Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister for the United Church of Christ denomination, announced on 11/18/22 that he is leaving Twitter. Here is part of what he wrote:
Hate speech has soared on Twitter since Musk took over. “One racial slur was used 26,228 times in tweets and retweets in Musk’s first week, which was triple the 2022 average,” reports Axios in a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Christianity should be, I believe, about building up the ideal of the Beloved Community.
In Ephesians 4:29, we read: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.” Social media doesn’t lend itself to such ideals, which I myself have fallen short of too many times to count, but God is not finished with any of us yet.
One of my fellow Unitarian Universalists told me that he did not think social media is a good vehicle to engage in a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, the fourth of our seven principles.
A UU adult education teacher told me that media literacy should be an important part of any UU adult education program because of our commitment to the responsible search for truth and meaning. She raised the observation that perhaps UUs should follow Rev. Currie’s lead and consider leaving social platforms that perpetuate misinformation and hate speech.
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