Wednesday, June 03, 2009

John Piper on Twitter

The blog heading has a double meaning: here is Piper on Twitter, and here is Piper tweeting (having already done so anonymously for a month).

Many of his tweets require active engagement of your mind--requiring you to fill in the blank or answer the question.

Here's the opening of the article:

I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.

Obviously Piper leans toward the latter perspective, and explains why.