reference actually does seem to make sense after looking at the verse in context (Ezekiel being shown a vision of Israel’s leaders worshipping their false gods in the temple, beleiving that God can’t see what they’re doing). Just throwing that out there for whatever it’s worth.

Again, great post.

I do believe people are being very, very hard on him. I’ve been addicted to porn and know about the horrible consequences but is bashing him the best way to go about this? I really don’t think so and I don’t see Jesus in all the bashing against Piper. I know some people try to be satyrical about it but there’s a thin line between being a comedian and kicking someone in the face, even more as Christians.

Whatever Piper’s reasons were to post something like that, I believe he needs to be more careful and emphatic on what he says, you never know when you will be the one being destroyed by porn.

Tyler, thank you for approaching this the way you did, you showed maturity.

PS: Is it too harsh to put a blowtorch on your face? Try cutting your hand or gouging an eye out.

In the depths of my addiction I knew it was bad for me but I kept going back…because I never let it hit home to be how bad it REALLY was for me. An addict may say they know it’s bad but they also find ways to temper down that “bad for me” angle. Sometimes you just have to look at sin and call it out for what it is.

Sorry to vent here but I’ve been having to sit by frustrated watching people attack John Piper for something that’s completely true & your post was just the last straw on the stack. “Understanding the nature of addiction” is really irrelevant from the fact porn to an addict is as harmful as a blowtorch to the face.

As for social media turning against you…I’ll probably find out about that after I submit this comment.

so yes…ish. cause i am a lot happier now.

It is crazy when something that was created for good turns bad…oh wait that is us right? We are sinful people that often distort things, say stupid stuff, and then proclaim Christ name and yet we continue to fail and fall.

It has been a crazy two weeks with everything going on.
I even wrote this post: http://thoughtsaboutnothing.com/what-a-crazy-day-on-the-blogosphere/
and it as well got a lot of traffic and comments.

I think we like controversy and arguments. That is why people continue to come back to blogs and read conversations and continue to weigh in. Often times I just want to say, “lets stop beating a dead horse.” But you are right Tyler, there is so much that i say that I never even knew was offensive or that others say that I do not take offensive but someone else does.

On the Piper stuff…I am glad MPT said something, it did go a bit far, but I read his stuff with a grain of salt and usually just overlook it all, but after reading again it was way to much.
I really believe that Piper did not write that. I cannot imagine him tweeting on his own, and so my hope is that something got lost in translation. It just does not seem like something he would say.

I do hope that some follow up comes from all of this.