"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!" Luke 6:22 ESV

The old saying that "you cannot tell about a book by its cover" has certainly found new ground for meaning in this world of Facebook and Twitter. It is surprising in how social media is shaping and portraying information to the one-third of the world's population who view these thoughts. [40% of the word's population spends 50 minutes a day on social media]

View after view, day upon day, social media has the effect of shaping the viewers opinions long-term, with some developing a much narrower view of what is and is not the truth. Eighty percent these people will accept anything as being true as long as it agrees with their opinion of things. Negativity sells and none of it sells better than hate, with one notable exception that occurred in 2014:

A quite surprising twist to all the negative effects that social media has had in spreading hate for Christians has been the 2014 reaction of young middle eastern Christians to being proud of the derogatory designation [the Arabic letter "N"] being given to them, which Isis even used to mark the homes of Christians in Mosul told to "leave, die or convert".

The red Arabic letter "N", when directed to Christians, stands for Narasa [Nazarenes]. When the United States refused to help Christians being persecuted, many of these persecuted people voiced their opinions through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, saying that: #WeAreN.*

The world's Christians who joined in support of those in Iraq saw this derogatory symbol become adopted by Christians around the world as becoming their new identity in standing together on the global stage against persecution of Christians everywhere, while 200,000,000 Christians worldwide remain under persecution.

As long as human nature has a taste for hate, it will endure, but a little hope can still goes a long way down that same road. Be positive!

*"Using The New World Of Connectivity" -Chris Katulka, Israel My Glory - May, 2018

Rik Charbonneaux is a retired NE Iowan who loves all of God's Word and all of His creatures.