I was reminded once again why I literally despise popular Christian theological apologetical debate culture on social media. I was reluctantly in a Facebook group called Irresistible Truth, or something like that. It is operated by a guy named Derek Murrell. He is a nice enough brother, but the cultures he fosters online, and he is not alone, in my view only generates heat not light. The people who are involved in these types of groups are typically of the male breed, and mostly are not trained in the areas of theological and/or biblical studies. Yet, where they lack such training, they make up for it with their blowhardism, and know-it-allism; aka typically testosterone fueled. Almost none of them are learners, even though they self-deprecatingly claim to be. And they’ll hide behind their self-deprecation, well, some of them will, when they are challenged by someone who actually knows what they are talking about. As such, they are not actual learners like they claim to be.

I see no point in such endeavors. Unfortunately, because of these sorts of demographics, actual Christian scholars and theologians won’t often venture into such spaces; often, because they don’t want to be associated with the stigma presented by such spaces. And so, as a result, they ghettoize themselves; they create silos or so-called “ivory towers.” I am coming to see why this is the case. Even so, this shouldn’t be the case. Actual scholars need to confront the blowhards out there. I realize that could be a full-time job, given the number of blowhards in the online spaces; but it does need to be done at some level. Of course, the problem is that blowhards, by definition, aren’t operating in good-faith, which makes it nigh impossible to interact in a way wherein any sort of confrontation with the critical realities will begin to make a dent. And maybe it won’t for the said blowhards, but there are always others reading and lurking for whom some engagement might give them the confidence they need to pursue critical truths rather than feel as if the online theological world is merely populated by the blowhards.

This isn’t an easy nut to crack. On the one hand you have the uninformed, but bodacious blowhards on the one side. And on the other, you have the informed egg-heads who have already been ingratiated into a system wherein anything they say must be for the “peers” alone. This seems to be a bridge too far; almost an infinitely qualitative distance to overcome; that is, between the blowhards and the egg-heads. But for the sake of the Kingdom this impasse must be overcome. This means that there must be at least some among our ranks who engage in meaningful theological dialogue online. This requires that the egg-heads humble themselves and start communicating what they know outside of the peers’ walls, and that the blowhards humble themselves and shutup and learn for once.

I don’t feel all that hopeful about this. But I thought I would register some of my thoughts because of my recent experience in said FB group. I have had these sorts of experiences frequently in FB theology groups; another one that comes to mind is the Reformed Pub. Places populated by baby Christians, or by Christians who know just enough to be dangerous. The fact that there are baby Christians in such places isn’t the problem, it’s when such Christians allow their testosterone to inspire them rather than the Holy Spirit. We are all learners and teachers at any given time. The problem with social media is that those lines get severely blurred, especially when masked behind the sense of anonymity that social media ‘seems’ to afford its users. My personal propensity is to venture into certain groups like these and eventually unload on the blowhards. This is why it is best for me, personally, to avoid these spaces. But then, this is why I don’t feel very hopeful about this impasse ever being bridged. Maybe social media genuinely is a space for the blowhards alone. Hard to ultimately tell.