by Bob Sullivan
I have had a pretty active Facebook account for many years. Early on, I was involved in some long discussions with advocates for our culture’s favorite sins such as abortion, homosexual sex, and well, that’s just about it, because nearly every other discussion on a moral issue came down to these two basic things. I also had a number of discussions with people regarding faith, especially their misunderstanding or dislike of Christianity and often Catholic Christianity. I even joined Facebook Groups such as Planned Parenthood groups, anti-Catholic groups, and more political groups such as Catholic Democrats, in order to engage in the discussion of these contentious issues and ideas with the staunchest advocates and activists on Facebook.
Such conversations have become much less common over the years. In most cases, the opposition probably decided I was just too ignorant or dull. Others probably went away because they were not even that firm in their own beliefs, and decided it was better to avoid the conversation than to potentially learn that they were not thinking clearly.
I actually suspect the latter was pretty common, based on the fact that proponents of things like abortion, gender ideology, homosexuality, and other liberal political issues rarely responded to questions I would pose to them. If I simply asked an abortion advocate what “choice” does “pro-choice” stand for, they would, 99% of the time, end the conversation without another word. If I asked an LGBT advocate if they knew some of the health risks of engaging in homosexual sex, the same result would commonly come about. They would simply vanish from the conversation.
There is no doubt that I irritated and even enraged many people behind their Facebook accounts over the years. I’m actually surprised that I wasn’t put in “Facebook jail” on dozens of occasions. In fact, I was never disciplined by Facebook at any time. Maybe this was because I was small-fry for the politically correct Facebook “police.” Or maybe I escaped the spying eyes and ears of Facebook because I always tried to be courteous and polite, even in the face of rage, vindictiveness, and frequent logical fallacy, especially attacks on my own character. Yes, there were times when I stooped to being snarky or petty. Hey, I’m no saint. However, for the most part, I erred on the side of passivity as opposed to aggressiveness.
I found that when conversations became heated, which was fairly common when my “friends” list included many people who fervently disagreed with the Christian approach to life, I could retain my composure as long as I remembered that I wasn’t really discussing much with the person in front of me, I was actually having a conversation with numerous others who were quietly following the conversation. I knew others were often quietly following these conversations because a number of people sent me emails or texts over the years, or they stopped me at events or at the grocery store, to tell me so. In most cases the people said they appreciated the conversation and my willingness to wade into such issues with people who were often regarded as superior in intelligence or highly educated (often two different things).
On other occasions, the slurs or denigrating comments from people I knew to be fairly or highly liberal, showed that my more conservative acquaintances were not the only people checking in on these conversations. Sometimes I would even receive words of encouragement from people I knew to be fairly or highly liberal.
Alas, all that has come to an end. Due to various reasons, I have not been as active on Facebook for the last year or so. Yet, Facebook finally got around to noticing that I was not their type. It all seems to have come to a head in a very unlikely situation. The March For Life was coming up, and I had volunteered to go along with the diocese as a chaperone for the high school students. In early January, in an effort to promote a little discussion on Facebook, I posted a picture from the March For Life on the Catholic Democrats page. Above the picture I simply wrote: “Who else is going?”
The picture quickly caught some attention from the other members of the group and they began hitting the “dislike” or “angry” button. One individual said he would go if they were truly promoting life. I asked him if he had ever been to the March For Life, and he replied “no.” I then assured him that I had been several times and that the March is authentically pro-life.
That may have been the last thing I posted on Facebook, as shortly thereafter Facebook notified me that I had failed to follow their “community standards” and my account had been temporarily disabled. Last week Facebook informed me that my account was permanently disabled. The verdict was in, and I was sentenced to a Facebook execution. It is a little ironic that my March For Life post may have been my march to Facebook’s gallows.
It was an unbloody, painless, and secret execution unlike Tyburn Square. In reality, I was simply banished from a frequently dull and gloomy virtual world known as Facebook. While I am somewhat dismayed that I won’t be able to engage in apologetics and debate on Facebook anymore (unless I can somehow start a new account without being detected by Facebook cyber security), I know there are still others out there who have not yet been rounded up and banished. All I can say is, carry on.
Maybe I’ll start posting more on the equally censor-happy Twitter where I am @BobSullivan87 since Twitter hasn’t caught me yet.
