- Feb 5, 2002
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EDITORIAL: Since its earliest days, the Church has taught that Christians sometimes must fast to overcome particularly grave evils.
Since its earliest days, the Church has taught that Christians sometimes must fast to overcome particularly grave evils.
The recent escalation of political violence — on display yet again last week via the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump and other members of his cabinet at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington — is a spiritual and social disorder of the highest magnitude.
In these current circumstances, a collective fast from social media would be a particularly suitable antidote. That’s because social-media misuse appears to have contributed directly to last week’s thwarted attack as well as to other recent politicized violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The email “manifesto” of the would-be assassin reeks of the overheated rhetoric that social-media toxicity fosters. He also appears to have engaged extensively online with the progressive-minded Bluesky social-media platform.
A Bluesky account using the same “coldforce” nickname as the shooter’s email manifesto frequently denounced President Trump as a “traitor” and in recent months expressed growing frustration with nonviolent protests against his administration’s policies. The account was taken offline by the platform two days after the assassination attempt for violating company policies prohibiting “posts that amplify misinformation, or glorify violence or harm.”
Of course, social media can be used in non-harmful ways. But fasting, as in the case of food and drink, isn’t primarily about avoiding intrinsic evils. Instead, it’s ordered towards restoring our priorities and overcoming unhealthy attachments to worldly things. And our nation exhibits all the signs of an abusive dependency upon social media.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Since its earliest days, the Church has taught that Christians sometimes must fast to overcome particularly grave evils.
The recent escalation of political violence — on display yet again last week via the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump and other members of his cabinet at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington — is a spiritual and social disorder of the highest magnitude.
In these current circumstances, a collective fast from social media would be a particularly suitable antidote. That’s because social-media misuse appears to have contributed directly to last week’s thwarted attack as well as to other recent politicized violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The email “manifesto” of the would-be assassin reeks of the overheated rhetoric that social-media toxicity fosters. He also appears to have engaged extensively online with the progressive-minded Bluesky social-media platform.
A Bluesky account using the same “coldforce” nickname as the shooter’s email manifesto frequently denounced President Trump as a “traitor” and in recent months expressed growing frustration with nonviolent protests against his administration’s policies. The account was taken offline by the platform two days after the assassination attempt for violating company policies prohibiting “posts that amplify misinformation, or glorify violence or harm.”
Of course, social media can be used in non-harmful ways. But fasting, as in the case of food and drink, isn’t primarily about avoiding intrinsic evils. Instead, it’s ordered towards restoring our priorities and overcoming unhealthy attachments to worldly things. And our nation exhibits all the signs of an abusive dependency upon social media.
Continued below.
Fasting From Social Media to Combat Political Violence
EDITORIAL: Since its earliest days, the Church has taught that Christians sometimes must fast to overcome particularly grave evils.
