Not Being God’s Friend/Fan on Facebook

This morning I had a little bit of a “are you kidding me” moment when I was cruising around Facebook.  I was looking at the suggested friends area when I saw the Facebook computers thought I should be a friend/fan of God.  Hmmm.

I get rather annoyed when the recommendations are organizations, celebrities or fan pages.   And I must admit I was equally turned off when I saw the God page.  Of course my first thought was, “Is that wrong?”  Am I a bad person for clicking the "x" button to take the God fan page off the list?  For me, the answer is no.  I’m not turning my back on God, or saying I’m not a real friend/fan of God, but I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do on Facebook.  Plus in the end, it's Facebook.  Not church.  Not my heart.  But Facebook.

Here’s why I say no to the God page:

1.    Are we that desperate? Are we so desperate to show the world we’re Christian that we need to sign on to anything God related?  You can already list yourself as Christian.  You can even post all the religious content you want.  Why do you need to sign up on a fan page too?

2.    Look at the content. What are you getting from joining this page?  Right now all I see are a million plus people signed up to a fan page where the majority of picture are cats wearing glasses.  There doesn’t seem to be any sort benefit like a daily scripture reading or some sort of good spiritual growth content.  I think many people pick who they follow on Facebook because they think those people or groups are interesting.  What’s the intriguing part of God’s Facebook page?

3.    Our God is better than a Facebook fan page. I don’t consider myself to be all that serious of a person, but really, God deserves better than a fan page set up by who knows who.  There are lots of religious organizations on Facebook who are working to build and enrich the Kingdom.  I say friend them instead.

I realize this could be looked at as an over-reaction.  Sure it’s fun to say, “I’m God’s friend on Facebook.”  But really, as Christians, can’t we send a better message?  Doesn’t it say you’re a true friend/fan of God if your friends with people and fans of organizations on Facebook who are truly living godly lives or trying to make a difference in the name of Christ?