Sharing Truth on Facebook

[TruthseekerGR]

Dear Friends,

To what extent, if any, is there a moral responsibility to respond to “bad” comments or posts on facebook, i.e. pro-abortion comments, anti-Catholic comments, etc.? Obviously, no one is required to have a facebook, but if one does have one, what is his duty in this regard? For example, the other day a friend of mine posted something pro-life on his fb wall, after which a debate ensued in which, as far as I saw, no one was defending a fully pro-life view. (One person made a fair pro-life case but included exceptions.) I commented at the end of it, simply recommending a good pro-life book, and after that someone I don’t know posted a rather snotty pro-abortion comment (not a question and not directed at me), which i do not feel like responding to. It was more rhetorical than substantive. Obviously nothing is impossible with God, so maybe I should try to reach out and reason with this stranger, but what he posted did not seem like a good invitation to reasoned debate. What do you think? Could responding be a moral duty? This may be a case of personal and prudential judgement, but such judgment does require the application of right principles, so if anyone has any thoughts on this, they would be appreciated!

May God Bless,

a Truth seeker

 

[hannajomar]

I don’t believe we have to respond to every comment on facebook. We would be sitting on facebook all day. My goal on these kinds of facebook threads is to show that real people hold some of these unpopular beliefs (pro-life, politically conservative, against gay marriage, no artificial birth control, etc), and that there is thought and logic behind those beliefs, not just blindly following religion.

I can’t imagine the time it would take to respond to all of those nasty comments on all those threads. I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.

 

[Irishmom2]

I know others will disagree with me, but you have no obligation to go back and forth with anyone if you don’t want to. Some will say you must defend the Faith. But I think that you already did that to an extent. Let your friend defend his own Facebook wall. I think it is worse to feel you have to respond on some one else’s fb page than if it were on your own. But even then, it gets out of hand.

 

[mab23]

if someone posts something against my beliefs and i have time, I question them why they believe that, and engage into a civil debate

 

[codefro]

Dear Friends,

To what extent, if any, is there a moral responsibility to respond to “bad” comments or posts on facebook, i.e. pro-abortion comments, anti-Catholic comments, etc.? Obviously, no one is required to have a facebook, but if one does have one, what is his duty in this regard? For example, the other day a friend of mine posted something pro-life on his fb wall, after which a debate ensued in which, as far as I saw, no one was defending a fully pro-life view. (One person made a fair pro-life case but included exceptions.) I commented at the end of it, simply recommending a good pro-life book, and after that someone I don’t know posted a rather snotty pro-abortion comment (not a question and not directed at me), which i do not feel like responding to. It was more rhetorical than substantive. Obviously nothing is impossible with God, so maybe I should try to reach out and reason with this stranger, but what he posted did not seem like a good invitation to reasoned debate. What do you think? Could responding be a moral duty? This may be a case of personal and prudential judgement, but such judgment does require the application of right principles, so if anyone has any thoughts on this, they would be appreciated!

May God Bless,

a Truth seeker

Ask the Lord for discernment before reflexive responses.

 

[maltmom]

Ask the Lord for discernment before reflexive responses.

This is my humble opinion. I have facebook friends that I disagree with on a number of topics. I respect their right to believe what they want and to post what they want on their wall. I don’t post anything on their comments that I disagree with. I’d much rather have the conversation face to face. I also expect the same respect to what I post. I found a friend from high school. We are as opposite as can be. I ignored all of his atheist, pro-abortion and political posts. One day I posted something about God. He posted something really nasty about God and Christians. I was livid. I prayed, I posted a response and deleted and blocked him.,

 

[PatriceA]

Ask the Lord for discernment before reflexive responses.

I agree with this.

I think we have a moral duty to pray for discernment anytime we are on the internet and various sites, especially FB. I do not think we have a moral duty to respond to every single comment. We have a moral duty to respect the dignity of the responders and some people are just looking for a debate/fight, that is their only intent and in those situations I think it is best to walk away from commenting and save the truth for when the person is more willing to hear another point of view.

 

[sherimarie]

WAIT TILL YOUR CALM, then post something thoughtful, then let us know how it ends! I love these little scuffles. You know, now, a majority of people are pro-life in America?! I believe a lot of that has to do with the ready availibility of information these days. Let’s get the good word out there every chance we get!

 

[jenwha]

I usually post something back about “gay marriage” because it really burns my buttons. I also post stuff all the time about the CC and God, and I don’t care if people like it or not.

Other comments I just ignore.

 

[TruthseekerGR]

Thanks everybody! I posted a link to the princeton prolife club’s website and said there were some thoughtful articles on it, if the other people were interested. I hope it bears fruit. (Robert George can defend the pro-life position much better than myself!)