What does silence mean on social media?

The recent and continued conversation about what is going on with Planned Parenthood poses an interesting question: what does silence from typically vocal supporters mean on social media? Yes, #StandwithPP is out there, but interestingly enough the initial tweet from PP that read, "Friends who #StandwithPP: stay strong. The anti-abortion minions want to bully us into silence. That's not happening." With an attached gif of a Universal's Minion dropping a mic has been deleted, possibly because of the responses it received.

For Planned Parenthood it should be a terribly awkward thing, and it seems they are trying their best to get past that initial shock, which is happening again with this video released this morning. And yes, Nish Weiseth is right that, “Everyone will internalize information differently on any given day because of their lived experience.”

But when the outcry for justice outweighs the voices of your supporters over time, an institution should take heed of the cries. It should really begin a line of questioning wherein the decisions to be part of such an organization (whether as an employee or as a supporter) are brought to center-stage. It is possible that the effort to save face does not, and should not keep one from admitting one’s mistakes and therefore repent of those mistakes.

Social media provides something that the mainstream media isn’t doing, namely it’s providing the news on how we can work to see Planned Parenthood defunded, and Lord willing, disbanded. As I said in an earlier post, “We can choose to ignore this gore, or look it full in the face and demand that this holocaust of prodigious numbers come to a swift and final end.”

My prayer is that we, as Christians believing that every life is valuable, speak out clearly on social media to #DefundPP. Our collective voice cannot be drowned out, and we are offered video upon video upon video of proof that shows the horrific carnage that is Planned Parenthood. 

If history remembers anything of this online conversation let it not be that Christians were silent. Speak up. Be heard.