Displaying items by tag: Social media

A Christian ministry has been targeted by activists because it offers help to people who want to move away from same-sex attraction or behaviours. Core Issues Trust (CIT) is a non-profit Christian ministry that supports men and women voluntarily seeking change in sexual preference and expression. Led by Mike Davidson, the group has received abusive calls and messages, and been dropped by multiple service providers since being targeted through a social media campaign. It has now heard from Barclays Bank that its accounts are closed. Barclays is a top-ranking employer on Stonewall’s list. The Christian Legal Centre is supporting CIT as it seeks to resolve these issues. CIT said, ‘The term “conversion therapy” is being used as a catch-all phrase to discredit any help that people may provide to those with mixed sexual attractions who prefer their heterosexual side. This could include a listening ear, formal counselling or spiritual support.’

An old video has appeared on social media of Premier League football star Angel Gomes being prayed for to be healed of pain from football-related injuries four years ago. When Gomes was 16 and captain of the England national under-17 team, he visited TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations for a service. The video shows a controversial prophet praying for healing which resulted in Gomes jogging, shaking his legs and squatting showing he was healed of pain. This week Gomes received questions about the 2016 video and replied saying he was from a Christian family and was going through some pain issues. ‘From the outside looking in it looks crazy, but I was just practising my faith.’ He added that he didn't really need to explain himself but a lot of people were asking him what the video was about, I was just practising my faith’.

A research team from Kings College London suggests social media news sites may need to do more to regulate misleading content as people who get their news from social media sources are more likely to break lockdown rules. Its report says, ‘Unregulated social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube may present a health risk to the UK because they are spreading conspiracy theories about coronavirus. One wonders how long this state of affairs can be allowed to persist.’ The study concludes, ‘Conspiracy beliefs act to inhibit health-protective behaviours, and social media act as a vector for such beliefs.’ In response, Facebook says it has removed a huge amount of misinformation from its sites, and directed 3.5 million visits to the official NHS and Government Covid-19 information sites.

Mark McClurg, an Elim pastor, is in intensive care at a Belfast hospital after becoming infected with coronavirus. In a video posted on social media from his hospital bed, he said, ‘This coronavirus is deadly and is dangerous. It wants to kill you. It wants to take all the life out of your lungs so that you cannot even breathe.’ He wants people to take the virus seriously. He praised the nurses and doctors who had cared for him day and night despite the risk to their own health. ‘They have saved my life,’ he said. ‘I am grateful that I am living. Don’t think this won’t touch you. Don’t think for a moment that this is just a cough and a cold. Look at me and listen. If you get coronavirus and go into an intensive care unit, you are going to struggle to breathe, you could go on a ventilator, so please listen to all the Government’s advice.’

Until now, firms like Facebook, Tiktok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter have largely been self-regulating. New powers will be given to Ofcom to force such firms to take action over harmful content. Companies have defended their own rules about taking down unacceptable content, but critics say independent rules are needed to keep people safe. It is unclear what penalties Ofcom will be able to enforce to target violence, cyber-bullying and child abuse as they make tech firms responsible for protecting people from such content. Pray for wise action to ensure that content is removed quickly. Also, there is growing evidence that Internet use can harm mental health, but research is still lacking. In January leading UK psychiatrists said that tech companies must be made to share data and pay tax to fund research into the risks and benefits of social media use on children’s mental health. See

On 24 July Shin Bet (the Israeli security agency) reported that Iran has been trying to recruit a wide network of agents in Israel via social networking sites. A joint Shin Bet / police / IDF statement said that their counter-terrorism operation has ‘foiled a recruiting network across Israel and the West Bank for the benefit of Iranian intelligence’. The recruits were asked to gather information on military bases, sensitive security installations, personnel, police stations, hospitals, and more intended targets for terrorist attacks by Iran. While the network was directed by Iran, it operated from Syria and was led by an individual known as Abu-Jihad, who contacted people by creating fictitious Facebook profiles and then speaking with them through messaging applications. In recent months, several other similar operations by Hezbollah and Hamas have been foiled by Israeli security agencies.

Recently we prayed for our children to develop discernment to navigate a disturbing social media landscape. On 22 April health secretary Jeremy Hunt threatened social media firms with new laws if they didn't do more to protect children online. He gave them until 30 April to outline action on cutting underage use, preventing cyber-bullying, and promoting healthy screen time. He said, ‘I am concerned that your companies seem content with a situation where thousands of users breach your own terms and conditions on the minimum user age. I fear that you are collectively turning a blind eye to a whole generation of children exposed prematurely to the harmful emotional side-effects of social media. This is morally wrong and deeply unfair to parents faced with the invidious choice of allowing children to use platforms they are too young to access or excluding them from social interaction that the majority of their peers are often engaging in.’

Lamentations 2:19 says, ‘Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children.’ A report into social media use among 8- to 12-year-olds has stated, ‘Schools should play a bigger role in preparing children for social media's emotional demands as they move from primary to secondary school; and parents should prepare children emotionally for the significant risks of social media as they move schools and meet new classmates.’ Meanwhile, an IJM report said, ‘Cybersex trafficking is the live-streamed sexual abuse of children viewed over the internet. It’s brutal, growing at an alarming rate, and fuelled by the behaviour of Westerners, including people from the UK.’ See

A tweet by Barack Obama condemning racism in the aftermath of a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has become the most liked tweet ever, with over three million people endorsing the sentiment so far. The tweet, quoting the late South African president Nelson Mandela, read, ‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion.’ The former US president followed the tweet with more from Mandela’s autobiographical Long Walk to Freedom: ‘People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.’ Each has had more than a million likes, and hundreds of thousands of retweets.

Social media technology is responsible for an entire industry. But how does social media affect real-life relationships? Radio took 38 years to reach one million users; TV took 13 years; Facebook added 200 million users in less than one year, demonstrating the power and growth of the uncontrollable machine that is social media. More and more people are asking the question, ‘Is it time to switch off occasionally and have a technology fast? This does not eliminate freedom, but helps people recover it.’ We live in the flesh, and an experience that happens without the flesh is not on the same level as one that happens in the flesh. For example, while chatting with a friend on social media we might type ‘hahaha’ at something funny, but that’s the best we can do. It’s much better actually to be sitting in the company of friends and having a laugh together.