One of the cutest things that children do is when they put their hands over their eyes and say, “You can’t see me!” What’s normally quite innocent and beautiful in a child can often be very unbecoming in a teen or adult. This is precisely the case when people say or do things in cyberspace that they would never say or do in person. When I use the term cyberspace, I refer to electronic services such as Facebook, MySpace, email, texting, Twitter, and instant messaging. People seem to function in cyberspace as if it’s a place where Christ has been forsaken or excluded. King David knew the folly of Christ’s limited access when he wrote,
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand will lay hold of me. (Psalm 139:7-10)
As an engineer and all-around techie, I’ve been invested in cyberspace for years and I find what people say about themselves, and about one another, to be very disturbing. People are often willing to say things electronically that they would never have the courage to say to someone’s face. People post things about themselves and others that reveal a huge discontinuity between who they claim to be in Christ and how they live away from the rest of the body.
There are numerous accounts of cyber-bullying where teens gang-up on a classmate by posting threatening messages and spreading lies. Recently, a girl committed suicide because of the harassment she received online. Then there’s “sexting” where a girl texts a sexually explicit photo of herself to a boyfriend, only to find that he sent the picture to all of his friends and ultimately to the entire graduating class. Many have unlimited texting on their cell phones and constantly send and receive text messages. You can be in a conversation with these folks and all of a sudden, without saying excuse me, they’ll stop talking to you and begin to text someone who has no bearing on your conversation. One of my favorites is when you’re watching a movie and someone opens their phone and all you see is their lit phone and hear their chattering fingers. Husbands and wives handle their most sensitive marital conversations and arguments via texting and web posts. Some even leave their spouse for what they believe to be a better spouse which they have only “met” online. Beyond all of this, there is the explosion of pornographic viewing amongst God’s people in cyberspace.
The central problem with cyberspace abuse is that it blurs traditionally personal boundaries under the cloak of privacy. You can click-on, say or post anything you want in a variety of forums without your circle of accountability knowing about it. The assumption is that if nobody’s watching over your shoulder, then it must be alright. For God’s people, the key to walking with Christ in cyberspace is to maintain traditional personal boundaries that you would normally keep in person and do everything as though it will be exposed to public scrutiny (Num 32:23; John 3:21).
For those of us who are caught up in this electronic foolishness, it’s time we pull our hands away from our eyes and recalibrate the way we walk with Christ in cyberspace. It’s time to recognize that there is no place that Christ does not reign supreme or expect His people to be distinctly Christian. Paul told this to the Church at Philippi long before the advent of cyberspace when he wrote, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” (Phil 1:27)
Your brother,
Hirsch