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pla·gia·rism: the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work, as by not crediting the author (from Dictionary.com).

A frustrating thing happened to me not so long ago. I posted an original tweet and Facebook status and within minutes saw it copied by another person. However, there was no “RT” leading the tweet, no “Share” that led to the posting, no quotation marks around the words, nor credit within the post. This person had copied my exact original words and posted them as his/her own. When I asked this person why he/she did so, I received an, “It’s no big deal” type of response void of any apology and void of any effort to give proper credit.

While that incident bothered me, soon I saw it happen again and again and again, not just with me, but with many others as well.

When I think about those incidents, they still bother me because someone was willing to take my original words and claim them as their own.

But should it bother me?

With the advancement of social media, we’ve made it easy to post our thoughts, quotes, and happenings with the click of a mouse and push of a button. This also allows us to take the words of others and do anything with them that we wish.

So is this plagiarism or just social sharing?

According to its definition, it definitely seems like stealing i.e. plagiarism (or “poaching” as Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch would call it). When we take someone’s exact words and thoughts and claim them as our own, we become part of this unethical landslide. It probably won’t land anyone in jail, but the severity of the consequences should never be our motivation for doing what is right.

Twitter provides ways to retweet (RT) someone. Facebook allows you to “Share” things or even tag others. And there’s always the good ‘ole quotation marks as well.

There is no reason to steal (or “borrow” or “copy and paste”) someone’s status/tweet and claim it as your own, no matter if that person is a celebrity with 24 million followers or a friend from high school who has 347 friends. It’s unethical and in very poor taste.

What are your thoughts on the matter?

[Photo source: http://bit.ly/v38JpC]

Recently I’ve had some interesting conversations with friends concerning a topic that is relatively fresh in the Christian community: posting prayers on Facebook and Twitter.

I do not mean prayer requests, but actual prayers. I’ve seen this done in two different ways:

1) The near-sarcastic prayer. i.e. “Lord, help my coworker keep her comments to herself today, because if she doesn’t I might hit her.”

2) The more traditional prayer. i.e. “Lord, help me grow in knowledge and wisdom and to treat others as you would treat them.”

From discussing this issue with friends, I’ve heard two schools of thought.

Some people approach this issue with great hesitation, citing Matthew 6:5-6 as a reason to avoid it: “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (ESV).”

The argument is that prayer is private matter between you and God. Social media is unnecessary. Since we have direct communication with the Father, posting prayers on Twitter and Facebook has no point. If we’re not careful, we fall into the same trap as the hypocrites, hoping that people will hear us and think highly of us because of our prayers.

There’s also a second perspective that I’ve come across. When you look at the book of Psalms, the entire book seems to be a collection of prayers that have been written down. As part of the Holy Scriptures, they provide us with encouragement, edification, and an insight into the life of David and others. While the prayers of people today are not considered Scripture, they might offer us encouragement as well. Also, our written prayers could be a conversation starter with an unbeliever.

I’ve listened to both sides and have been wrestling with the issue in my head. What are your thoughts? Should we post our prayers on Facebook and Twitter?

[Photo source: http://bit.ly/fp6L3x]

Let’s get rid of the elephant in the room right away. In the past there has been some tension between Free Will Baptist colleges. In some ways, it’s been like a heated rivalry in sports; but the difference is the schools never seem to meet up. Instead, attacks are launched from hundreds of miles away through students, publications, teachings, etc.

In reality, perception is as far as we’ve gone for connection. We hear rumors. We spread rumors. Is there any truth behind them? Maybe. Maybe not. But at times it seems we’d rather spread the latest gossip first and find out we’re wrong later. And when we find out we’re wrong…well…let’s just say it’s not so easy to admit.

Sadly, many of us have never stepped foot in that “other world.” We think we know what’s going on at the other colleges. We think we know how they live, what they believe, and what they say about “us.” But the truth, we haven’t been there. We don’t know them. We haven’t built relationships with those people. We simply judge without ever knowing all the facts.

In the past several years, I’ve seen that tension start to ease. It seems we’re actually seeing each other as people and not institutions. Whether it has been through leadership conferences, camps, the NYC, or any other gathering, I feel like we’re finally starting to realize we’re not so different from each other. Sure, we may attend a different college. We may believe different things. We may even have different convictions about different areas of life. But when it comes down to the basics and what’s really important, we’re actually fighting on the same side. We wrestle with the same topics. We encounter the same problems in ministry. Our training may be different, but our cause is the same.

Lately I’ve noticed Twitter and even Facebook have been driving forces for demolishing the old mindset and helping us cross the bridge to unity. It has given us a chance to connect with people outside of our typical “bubble” and interact in a way that’s never been done before. No matter if you’ve come out of California, Oklahoma, Nashville, Virginia,  North Carolina, or any other state, Twitter allows us to forget about the name of the school on our diplomas, and instead connect with one another as the body of Christ.

Now in no way am I saying you shouldn’t take pride in your institution. We should be proud of where we come from and our education. But we can’t let our location or alma mater divide us, even if we don’t agree on every single facet of life.

In a lot of ways, Twitter is self-indulgent and, as a comedian recently put it, a major “time suck.” However, I truly believe it’s allowing us to bridge the gap from knowing each other as “colleges” to knowing each other as people and fellow believers.

We can argue all day about our differences, but when push comes to shove, we’re definitely more alike than some want to admit.

Maybe something as simple as a “tweet” will lead our denomination to a level of unification that we haven’t seen for many years.

Lessons We Should Learn From Twitter…

1. Even Celebrities Are People Too…
Twitter has allowed us to bring celebrities down to our level. We find out what John Mayer is thinking at 1 AM, we get to hear Shaq’s thoughts on life, and also get to find out what Ashton Kutcher ate for dinner. In many ways Twitter humanizes everything for us.

2. …But We’re Not Quite as Special or Popular as We Sometimes Think We Are
Sometimes we get into the mindset that there are millions of people who are just waiting to get our tweets. We’d like to think people are lining up around the block just to catch what we will say next. We want people to think of us as the “Dark Knight” of Twitter…high anticipation. The truth is, most of your stuff probably doesn’t get read. If it does, it’s probably not getting ready by the people you want it to be read by. Just because you send a Tweet doesn’t mean all of America wants to see it or cares to see it. You ate a tuna sandwich today? Great. But I doubt too many people care. You may reply to Jimmy Fallon or Demi Moore, but do you really think they care or know what you have to say? Maybe they’re not selfish people, but when someone has 200,000 followers, you’re gonna get lost in the background. Don’t let Twitter make you think too highly of yourself.

3. There IS such a thing as TMI.
I don’t need to know every detail about your life. I especially don’t need to know the gross, disgusting, personal details. If you wouldn’t say it to your boss or pastor, please don’t say it to the rest of the world. Also, if you’re going to go on vacation, it might be better if you decline to tell the world where you’re going, how long you’ll be gone, the location of your house, and how your security system quit working yesterday.

4. EVERYONE Has a Blog (and most of them are mediocre)
Is this the pot calling the kettle black? You betcha! The truth is, everyone has a blog these days. I want readers, you want readers, Curt Schilling wants readers, everyone wants readers. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with wanting people to read your opinions. But just remember…it’s 2009. Having a blog is not like having a column for the New York Times. There’s no need to brag or remind us every 5 seconds of your link.

5. We All Want to Be Liked and Loved
Do we Tweet to create a person journal of statements that are less than 140 characters? No. We Tweet because we want people to like us and love us. Why? Because we all have a desire to be liked and loved and share our stories and findings with the rest of the world.

6. We Have Selfish Tendencies
This one is no fun, but it’s true. We often have the mentality that says “Oh! I’ll follow this person and hope he or she will follow me.” Do we care about the person we’re following? Eh, sometimes. Do we simply follow someone in hopes that he or she will follow us and bring more attention to us? It’s possible!

7. Our Speling and Grammar Is Awful
I know Twitter is a nice “on the go” piece of technology, but seriously people, proofread your tweets. Unfortunately it seems like athletes are the worst. This just fuels the stereotype that some athletes have no intelligence and get by on skill alone.

8. Our Lives Are Consumed By Technology
Twenty years ago you had to use a house phone or pay phone to make a phone call. Now you can text, tweet, or call from inside a bathroom stall. Unfortunately we often let this consume too much of our lives. Technology isn’t bad in and of itself. But when we let it take over our lives, it means that we’re sacrificing something else and replacing it with our new technology. Hopefully the things we sacrifice don’t include time with family, time with friends, time spent reading, time spent praying, etc.