How would you like it if someone created a vlog (video blog) about something you did wrong? They didn’t name you or show your picture, but you knew it was about you. They quoted a conversation word for word, and then proceeded to rant and explain to the cyber world how you screwed up.
The Freedom to Socially Shame
It’s a strange era when people can publicly pass judgment on one another and do so without much inward reflection about their own person.
I watched a vlog the other day from this guy who’s a Christian. He had a rant for another believer who pretty much judged him on his outward appearance. In the limited context of his side of things, I agreed with his point. God looks at the heart, but by the time I got half way through the video, I felt bad for the perpetrator.
It’s one thing to point out truth. It’s another thing entirely to treat someone like an idiot because they don’t understand that truth. That’s called social shaming, and it doesn’t have anything to do with love.
Where’s the Vlog about Love and Kindness?
I’m not positive about this, but I think it’s rare to win someone to your side by making fun of them and publicly disgracing them. In general, people don’t respond well to that. So why is it so commonplace now for people to jump on their high horse and point their finger?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% in favor of the freedom of speech, and all of us having a voice. It just needs to be clear that when we speak out against someone else, point out their wrong judgment, highlight their sin, we also say something about our own ability to love.
Think the Best not the Worst
I watched an Andy Stanley sermon the other day, and his message was on what happy couples know.
He said one thing happy couples do on a consistent basis is think the best of the other person. If their spouse is late, they don’t come up with all the negative things that might be the cause of that. Instead, they assume the best.
It kind of seems like the guy in the vlog wasn’t assuming the best about the woman who was mean to him. And maybe he had a right to go immediately to ranting. She was evidently a longstanding member of a church who should have known better.
But she obviously didn’t.
If I looked at the moon and called it the sun, would you rant and vlog telling everyone what an idiot I am? Or might you assume the best for me – assume that I hadn’t been taught correctly—that I needed someone to show me the difference.
It’s sad. The woman couldn’t get passed how the man looked to love and appreciate him, and he in turn ran with the truth and left her in the dust of derision.
I think we can do better than that.
Check out my short story “The Door” on page 41.
Your blogs always make me think…and look inward. Maybe I wouldn’t publically rant, but I’ve done it privately, and that’s just as wrong.