Thoughts On The "Red Facebook Explosion"

An interesting phenomenon happened on Facebook recently that thoroughly caught my attention. Anyone who logged on to the social networking outlook on Tuesday, March 26th and Wednesday, March 27th would have seen it. Thousands of profile pictures changed to this red and pink equals sign, painting everyone’s Newsfeeds in a sea of red.

The image being used was a modification of the logo for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC is an advocacy group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals), typically a yellow equals sign with a navy background. This trend was inspired because on March 26th and 27th the U.S. Supreme Court heard cases regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8—the California ban on same-gender marriage—and DOMA—officially “Defense of Marriage Act,” which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-gender marriages as marriage, thereby prohibiting the federal government from granting them the 1,100 or so federal benefits for married couples regardless of which state they live in.

Now, I am well privy to the type of groundswell movements that often take place on social networks. Granted, most of the time it goes something like this: my Facebook Newsfeed is suddenly swarmed with “GO BIG RED!!” statuses, and I instantly know the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing. But this was much bigger than that, because EVERYONE—coast to coast—would have seen it.

A Routine Self-Evaluation That Does Not Happen Often Enough

I spent this holiday season staying at school instead of going home. So over winter break here at seminary, while nearly everyone else was gone, I spent a lot of time with just myself. And this gave me some considerable time to do some long-overdue self-reflection.

I had the opportunity to just sit myself down and say, “Self, what is going on with you these days?”—Although, for me personally it was more like: “Self, how is that career discernment thing going?” A part of me still has no clue exactly what I will be doing with my life when I am done with my time here. However, that has not stopped me from spending a good deal of time getting prepared for my Field Education next year (think of it as an internship I get credit for).

More recently, my bouts of self-reflection have come up once again during my courses for this semester. I am currently taking an Educational Psychology course and a Neuroscience course—that is right, you are not wrong…I am still attending seminary—so I have been inclined to do some of my own personal childhood development reflections from when I was a kid. Personally, I actually find all of this science/sociology stuff to be absolutely fascinating, and in many ways applicable to ministry.