The Jesus Social Media Lobby

It’s getting rough out there in the social media world, at least politically.  We all know that the reason Facebook is so popular is not that we can re-connect with old friends and family but that, once we get reconnected, we can post any stray thought that comes into our heads without the fear being challenged.  Quite often these are opinions and musings we would probably never express if all our 1,347 “friends” were actually in the room with us.  In fact, our crack pot ramblings are probably why these people let us pass out of their lives to begin with.  But if you’re like me you simply shake your head and keep scrolling down the newsfeed when confronted by someone on their cyber soapbox.  Not that I would ever shoot off my virtual mouth like that (wink-wink-nudge-nudge). Once in a while I’ll see someone challenging a friend’s post on how President Obama is a closet Zoroastrian or that Mitt Romney was really born in Aguascalientes.  For the most part though, it’s a lot of thumbs up and LOL’s.  

Things got particularly contentious when Paul Ryan got tapped as the VP candidate.  I saw all sorts of posts, including those annoying e-cards, accusing Representative Ryan of being a grandma killing Social Darwinist.  As if talking politics in polite company wasn’t enough (the first no-no of social intercourse my Mama taught me), Ryan’s religious faith was called into question as well (talkin’ religion at a cocktail party, no-no numero dos).  We all know that Nancy Pelosi is against his Medicaid plan, but did you get the memo that Jesus is too?  The religion card is supposed to be the right’s special tactic, but the left likes to pull it out once in a while as well.  Who can forget Mario Cuomo stating that Francis of Assisi would have given the DNC’s 1984 platform his imprimatur, including the plank about abortion on demand.   Ok, you probably did forget that little nugget, but the point being that there is nothing new with liberals taking aspects of Catholic teaching that are open to discussion, like how to feed the poor or care for the sick, and absolutize them, and teachings related to when life begins, which is settled from the Catholic standpoint, and make them mutable.  The only solution to all of life’s ills, in their view, is the big government solution.  Anything else would violate the Beatitudes and make Brother Sun weep.

Adding to the confusion was a news release issued by a committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) back in the spring condemning Ryan’s proposed budget.  This document, taken by many unsuspecting Catholics, and more than a few who should know better, as authoritative is binding on the consciences of exactly no one, as George Weigel points out.  He goes on to report on a sermon given by Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill where he clearly states that the Catholic position favors neither government nor the private sector by default, but looks for the cooperation of the two entities.  His Excellency reiterated Ryan’s famous line that the Church’s preferential option for the poor does not mean a preferential option for government.

In the mean-time the left continues to paint Paul Ryan’s Medicaid plan as the first step to the manufacture of Soylent Green. But what if I was to tell you that a former member of President Obama’s staff admits that rationing is necessary for the survival of Medicaid, and that neither the Affordable Health Care Act nor Ryan's plan go far enough in implementing what he concedes could be properly called death panels?  Yes Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead, as many of Ryan's critics are quick to point out, but I’m not sure he did a life-quality analysis before raising Lazarus (I mean the life expectancy back then was like 35 years, how much time could he have had left anyway?  Don’t even get me started on the woman with the hemorrhage).  So while Paul Ryan is the heartless money grubber, all the president’s men pretty much take for granted that the care given to your grandparents will come down to dollars and cents and how long they can be reasonably expected to live.  Am I the only one who sees hypocrisy here?

There are no easy answers to these questions, but our social media world sure makes it seem that way.  A smug slogan, an eye catching image, an appeal to the Almighty: it’s enough to make Goebbels blush.  This, alas, is the state of our political discourse today.  Faith certainly needs to be integrated into the various aspects of our lives and into our decision making process.  But when it’s used cynically to win a point and massage an argument it just makes me want push the unfriend button. 

The Gospel According to Facebook