A strange thing happened to Christian author and historian John Dickson last week when Facebook removed and then reinstated one of his posts. We asked him to fill us in on the background.
TGCA: John, last week on Facebook you posted an observation about the same-sex marriage debate which was removed by Facebook and then restored. Can you sum up the argument you were making in that post?
I was really asking two related questions:
First, have we come to the point in Australian society where intellectual disagreement with gay marriage, no matter how carefully and graciously articulated, is equated with hate, bigotry, and the demeaning of LGBTI people?
Second, is it possible that this very equation (interpreting all opposition to gay marriage as personal hatred of gay people) might be contributing to the feeling among LGBTI youth that they really are hated – thus exacerbating the tragic mental health problems found amongst them?
I posed both of these as questions, acknowledging that I could be wrong.
TGCA: I understand that Facebook didn’t give you any detailed explanation for why they deleted the post. What have they told you?
They apologised directly via email, explaining that the post had been deleted by a staff member in “error”.
TGCA: Do you have your own thoughts or suspicions about what happened?
I think some of my own Facebook followers objected to what I proposed and complained directly to Facebook via the “Notify Facebook” button. One of the FB reviewers – apparently there’s an army of them – took a look at the post and made a decision to get rid of it.
TGCA: Has Facebook told you why it reinstated the post?
Well, Facebook have said they were mistaken to delete in the first place. Obviously, someone higher up in the company reviewed the post and thought it was okay, after all.
All I did was email Facebook (to which I never received a reply) and post a new comment alerting people to the fact that FB had taken down the post. That seemed to get people talking, and before I knew it I had various people contacting me, including Andrew Hastie, MP, from Perth and Tim Wilson, the former Human Rights Commissioner. Then came the media. It was a fun few days.
TGCA: How important is it for Christians to stand up to this kind of challenge?
So long as we’re polite, and avoid demanding any special position in the world, I think it’s a good thing for Christians to point out inappropriate behaviour from the media and social media. But, of course, none of this is the core issue. It should never become a distraction from the main game of the church doing all it can to promote the news of Christ in the world. And social media happens to be a pretty good way of doing that.
TGCA: Looking at the discussion thread of the restored post, I see a few people suggesting that any rejection of same-sex marriage is hateful and insulting (regardless of the tone) because it implicitly demeans LGB people. How would you respond to that?
I respond by asking people to explain exactly why this is hateful. Often people just have a gut feeling, not a cogent argument. Every definition of marriage intellectually “discriminates” against relationships that don’t fit the definition.
Should we change the definition to include two people of any sex, that will still “discriminate” against polyamorous relationships in which, say, two men and one woman feel they are in one loving union. Are we hating polyamorous Australians by not extending the title “marriage” to include any number of partners of either sex? What about two best–friends who live together with no intention of sexual intimacy or the establishment of a family? Are we demeaning their friendship if we say we don’t think that this bond fits the definition of marriage?
The answer, of course, is no. The problem just comes down to a question of definition. If I defined marriage simply as a loving bond between two people, I would accept gay marriage, no problem. But that’s not how I think of marriage. Along with pretty much every culture of world history, I see marriage as the unique bond between two people in the hope of creating and nurturing their own children. Anyone who holds that definition, whether straight or gay, could not think of two people of the same sex as being married.
TGCA: Do you see this incident as indicative of broader trends?
Probably. I imagine there will be many more hiccups like this as secularists try to work out what it means to oppose Christianity without becoming a bully. Sometimes they’ll overstep the mark. Sometimes they’ll get it about right.
TGCA: As a public Christian, do you ever get discouraged by the apparent increase of public hostility to Christian opinion?
Not discouraged. I am of course very sad for our neighbours who are missing out on the riches of God’s grace, and I get anxious for God’s honour in the country, but I am usually pretty cheerful in the face of opposition or losses because I know God has it in hand.
I often think of Paul in prison writing to the Philippians, who were no doubt worried that the gospel was being hindered by Paul’s predicament, and reassuring them that his circumstances had actually served to advance the gospel. There is a gospel cheer in his words – flowing, I guess, from his sure knowledge that what looks like a loss can often turn out to be a win. The cross was followed by the resurrection.
Photo: Franco Bouly, flickr
