The Online Firestorm Tearing Us Apart: THINK BEFORE YOU SHARE!

"No one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God."   --James 3:8a-9

In late May 2020, just a few days after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I faced into an impending Sunday worship service. I struggled with what I would say and what the gospel of Jesus Christ might have to say as well. This one precious life ended by police brutality. But as that Sabbath approached I just wasn’t yet sure about the right words to preach to the congregation I served.  I wasn’t ready to speak yet. I included the tragedy in my welcome and my prayers and the prayers of the people but not in the sermon.

Which angered one of my members so much, it eventually led, in part, to him leaving the church.  He accused me (at least it felt like) of pastoral cowardice. In the days and weeks to come I spoke about Floyd and racial injustice from the pulpit and wrote about it online. Our church renewed and went much deeper in our relationship with an African American Church in Boston, one we’ve partnered with for more than thirty years.

And I’m still sure I made the right choice in 2020 to not speak until I was confident that what I had to say was relevant, thoughtful, constructive, and Godly. I’m remembering that time now as I witness the social media, political and national firestorm that’s exploded in response to the assassination of conservative icon Charles Kirk last Thursday.  Before his tragic death had even been officially confirmed, literally mere minutes after those shots rang out, the opinionizing began in earnest. And yes, much of it was and still is stupid, harsh, violent, vengeful, righteous, thoughtless, and self-promoting. 

Millions of public figures, online influencers, Facebook posters, X tweeters, so many people all rushed in to declare, “Well, this is what I think! Listen up!” Thank God there was and is a minority of folk who responded well: with compassion, sincere grief, thoughtfulness, calls for peace, but sadly these are few and far between.

I have been in the opinion sharing business for a long time, 35 years as a preacher in church, 25 years as a weekly newspaper columnist, and a blogger since 2007. I trained for and get paid to think and pray about big issues, big ideas and God, and then to share my opinion publicly about these things. It is a privilege and a joy, but it also carries a deep responsibility.    

When you have a public pulpit, secular, religious or political, from which to express your opinions, I believe you must always strive to be wise and care-filled in the words you speak, the declarations you make, the tone you take, and the response you hope to evoke in your readers and listeners.  You can do this and still be clear, courageous, and honest in sharing your convictions with others. 

But too often folks, especially online, share opinions impetuously, or with intentional vitriol, or all to rile up and insult, even to strut. These firebrands make matters worse by what they say and write. And what I have seen in many public statements, posts and speeches since last Thursday, is recklessness from all parts of the political, media and social universe. No one is innocent.  

The tongue (and the pen) is two edged in its effect.

It can build up, comfort, inspire, heal, and bring people together. It can destroy, threaten, hurt, and divide people.  So…my plea is this. Please think, THINK, before you speak or write or post or tweet or text or opine. And for those who lead and influence us? Commit more to contributing to the common good in our civil discourse and less to how many likes and views (and yes money and power) that you covet, in offering your opinion.      

Or, maybe even, say nothing. Write nothing. Not one word.

Yup—that’s an option too.

(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of the people and church I serve nor the United Church of Christ.)

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.

 

 

  

The Online Outrage Machine and Joy of Self-Righteousness

Schadenfreude (noun, from the German) 1. enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others --Merriam Webster’s Dictionary 

At professional baseball games there is an unspoken tradition concerning fans catching foul balls, baseballs hit out of play by the batter at home plate. According to Major League Baseball, 54 balls a game go foul on average, many of those into the stands where a lucky ticket holder just might snag the best of souvenirs. 

The tradition?

“Give the ball to the kid!” In other words, if you are a teen, young adult or adult and catch a foul, the kind thing to do is not to claim it for yourself but instead to hand it over to the nearest kid and/or youngest kid in the seats around you. It is the classy thing to do and worth the price of admission to see a little girl or boy’s eyes light up when they get a baseball! 

Or not.

Because there are also times when an adult, for whatever reason, won’t hand over the ball, and keeps it all to themselves. That’s when the chant “GIVE THE KID THE BALL!” breaks out around that less than magnanimous baseball snatcher. And if they refuse to give it up? Here come the boos.

Which brings me to a story about a scene that played out last Friday at a game in Miami where the Marlins were hosting the Philadelphia Phillies.  Phillie slugger Harrison Bader hit a home run to left field and one intrepid dad jumped into the scrum of folks scrambling to grab the ball and came up with it, then handed it to his young son, who beamed with joy.

But then….

A visibly irate Phillies fan marched over to Dad and insisted that she was entitled to the ball, as it had landed right next to her seat.  She was so vociferous in her visible anger that the father finally just handed the ball over to her.  Marlins employees saw what happened and delivered a baseball gift bag to the little boy and after the game, Harrison Bader gave him an autographed bat.  Alls well that ends well? If only…for a social media uprise began almost immediately and it’s gotten pretty nasty, as video of the altercation has gone viral.

Google “Phillies fan steals ball” and there are more than 8,000,000 results. Multiple videos are on YouTube, one with 221,000 views and counting.  The identity of the woman has not been revealed but that has not stopped internet stalkers from feverishly looking for her, and in at least two cases, misidentifying the person, causing two women to be bombarded with vitriol, contempt, and self-righteous anger.  As of today, September 9^th, the story still has legs. 

Online, folks can’t stop talking, opining, raging, ranting and complaining about it, and often clearly intimating they’d never ever do anything like that! When I was a kid me and the neighborhood boys played a stupid and sometimes injury filled game called “pig pile!” where we’d capture one of our gang, hold them down on the ground then everyone would pile on top.  Yup: that’s as dumb as it sounds and is a good metaphor for what happens so often now in social media land. 

On Tik Tok and Facebook Reels and Twitter and everywhere in cyberspace: there is so much energy unbridled often anonymous, often holier than thou, protest. And all over a dumb or thoughtless social faux pas or mistake that any of us could make on our bad days, when we use faulty judgment or let our emotions get the best of us.

Like that woman who stole the ball.

I guarantee you there are death threats roiling online towards her. That’s the norm in 2025.  One of the greatest of human sins is taking pleasure, even joy, in the suffering of others. We get to say “GOTCHA!” Point a finger of judgment. Take a moral inventory on another child of God while forgetting that we also do dumb, unthinking stuff too. 

I also think this cyber cruelty is born of the callous and mean ways we now go at one another in public. Like it’s okay to cross boundaries of simple human decency. And yes, we are led in example by our current President, who daily revels in bullying, insulting, threatening, attacking, and condemning anyone who dares to get in his way.

In my faith tradition, Jesus offers a merciful alternative to the human sin of self-righteousness.  “…first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5) Wise advice to consider before we are tempted to trash someone for sins that we just might be guilty of too.

I’d like to think I would have been glad to let that kid keep the ball, but who knows?  As humans we all have within us the best and the worst of intentions and impulses. 

When it comes to the online outrage machine, “FOUL!” is certainly an apt description.

(The views expressed in this essay do not necessarily reflect the views of the people and church I serve nor the United Church of Christ.)

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.