The Shame Problem in Highlighting Social Justice on Social Media

It’s 5:55am on a Sunday morning and I find myself sitting at the computer banging out a blog post. Many of you know that I don’t like to do anything work related on a Sunday, but today, it is necessary. I just awoke from having a nightmare. In this nightmare, I was surrounded by a mob of people who had just condemned a religious leader for a crime and they were taking him away to be executed. Friends, please don’t ask me if this religious leader was guilty. I have no idea. I’ve never seen this religious leader before and I have absolutely no clue who he was.

After this religious leader was taken away, I found myself walking out on the street and all of the sudden I was told to run. Why did I have to run? It turns out the mob was going to kill anyone who identified as being Christian. I am not sure how this mob knew about my belief in Jesus, but the next thing I am “nightmaring” about is me running for my life. I am running all throughout the downtown of our fair city and finally a few mob members catch up to me and BOOM. I got shot. I wake up and here I am.

Now, why would I have such a terrible nightmare? Is my imagination overactive? It makes no sense that I would have a nightmare about such social unrest and violence after spending a beautiful day in the country. Or does it make sense? Was my brain too busy purging the negativity of our world? Yes, that’s it.

Just before I went to bed last night, my boyfriend and I were having a discussion over the internet about social justice and recent appalling events that took place in Minneapolis. Obviously what happened was beyond terrible. No question. What I find almost as disturbing is some of the shaming going around on social media. I’ve been seeing a lot of posts saying things like:

If you don’t post this, you are heartless!

If you don’t say anything, you are on the side of the oppressor!

Wow! And people wonder why I don’t like social media. My friends, I want to set the record straight once and for all. I believe that black lives matter. In fact I believe all lives matter. Every person on this planet matters. I’m also against violence. In fact, I am so against violence that I’m with the peace churches on this and I have been firmly practicing nonresistance for the past year. I’m also a huge fan of social justice and above all I am a huge fan of God’s justice.

I believe that we have a good God and a just God. I believe that He will take care of any injustice in this world, especially when we bring attention to the crime. I applaud the efforts of all of those out there who bring attention to the injustices of this world. I also want to point out, that we also need to be careful. If you perceive a person being quiet about a matter, it doesn’t mean they are on the side of the devil. It may mean that they are choosing another way to show their solidarity against all the wrongs of this world. It’s very important in times of fighting for good that we do not further polarize our brethren with shame language. Shame language just adds more fuel to the fire and I would even go as far to say that it incites more violence. If I don’t post something on social media about an injustice it doesn’t mean that I am apathetic. Trust me, I’ve written my fair share of letters to politicians. My friends, when we fight for social justice, let’s continue to be constructive and highlight the problem and not create more through shame. I am not going to let internet shaming judge me. That’s God’s job, and His job only, not the shamers. I’m going to let Him determine if I did my part, not the internet shamers.

I know this may sound harsh, but it needed to be said. Some people may accuse me of shaming the shamers. I feel I had to take this risk of being criticized to highlight this injustice. Once again, let’s focus on the injustice of the crime and refrain from shame and judgement. After all, isn’t exercising poor and incorrect earthly judgment upon another human being the real focus here?