In this age of social media, I’ve seen Bible-believing, Christ-centered people post thoughts online only to receive a string of hypercritical responses from people who wield Scripture verses like pickaxes, swiftly condemning the slightest hint of a viewpoint they consider suspicious. If I were an unbeliever reading such responses, I certainly wouldn’t be drawn to the Christian faith.

The human impulse to rush to judgment has always existed, but now it is common to believe whatever we hear and then post outrage using social media. But what if in our use of social media we applied the concepts of innocent until proven guilty, and from the mouth of Jesus, “Do to others as you would have them do to you”?

Though I’m not at all bitter about it, I remember well the harsh judgments from fellow Christians about my civil disobedience at abortion clinics (I don’t feel the pain anymore; I just remember its effects, especially on Nanci). Had there been social media in 1988-1990, trust me, I would have been skewered online not simply by unbelievers, but by many pastors and Christian leaders.

I was speaking to a group of pastors in 1990 when one of them raised his hand and asked, “Why do you go to abortion clinics and scream at women and spit on them and pull their hair?” When I told him I’d never done such a thing, and never would, I asked him, “Why would you believe the newspapers instead of coming to me as your brother in Christ and asking if it’s true?”

So even in those pre-internet days, there were times I was privately and in small groups discredited by people who had no clue what my motives were—but unless they read the papers, watched TV news, or overheard church people talking about it, my daughters didn’t have to hear it. Were it happening today and they were 10 and 12, it would be inescapable even if they weren’t yet on social media, because everyone would be talking about it.

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