I have a friend on Facebook who posts lots of “memes” as I think they are called. She used to post many that were actually uplifting and encouraging. Not sure why this has changed but she is 80 now. Maybe that is why, I don’t know. However, the ones she posts now that are supposed to be spiritual are really not. I think she thinks they are helpful.
The one that set me off today (I usually just ‘hide’ them and go on) made me think of some of the preaching in my ex-church. I hid it before I really got it memorized but what it said was “Hi, I’m Jesus. If you ignore me 3 times here, I will ignore you in Heaven.” The rest was the usual “Type Amen, like, share and are not ashamed of Me, if you don’t want to be ignored” and the unstated was “and go to Hell.” She is still part of a church that preaches the doctrine and fear. But when I see those memes I am brought back to those sermons that were meant to instill fear, guilt, shame into you to make sure you showed up in church, did everything the pastor said (even if you disagreed).
I am not ashamed of Jesus. He is the reason I am here. He has carried me for a long time through all the bad and all the good in my life. But I just can’t share those things that are meant to shame you into sharing and probably are something contrived just to see how many likes and shares that meme will get. It still triggers emotions in me that I thought were laid to rest.
I really don’t like those memes, either. They make God into something they can manipulate and control.