Scripture for E-Mail, Blogs and Twitter

We've all sent an e-mail and forgotten to include the attachment we promise. But have you ever sent the wrong e-mail to the wrong person? Slate's Michael Agger has an interesting article "Can't Believe I Just Sent That" which describes a few e-mail horror stories and the fact that Gmail has recently announced an "unsend" feature that gives you an extra 5 seconds to rethink what you wrote.

This reminded me of James 1:19 that encourages us to be "slow to speak" in our conversations. It got me thinking how a certain passages of scripture, (with a few added phrases for our new electronic forms of communication), could be useful to inform our e-mailing, blogging and tweeting. A few suggestions with new words in italics:

Psalm 141:3
Set a guard, O Lord, over my keyboard;
keep watch over the door of my send button!

James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to read, slow to reply all, slow to click send.

Proverbs 10:19
When blogging is abundant, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his keyboard is prudent.

Proverbs 12:18
There is one whose comments on blogs are like sword thrusts, but the comments of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 14:7
Don't follow the Twitter feed of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

Proverbs 12:23
A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the Twitter feed of fools proclaims folly.

Comments (16)

That is funny!

Posted by Phil | April 6, 2009 11:11 AM

One problem I have with email is that sometimes I'll send an email and realize that I sounded really spaced out when I wrote it,so,I spend the next few hours agonizing over it before I remember to a)take it to God in prayer and b) send a new email clarifying my tone in the original message. Unfortunatly, I usually don't exactly get around to doing b) very often.

Posted by Irina H.F. | April 6, 2009 11:59 AM

Wow! How creative! I love it. Is it okay if I put these on my blog? (godordains.blogspot.com)

Posted by Kaylee Merwin | April 6, 2009 12:13 PM

i really liked these, they are very helpful.

Posted by micki | April 6, 2009 12:50 PM

Got a good laugh this morning, Josh...I just twittered it. :)

Posted by Aaron | April 6, 2009 12:51 PM

Brilliant

Posted by Gary | April 6, 2009 3:17 PM

Excellant advice. We should do all things in moderation (like all of the game appts.). Be slow to speak (as in comment to everything under the sun.) We should "Be still" and consider what we want to say and how we want to say it; especially if we are blunt to begin with, and we are tying to reply to one person privately but we hit "apply all" instead!
Have already been taken to task for some of my replys!
It also helps to seek God first, then reply (if we must!)

Posted by Fay Schneider | April 7, 2009 8:10 AM

Proverbs 18:24
A man of many Facebook companions may come to ruin,
but there is a real live friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Posted by Hammy | April 7, 2009 1:46 PM

If you subscribe to RSS Feeds, read just enough-- too many of them, and you will vomit. Proverbs 25:16

Posted by Carol Jean | April 7, 2009 2:32 PM

These are too cute! Thanks for sharing.

Posted by Paula Harrington | April 7, 2009 3:44 PM

How about:

"Not many of you should become bloggers, my brothers, for you know that we who blog will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he blogs, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body." James 3:1-2

Posted by Stacy | April 7, 2009 3:54 PM

While I emphatically agree that Biblical principles are applicable to modern forms of communication, I'm a little uncomfortable with changing inspired passages of Scripture to say things they don't say. The Bible is wholly adequate to inform our emailing, blogging, tweeting and Facebooking without being altered to specifically mention emailing, blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking.

And honestly, do we really believe that an individual who "friends" a wise person on Facebook automatically becomes wise, whereas a Facebook-friend of an unwise person suffers harm? (Facebook friends and real-life friends are two different things.) And will bloggers really be judged more strictly than non-bloggers? (Somehow, I don't think that's what James had in mind when he wrote Js. 3:1.)

Maybe I'm being overly cautious here, but modifying Scripture to say something it doesn't seems problematic...even if the intent is good.

Posted by Cap Stewart | April 7, 2009 5:23 PM

Good thoughts, Cap. Something that's mostly for fun can be taken too far. I think the general principle of applying what the Bible has to say about communication to modern forms of communication is probably as far as this idea should go.

Joshua

Posted by Joshua Harris | April 7, 2009 7:28 PM

Very funny, but very true at the same time. This is so timely and important for us to think about.

Cap, even though we may not like to change what the Bible says, it sometimes takes a subtle change like that to really point the truths of the Bible to our lives. We can always & should always go to the Word of God and see what it literally says...like a good Berean. :)

Thank-you Josh.

From a short-tempered blogger & quick-sender of e-mails.

Posted by Mark Myles | April 14, 2009 10:41 AM

Ha ha, nice.

P.S. Love your "captcha." Are you using WordPress? Is that a plug-in?

Posted by xgravity23 | April 15, 2009 4:51 PM

That's just great.

Posted by Gavin Veasey | April 17, 2009 11:56 AM

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