Shaping the Conversation (Acts 17: 16-31)

The Aeropagus was a grand setting to give a speech; not all that different from the Lincoln Memorial, really.  A magnificent public space.  And like Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr., when Paul spoke at the Aeropagus, he was trying to shape the conversation society was having about a given topic.

For Paul, the topic was God and how one could know God through Jesus Christ.  There were a lot of different voices in this conversation, all proclaiming the best way to connect with God.  To help get their message across, the various voices employed different methods, and one of the methods was erecting idols and statues throughout the city of Athens.

The voices in our society today are increasingly using social media – things like Twitter – to be heard, and to shape the conversation our society is having in the 21^st century.

A few weeks ago, I decided to do some summer sermons based on what’s trending on twitter, and when I looked to see what was, in fact, trending, here’s what I found.  On the day I looked, the most popular hashtags included:

#onlyonxboxone

#quesarito

#mtvkickoff

#ipadgames

#xboxE3

#sbc14 (that’s the Southern Baptist Convention)

Now, why did Twitter show me these hashtags?  A few were tailored for me.  That is, Twitter knows what I’m interested in, what I click on, what I search for on Twitter, and uses that information to show me what it thinks I would be interested in. 

That probably accounts for the hashtag that refers to the Southern Baptist Convention.  Twitter knows I’m interested in religion; because of that, and because so many other people were posting about the convention that day, Twitter assumed I would be interested in the convention.

But for most of these trending hashtags, there’s a different reason why they showed up as being popular.  The reason they showed up was because corporations paid to have them show up.

Yes, you can pay to have Twitter display your hashtag and make it appear that everyone is talking about your product.  If you are a big enough corporation with enough money and a product that is exciting, spending some of your money will ensure that your product is what is being talked about on Twitter.

In other words, your money can shape the conversation.

It’s not just Twitter.  I’ve discovered, with our own Bixby Knolls Christian Church facebook page, that even though over 230 people have ‘liked’ our facebook page, only a tiny percentage of them will see anything that we post there.  Why?  Because most of the time, we’re not paying Facebook anything.  Facebook wants us to pay them in exchange for more people seeing what we post.  No money, no visibility.

If you want to shape the conversation online, it certainly helps to have money.

Now, we try to get around this by encouraging the few people who do see what is posted on our facebook page to share it on their own pages.  I will often post something on the church facebook page, then share it on my personal facebook page, because that increases the number of people who see it.  If all of us who are on facebook did that, then our church facebook page would be seen by a lot more people.

But facebook knows that most people won’t share, and that many people, organizations, and corporations will pay to share their information.  They will pay.  They will use their money to shape the conversation.

This all points to the powerful influence that consumerism and advertising have on social media trends, and on society in general.  Corporate money is what guides the conversation in our society.  Money given to social media sites.  Money given to newspapers.  Money given to politicians and political action committees. 

It’s worth it to corporations to spend money in order to shape the conversation.  Exxon and Walmart, the biggest and most profitable companies in America, spend millions of dollars to shape the conversation, and give millions of dollars to political organizations, all to shape the conversation.  When the conversation comes around to taxes, the focus is on how corporations like Exxon and Walmart create jobs and benefit America.  The conversation usually ignores how big and profitable these companies are, and that despite their enormous profits, they still receives enormous tax subsidies, and yet pay abysmally low wages.

Exxon, Walmart, and other big corporations, are very good at using their massive amounts of money to shape the conversation.

This is a justice issue.  Jesus would be very concerned about this.  Jesus was always concerned when those with power and influence use their position to make life harder for society’s poorest people.  And so we have to ask ourselves:  is it morally acceptable that American tax money should be spent to add to the already large profits of corporate America, while the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen? 

I read a news article the other day about the Olive Garden, and how it and similar restaurants are struggling.  That’s why Olive Garden is changing its menu and changing its logo. 

The problem is that restaurants like the Olive Garden attract people who are middle class, people who can afford a moderately nice dinner out on a regular basis.  But that middle class is disappearing.  The majority of America has seen its income level drop in recent years, and can’t afford to eat out at the Olive Garden very often, while the small but extremely wealthy one percent at the top want much more than the Olive Garden offers.  

Obviously this is bad news for the Olive Garden, but it’s also bad news for America, since it shows the growing disparity of wealth in this country.  How can we shape the conversation, to make economic justice and morality and fairness trending topics in society?

It’s not always easy, but there are ways.  The first is to recognize when the trending topics are being manipulated by corporations and those with hidden motives.  For example: the new xbox is a trending topic.  Everyone is talking about it.  And so anyone who’s anyone notices that, and thinks, “Wow, everyone’s talking about the new xbox, I need to get one!”

But if we stop and see who is lighting the fire of this trending conversation, we see that it’s being driven by the advertisers, who are doing everything they can to convince you that everyone has an xbox – everyone except you, that is.  And surely, you don’t want to be the only one without an xbox, do you?  You don’t want to be left out.  Better rush out and get one!

If we want to shape the conversation in a new direction, we need to recognize who is shaping it now, and why and how they are shaping it; and we need to be prepared to resist the tide, go against the flow, and start our own conversation.

And that may make us feel lonely at first, and perhaps a little lost…

Last weekend, I was up in the mountains, staying at a cabin not too far from Lake Arrowhead with my extended family.  On Saturday we went to the shopping village in downtown Lake Arrowhead – or, as I liked to call it, downtown L.A.  (My sweet, loving sister promptly labelled me a “dork” for doing so.)

There are a lot of shops there; and they all had signs outside that said things like, “sale,” “buy one, get one free,” “up to 80% off.”  Make no mistake, there were some good deals to be had. 

But did I need anything?  According to all the signs, not only did I need to buy stuff, but I better do it soon, because “these deals won’t last!”  This is the conversation that these signs were trying to start; and one look around at all the people walking about with their shopping bags was enough to tell me that the signs were working.

Everyone was shopping.  Everyone was taking part in the conversation, which, of course, was started by the advertising they saw around them.  Nobody was walking around saying, “I don’t need anything.”  And there certainly weren’t any signs that said “There’s nothing here you need.”  Statements like that may have been true, but they were not a part of the conversation.

 In fact, everyone walking around had arrived pre-conditioned to accept the parameters of the conversation, because of all the ads and TV shows and movies that constantly show well-dressed people living in nice homes and driving shiny new cars, with big smiles on their faces… Every day, we see these smiling people with their nice things, and the conversation that plays in our minds in a never ending loop is a conversation about how one needs to have nice things – new things – in order to be happy, in order to have that smile on your face.

Well, I had decided ahead of time to have my own conversation.  I’ve learned that new, shiny things really aren’t what make me happy.  And yeah, maybe having my own conversation meant I would be talking to myself, but I was prepared to do that. 

I arrived with an old travel mug filled with my favorite green tea, and a book.  And after we grabbed some lunch, I found a shady bench with a view of the lake, and sat down by myself to read, and drink my tea.

I did pause every now and then to look up, and watch kids feeding ducks.  Now that I think about it, feeding ducks seemed to bring them more smiles than the bags full of merchandise that their parents were carrying.

I also saw boats on the lake.  At one point, I watched a group of six young adults wearing bikinis and board shorts pile into a fancy speedboat. I could see their suntanned bodies and awesomely cool sunglasses.  Once they got all settled, they pulled away from the dock and headed out for some fun and sun on the lake.

And I thought, “they’re really living the life.”

And it was then that the conversation in my mind took a turn for the worse.  What kind of a life was I living?  Shouldn’t I have nice things?  Don’t I deserve to bask in the sun on a fancy speedboat?  Forget being a pastor.  I need a job with less stress and more money, so I can afford all these nice things and be able to live the life.

Yes, I was feeling jealous.  Jealous of those who had so many more nice things than I had.  Jealous of those who were able to work hard and get these nice things.

And here I was, just sitting on a bench.  Shouldn’t I work harder so I can earn more and afford nice things?

At that moment, a woman walked by.  She saw me, stopped, and said, “now that’s what I want!”  I was confused.  She wasn’t looking at the speedboat, or the well-dressed people walking by with their shopping bags full; she was looking at me.

Seeing my confusion, she added, “I want some time; time to just sit; just sit on a bench and read a book.  That would be heaven!”

And then she rushed off.

And then, I realized that, for a moment, I had allowed society to shape the conversation in my mind, yet at the same time, just by sitting there, almost in defiance of the conversation going on around me, I had helped shape the conversation in a different direction in someone else’s mind. I had helped them see – even as I nearly forgot it myself – that heaven and happiness aren’t found in speedboats or beautifully tanned bodies or shopping bags full of new clothes.  Believe it or not, heaven and happiness aren’t even found in Xboxes or ipads or quesaritos.

The truth is that we are always shaping the conversation.  The question is: how are we shaping it?

We need to be aware of how we are shaping the conversation, just as Paul was aware of how he was shaping the conversation in Athens.

This is what a group of people are doing today in North Carolina.  For over a year, protesters have railed against the “extremist” policies of the North Carolina legislature, and now they are launching a bold initiative to get out the vote.

The movement is known as Moral Mondays, and it’s led by Rev. William J. Barber II, head of the North Carolina NAACP, a man who brought the Disciples of Christ General Assembly to their feet in applause when he spoke last year in Orlando.  This man is a powerful shaper of the conversation, and for me, his brief moment on stage was a highlight of the Assembly.

Last week, standing on the steps of the North Carolina statehouse, looking – I imagine – much like Paul on the steps of the Aeropagus, he said: “We have exposed the hypocrisy, now is the time to organize.”

3,500 protesters from across the state attended the mass demonstration, and many of them are now working throughout the state organizing and registering voters.  They’re calling it the Moral Freedom Summer, and they plan to continue drawing attention to the policies of the North Carolina state legislature, policies which include rolling back voter protections, denying abortion rights, cutting unemployment benefits, failing to expand Medicaid and shifting public education money to private schools.

“Every major religion shares the ultimate value that how you use public power is how you treat the least of these,” Rev. Barber told the crowd. “We are winning and shifting the center of political gravity.”

William Barber is helping to shape the conversation, and we need to as well.

We need to care for the poor. We need to speak out for the oppressed.  We need to find ways of living that are less destructive to the environment. 

The conversation taking place in social media and in society may call us to lives of greater consumerism, lives that care more for our own well-being than the needs of others.  But if we can shape the conversation, turn it in a different direction, by what we say and how we live, then we can do our part to bring about God’s beloved community, the kingdom of God on earth.