Taking a Different Tack...

So, after calming down, I decided that the WTF route would probably not be the most helpful tack to take for us to have any sort of meaningful interaction about Jesus or Facebook. And I decided I would prefer, for her sake and mine (and others'), to draw her into a conversation and tease out what she meant by her comment. So... here's what I wrote instead:

"I am in Arizona, in Tempe just outside Phoenix. I'm working on my PhD and teaching freshman comp. Fun stuff! As to your other comment... I wonder what that would look like, to see Jesus on my (or anyone's) FaceBook page. We do need to think about those kinds of things in light of the way technology and media are revolutionizing the way we think and act and interact. We need to ask these questions and learn to recognize Jesus when we see him no matter where he appears. I haven't checked out your page, but where does Jesus show up (and how) on your page? That might help give me a context for what you were looking for (and didn't seem to find)."

She says she was expecting to find tons of theological books on my book profile. When she didn't, she was surprised. It's interesting that she immediately jumped to some sort of grand sort of conclusion about who I am and what's going on in my life based on what she found on FaceBook. I've only been actively using FaceBook in the past month or so. It wasn't until recently that a critical mass of my face-to -face friends began using it. So, my book profile indicates what I've read in the most recent month or so, and then I've only listed education or young adult lit books. I haven't listed any of the books I'm reading for pleasure-- books about the desert, cycling, Superstition Wilderness, Tempe, bike repair, gardening, video games, or books that I'm re-reading, which is what I tend to do with the poetry and theological books I own. What's even more funny is that at least a third of my always-growing book collection (books that I read and re-read and journal and think about on a regular basis) consists of "theological" books by authors like C.S. Lewis, Kierkegard, MacDonald, Charles Williams, R.C. Sproul, Larry Crabb, Dan Allendar, and on and on... this is just the tip of what comes to mind in the few seconds it's taken to type this line.

I'm curious to see where the conversation goes from here, but I don't think I'll post any more of it here. Although I do think there's an entire worldview behind her comment, I don't think she thought carefully about what she was writing and I don't think she meant any harm by what she said, and even if she did, that conversation would be something better left to a more private realm.

It is interesting, though, to think about the blurred boundaries of public and private. Previously, someone would have to come into my home or talk to me to find out what I'm reading. Now, they look online (if I post it there) and make judgments based not only on what's there but what's not there as well. Similarly, as a friend brought up in a comment about the previous post, I have blurred private and public boundaries by posting the start of our conversation here for the blogging world to see. All of this makes for new ways of thinking about who we are, how we represent ourselves in multiple ways to multiple others, and how we do and can and should interact with each other. What *should* be public and what *should* be private? And who has the right to decide? Lots of, lots of questions...