On November 14, 2019, I published a post that was originally titled “I Don’t Know What To Say.” I eventually changed it to “How Soulless Bureaucrats Make Owning an Online Business a Nightmare.” I recently shared it in a group in reference to what we’ve observed with online businesses being deplatformed and demonetized at an ever-increasing and alarming rate by YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, and the like.
In the year and a half since I wrote that post, many people have told me it was the thing that finally opened their eyes to all that was going on behind the scenes online. For those who read it at that time, the changes in the online world over the past six to twelve months have been less of a shock. They were forewarned and knew the signs to look for.
My writing output on this site took a real dive in the intervening months. Partially I have been trying to determine how to best position myself moving forward to avoid the cancel culture fallout as much as possible. I’ve mentioned in posts that I stopped making videos and set aside the idea of creating courses because it was becoming a challenge to find any place to park them where they wouldn’t be deleted. I did not want to keep duplicating my efforts as I tried to race around and stay one step ahead of the woke police. So this has involved many behind the scenes changes including moving my website hosting to something safe. The website hosting I am on now will allow me to host and stream my videos directly from my own site. No more needing to upload them to other places I can’t count on. Paying for it myself is more expensive, but it is worth the tradeoff to know that whatever I take the time to create won’t be censored or deleted for no reason.
But that wasn’t the only reason my writing has dropped off here.
It was also because I spent a lot of time thinking about ministry, what it means to be an “older woman” in the body of Christ, and what I am called to grow here for the future. Events of the past two years have shown me afresh that only what’s done for Christ will last. I’ve always known that, but I’ve spent a fair amount of time mulling over how to apply that truth. The Lord has led me through such a wide variety of life circumstances over the past many decades. He’s given me insights and knowledge over the years. How should I be a good steward of that? How do I share Christ with as many people as possible? What have I been doing here that distracts from that or even, God forbid, contradicts it?
While I’ve been thinking about my own responsibilities as a Christian woman, I’ve watched as ministries imploded. I’ve watched prominent and vocal women who claimed to be Christians embrace the most abhorrent views that can in no way be defended from Scripture. I’ve watched prominent so-called evangelical Christian pastors discuss the need to disconnect Jesus and the Christian faith from the Old Testament because the Old Testament is “problematic” for people today. (Any time someone uses the word “problematic” you can safely assume whatever they are saying is at best a half-truth.) I’ve watched the Southern Baptist Convention slowly imploding as leaders embraced critical race theory. I’ve watched Ravi Zacharias’ life work go up in flames. I’ve watched as over and over again prominent Christians repeat lies that can easily be verified as false and yet they have no interest in correcting the lies they are telling.
And on and on and on. It’s made my head swim at times. I’m sure you’ve also watched many of the same things with dismay. How can people be so deceived?
If 2020 was anything, it was the year people and ministries were exposed for who and what they truly are. We know why which I wrote about extensively in The Life Lessons of Warren Wiersbe, Rachel Held Evans, and Those Falling Away by Deconstructing Their Faith and spoke about in Negative World – High Profile Christians Bend the Knee & Embrace the False Woke Gospel {Sallie Video}. That’s some of the only significant content I’ve put out in some time, but I believe they are important.
At the same time, I’ve been incredibly encouraged by other Christians including some I only “met” online last year. There are men and women who are boldly and accurately speaking truth of Christ and the Bible without compromise. Their videos and writing encourage me each day and I’m thankful for them. I’ve been introducing you to some of them by sharing a few links in the Forum and via book recommendations in different posts. I’ll continue to share them with you.
One of the people who has blessed and encouraged me a great deal the past few months is Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab. The man is fearless in calling out evil and speaking of Christ the King. For that, the platform is constantly under attack both figuratively and literally. Likewise, there are many others on Gab, in particular, who have blessed me with their straightforward and unashamed defense of the Gospel and the historic Christian faith. The ability to see people speak freely and without being censored or needing to self-censor for fear of deplatforming is amazingly encouraging. Do I agree with all of them on everything? Of course not. But I am thankful for those speaking boldly for Christ.
While I’ve done a lot to get to this point today where I am ready to write about it publicly, there are still choices I have to make. I’ve had discussions with David, my mastermind group members, and others about how to live as a faithful Christian without compromise in the midst of an increasingly depraved online culture. I had already left Facebook and Twitter a few years ago and never liked the fakeness of Instagram so those were not issues for me. I’m using Gab and Telegram and greatly appreciate both of them for sourcing information and staying up-to-date on what is going on. But I do have my own set of issues.
In thinking about these topics, I’ve been reflecting on this Scripture passage in particular.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.Therefore
“Come out from among them
And be separate, says the Lord.
Do not touch what is unclean,
And I will receive you.”“I will be a Father to you,
And you shall be My sons and daughters,
Says the Lord Almighty.”
I’ve written before that I lean heavily toward the view that Christians are the called out ones and we are to be separate from the world while still living in it. While some Christians claim it is okay to live as much like the world as possible without crossing a vague proverbial line, I’m quite the opposite. When it comes to issues such as these, I tend to stay far away from the fence and don’t push against it. I certainly don’t know what that should look like in everyone else’s life, but that is how I tend to think about it in my own life.
I’ve watched the folly of the past three decades as the church in the United States has sought to look as much like the world as possible. What has it gotten us? In my opinion, it’s left us with millions of people who have a form of Christian religion but know nothing of Christ and the Scriptures.
What does 1 Peter 2:9-12 tell us?
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
What does it look like to be set apart online? What does it mean to conduct business online and not be unequally yoked with unbelievers? The most common response is that Christians can’t avoid doing business with unbelievers because we can’t live in our own little world. To a certain extent that is true.
However.
Why do we continue to choose to give our money to people who hate us? Why do we send customers to businesses who despise our faith? Why do we partner with people who would gladly see us silenced and destroyed?
These are not rhetorical questions. I’m asking you and me for an actual answer.
Where is the line crossed?
When censorship starts? When censorship reaches a critical mass? When I’m forced to renounce my whiteness? (If you don’t understand why I put this particular one here, you are badly out of touch with what is developing in our culture.) When I’m forced to wear a badge online or on my person that says I’ve been deemed sufficiently acceptable by woke or anti-racist experts?
When I’m forced to renounce Christ?
Where is the line?
The line is coming for you if you follow Christ. The line is coming for me. Short of a massive true revival in this country (which we should all be pleading for daily in prayer), we will all be faced with a line where we have to choose.
I’ve already cancelled my Amazon Prime account and eliminated almost all shopping on Amazon over a number of issues including their censorship and direct assault on free speech. But do I take days of my already limited time to remove every Amazon affiliate link from my website and also lose the small amount of income it brings me? There are probably thousands of affiliate links on here. It will take me days to go through and find them all and then fix the posts that will be impacted. What do I do?
How will you choose to live as a called-out pilgrim in an increasingly anti-Christian environment?
Where will you draw the line?