I think you call that click bait.  X-rated as in the social media platform formally known as Twitter.  And it actually wasn’t Twitter, but it was an experience in Twitterized conversation, and it was not pleasant. Twitter (X) is often described as a sewer, its posts a toxic sludge. Decontamination may be required after five minutes of browsing the platform.  What to do about Twitterized conversations?

I am a part of two different private social media groups that were very active over the weekend. One is a professional group – yes, pastors from our denomination, and the other is a local community group.  At about the same time last week comments were posted on each site touching on issues that are sensitive or controversial among members of the respective groups.

You know that old line about disagreeing without being disagreeable?  Unfortunately, some commenters in both groups were simply unable to disagree in an agreeable way, so much so that the administrators on the professional site excommunicated one of the members from the group. A well-deserved cancellation in my opinion.

On both sites names were called, assumptions made, conclusions drawn, and motives questioned. Character assassination is not too strong a description of some of the comments offered.

The professional and community discussion groups have several hundred members each and none of the members are anonymous.  We may not know each other well, but we know who we are.  We will see each other around town or at denominational events. Some of us were nasty to others of us during that X-rated weekend.

Unkind conversation is not new to the digital age. The halls of history are littered with stories of what James calls the deadly poison of an untamed tongue (James 3:1-12).

In what may be the most famous (notorious?) of the New Testament “vice lists” Paul catalogues the consequences of human rebellion against the ways of God: “(human persons) are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans 1:29-31) Gossip and slander mentioned with murder and strife.

Nothing new under the sun.  Maybe digital communication only magnifies the malignancy that was always there.  Or maybe we live in a time of such anxiety, insecurity, fear, and despair that we lash out at one another because our lives are so lacking in joy, so bereft of a sense of wellbeing, so devoid of faith, so starved of hope. Maybe Twitterized conversations are a symptom of our malaise rather than the cause of it. But what to do about it? What to do about X-rated conversation?

In his letter to the Colossians Paul writes, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Colossians 4:6 ESV)