告别社交媒体

（2022年7月14日黄昏，香港东区走廊。段晓冬摄）

几年前，我告别了社交媒体。其实，我原来相当擅长打“网仗”，能够把网上那些“大错特错”的观点驳斥得丢盔卸甲、片甲不留。不幸的是，我当时为这一能力深感自豪。我儿子的朋友们（多为大学生）甚至告诉我儿子：“你爸爸是社交媒体大神！”

实话实说，我现在为这一“技能”而忏悔。我早已对自己这个明显的性格缺陷感到厌恶。在一位朋友的明智劝导下，我告别了社交媒体。真是正确的一步。

我向你保证，这不是一味指责社交媒体，而是坦率承认我自己的挣扎。我相信，选择离开社交媒体，对我来说是明智、恢复理性的做法。互联网上绝不缺少愚蠢，绝不缺乏以捉弄对手为乐的流氓，他们最喜欢引诱那些天真或傲慢（我属于后者）的网民追随其跌入深渊——其实那是个化粪池。如果遂其所愿，那真是愚不可及。愤怒会滋生更多愤怒，而且极少属于正义的愤怒。

我曾经热衷于和傻瓜对话，急于回应他们的挑衅，这显示了一个广泛存在的问题。我们处于尖锐而愤怒的分裂状态——甚至在基督徒内部都是如此。为什么呢？我们该怎么办？请允许我对这个话题给出以下浅见。

通常，我们之所以生气，是因察觉到某种特别的不公正。但对于任何话题，我们每个人都容易仅仅聚焦于它的一个面向，而忽略所有其他可能的面向，问题由此产生。这正是“个人观点”的由来，而每个话题都存在多个不同的观点。

以种族间的紧张关系为例。单单听到这个词，而不需要任何具体例证，你的头脑里应该已经形成了某种结论。这是好事，因为每个人都应强烈反对种族主义。但也是坏事，因为同样都是好人，但大家对于如何解决种族主义问题可能抱持着截然不同的看法。我们该如何寻求公义？

我们倾向于急急忙忙得出自己的特定结论，因为我们确实想要得到公义。毕竟，谁会支持种族主义呢？嗯，对方当然支持种族主义！！！每个人都可以看到！！！！！！（这时候我们喜欢使用最为夸张的词语。但没有用。）

耶稣拣选的十二个门徒都是犹太男人。没有多少多元化，对吧？别这么快下结论。十二门徒中有奋锐党人西门和税吏马太。这两人本来该是死对头。奋锐党人（过度爱国的犹太人）偶尔会暗杀像马太那样的“卖国贼”。而马太那伙的人（残暴的罗马政府）经常杀害像西门那样的人。很自然地，耶稣把这两个人带到一起。他就是这样做事的。

耶稣还讲了一些故事，一些挑战本民族文化中根深蒂固但很少被承认的种族主义的故事。好撒玛利亚人的故事给出了两个鲜明的论点，而对他的听众来说，这两点都是显而易见的。我们不仅要对受害者展示怜悯，还要检查一下家门口的种族主义态度。以色列人对撒玛利亚人怀恨已久。这种仇恨确实有道德方面的原因。毕竟，撒玛利亚人歪曲了上帝的律法，而且长期以来充斥着异端行为，这是已经证明的事实。耶稣让一个撒玛利亚人担任这个故事的主角，针对的正是这一基于种族主义的偏见。通过这样做，他打破了一种无益的刻板印象，并让他的听众承担责任。他的做法并不复杂，只是讲了一个故事，但这个故事揭示了一个令人不安的事实。

但是，当我们对事情的观点与别人迥然不同时，我们该怎么做呢？如果有人认为种族主义是正当的怎么办？诚然，有些人会编造谎言，试图从心理上操纵我们。要警惕这些流氓。离开化粪池，回到你努力建造、通往对岸的那座桥上吧。

与其将所有精力都花在流氓身上，不如专注于那些愿意与你展开有意义对话的人。你可以与对方约定，大家都不去尝试说服对方，而是承诺互相倾听，从而开始这场讨论。或许，我可以把所有时间花在聆听上！这个做法有点激进，对不对？

圣经中的一段经典经文如下：

世人哪！耶和华已指示你何为善。他向你所要的是什么呢？只要你行公义，好怜悯，存谦卑的心，与你的神同行。

（弥迦书6:8）

先知弥迦在此告诉听众三个鲜明的信息。

行公义——从自己做起。一旦有能力做某件公义的事，就不要让邪恶得胜。勇敢地去做正确的事。

好怜悯。想一想你做过的最糟糕的事情。然后考虑你希望上帝如何怜悯你（如果你求，他必怜悯）。现在也向别人展示这种怜悯。对于受害者，我们可以回心转意，施加怜悯。但对加害者呢？那会怎么样？我们如何将其与公义连结？答案可不像一个模因那样简单。

存谦卑的心，与你的神同行。我们的文化充斥着无情的敌对，这一文化中似乎最缺少的是什么？谦卑！这是我们天性中最难做到的部分。只有与神同行，才能做到这一点。

基督徒都想活出信仰，活出真爱，但这条路并不好走。（我当然渴望走这条路，尽管我经常迷路。）神对我们的呼召是要践行弥迦书6章8节里的所有三项要求。然而，这三项要求似乎总是互相排斥。我们需要更多智慧。我们需要——我需要——更多谦卑。没有谦卑，我们还能怎样互相倾谈？

也许你能够以平静的心态并充满爱心地在社交媒体上发表意见。若是这样，希望像你这样的人更多！

不过我本人天生缺乏克制，所以我选择干脆避免站在血淋淋的前线，参与网上的公义与怜悯之战。与此同时，我将继续在像这个网站那样的论坛上，或与真实认识的人以面对面交流的方式，参与这一讨论。但单靠言语永远无法实现公义和怜悯。如果我们不积极寻求上帝，我们很可能会让事情变得更糟。

我还想探讨另一个亟需公义和怜悯的领域——贫穷问题。但那得要另一篇文章了。现在，让我们致力于行公义，好怜悯，存谦卑的心与神同行，无论他带我们去哪里。

译者：段晓冬

作者：Tim Gustafson；原文网址：https://discoveryseries.org/courses/walking-off-the-grid/

Walking Off the Grid

I bailed on social media a few yearsago. My capacity for shredding the ill-formed viewpoints of others had beenhoned into a gleaming weapon of war. Tragically, I was proud of this fact. Myson’s friends, mostly college students, even told him I was a social media“legend.” Yikes! Hardly.

Let me clearly state that I repentof this “skill.” I became disgusted with my glaring character flaw and, at thewise counsel of another, pulled the plug. Good move.

I promise you this isn’t a rantagainst social media. It’s a candid admission of my own struggles. I believe mychoice to go off the social-media grid was the wise, sanity-restoring course ofaction for me. There is no dearth of online foolishness, no shortage of trollswho are all too happy to grapple in the sewer with anyone naïve enough (or inmy case, arrogant enough) to jump off the bridge and join them. Such a courseof action is wildly unhelpful. Anger breeds more anger, and seldom is it of therighteous variety.

My struggle with hastily answeringfools according to their folly points to a widespread problem. We’re angrily,stridently divided—even Christians. Why is that? And what should we do aboutit? Permit me the following modest contribution to the dialogue.

Usually, we get angry because weperceive a particular injustice. Problems arise because all of us tend to seeone side of any given issue more clearly than other possible sides. That’s whyit’s called a point of view. Yet every issue has multiple angles from which tobe viewed.

Take racial tensions, for example. Idon’t even have to cite a specific incident before you’ve already formed aconclusion in your head. This is good, because we should have strong opinions againstracism. It’s also bad, because good people have substantially differingopinions about how to address it. How are we to find justice?

We tend to sprint to our ownparticular conclusions because we really do want justice. After all, whosupports racism? Well, the other side supports racism, of course!!! Everyonecan see that!!!!!! (This is the part where we resort to ALL CAPS. It doesn’thelp.)

When Jesus chose his twelvedisciples, they were all Jewish men. Not much diversity there, right? Not sofast. Among them were Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector. These twowould have been mortal enemies. Zealots (excessively patriotic Jews)occasionally assassinated collaborators like Matthew. And the people Matthewworked for (the oppressive Roman government) routinely killed people likeSimon. So naturally, Jesus brought these two together. That’s how he rolls.

Jesus also told stories that defiedthe deeply engrained but seldom acknowledged racism of his culture. The storyof the Good Samaritan made two distinct points, and both were obvious to hishearers. Not only are we to show mercy to victims, we’re to check our racistattitudes at the door. Israelites had a deep, abiding hatred for Samaritans.They clung to this hatred for moral reasons. After all, Samaritans distortedGod’s laws and had a long and proven history of heretical behavior. Jesuspointedly attacked this racially-based bias by making the protagonist of hisstory a Samaritan. In doing so, he shattered an unhelpful stereotype and held hisaudience accountable. And he accomplished this by simply telling a story thatrevealed an uncomfortable truth.

But what are we to do when we seesituations in a starkly different way from someone else? What if someone thinksracism is justified? Admittedly, there are those who will attempt to gaslightus by making claims about things that simply are not true. Beware of suchtrolls. Get out of the sewer and back up on the bridge you’re trying to buildto the other side.

Instead of expending all your energyon the trolls, focus on those willing to engage you in meaningful dialogue. Youmight start the discussion by agreeing not to try to win each other over, butby committing to listening to each other. Or perhaps we could do all thelistening. Radical concept, that!

A classic verse from the Bible says:

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8 NIV)

The prophet Micah is telling hishearers three distinct messages here.

Act justly—on a personal level.Whenever you are in a position to do something about it, don’t permit evil totriumph. Courageously do the right thing.

Love mercy. Think for a brief momentof the worst thing you’ve done. Then consider how you want God to be mercifulto you (and he will be if you ask him). Now show that kind of mercy to others.We can get our heads and hearts around extending mercy to victims. But whatabout to perpetrators? What does that look like? And how do we match that withjustice? The answer won’t fit neatly into a meme.

Walk humbly with your God. Whatseems most absent from our culture’s relentlessly hostile discourse? Humility!And that is the last thing that comes naturally to us. It’s something that canonly come from walking with God.

Christians who want to live outtheir faith in genuine love have a difficult path to follow. (I aspire to walkthis path, even though I frequently lose my way.) We are called to carry outall three parts of Micah’s directive. Yet they seem in constant tension witheach other. We need more wisdom. We need—I need—more humility. How else are weto talk with each other?

Perhaps you can weigh in on socialmedia with calm and loving reason. If so, may your kind prosper!

I have less natural restraint, soI’ll avoid that bloody front of the justice and mercy battle. Meanwhile, I’llcontinue to contribute to the discussion in forums such as this and in realconversations with actual acquaintances, face to face. But words alone cannever accomplish justice and mercy. If we’re not actively seeking God, we’relikely making matters worse.

I want to look at another topic thataches for more justice and mercy than it’s getting—poverty. But that’s fodderfor another blog. Until then, let’s commit to acting justly, loving mercy, andwalking humbly with our God, wherever he may take us. (End)