A Twitter War in the Christian Community

By Rod Anderson, CP Cartoonist Wednesday, April 02, 2014

An ugly and public Twitter war broke out last week between two Christians over allegations that one, a popular Christian writer, had inaccurately interpreted the other person's tweets. For a medium that attracts passionate and opinionated comments, the argument only exemplified the obvious: not all Christians think alike.

In a blog post titled "Setting the Record Straight on Jesus, 'the Friend of Sinners,'" Jonathan Merritt explained that after he tweeted in January "about Christian singer Natalie Grant walking out of The Grammys, Joe Carter, prominent Calvinist and director of communications for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission rhetorically asked, 'Didn't [Jesus] only welcome those seeking forgiveness?' He went on to agree with another that, "The sinners Jesus partied with were already followers."

"Theological sirens blared inside my head as Carter doubled down on his assertion that Jesus wasn't really a friend of sinners, but I assumed it was probably a fringe view I wouldn't likely encounter again," continued Merritt, who used his Twitter conversation with Carter as the lead for his story about Christ, embedding tweets at the bottom of his article to support his case.