Christians, here is how we must respond to the Twitter files
Last week, on December 21, the FBI responded to the Twitter Files, which revealed the federal agency regularly contacted employees of the social media giant encouraging them to influence information being released on the Hunter Biden laptop and other potential stories that would impact the 2020 Presidential election.
While FBI officials told Fox News that the agency didn't ask Twitter employees to "take action" based on the information provided, and simply provided it in an effort to inform employees’ actions, their comments are difficult to believe.
There is evidence that the FBI paid Twitter $3.5 million to ban accounts of conservative voices. In fact, the volume of information that the FBI was pressuring Twitter to address was so much that an employee of the platform couldn’t keep up and had to recruit additional help.
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Naturally, those in America are angry about the push by the federal government to limit free speech. But if the truth is told, the suppression of speech has long been the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
From Hollywood to politicians, Mr. Hoover regularly used his power to influence and blackmail others. He also used his position at the Bureau to go after political dissidents and stay in power for nearly 50 years. Hoover used his influence and power of the FBI to intimidate men that made his life difficult, like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
The FBI influencing American culture and politics is nothing new. And it is unlikely they will stop just because of this exposure any more than they stopped in the past when these items were revealed about its former director.
Although this event is not necessarily a target on Christians, it is another example of our freedoms being diminished. This is why I wrote the book On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. As the targeting gets stronger, our voices get smaller and weaker. We can continue on the naïve path of crossing our fingers and hoping it doesn’t happen again. We can also hope that people of faith won’t be the next target.
However, that is not a strategy that will suffice. Hope is actually no strategy at all.
So how should people of faith respond to this latest information?
The first step is to determine if we have a duty to respond to this. Our response ought to be determined by whether this is a stand against evil, or an instance when failing to respond will put us at odds with what God dictates for us either in His Word or through communication with the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, we then need to know how to respond in a way that not only allows us to stand up against unrighteousness in this world but also provides us the opportunity to share the Gospel through our actions. This is exactly what the Church did during the first century and the success of its method is indisputable.
The question is not whether oppression is going to happen, but rather when. We ought to be upset when our government is preventing freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or freedom of religion, but we shouldn’t be surprised. We do need to be prepared as this continues because while it is not impacting you today, it could easily be you tomorrow.
Peter Demos is the president and CEO of Demos’ Brands and Demos Family Kitchen and a successful restaurateur, having founded six different Demos restaurant locations and 14 entities, including two PDK Southern Kitchen and Pantry restaurants across middle Tennessee. Demos returned to the hospitality industry after earning his law degree and is a highly requested speaker on the topics of leading with courage and purpose. Demos is a business thinker who applies his knowledge to the most important pursuit of life: God. Demos brings his biblical perspective and insight gained from his own struggles to guide others to truth and authenticity in a broken world. Demos is the author of On the Duty of Christian Civil Disobedience and Afraid to Trust. To learn more, visit peterdemos.org.
