platforms and pulpits and 'free speech'

I am getting the feeling that a lot of the Australian Christian response to Twitter dumping the US Prez's personal account is anchored in a fear of our own deplatforming on account of "saying things that are true but which lefty liberals don't like to hear".

Are we aware that our 'Christian platform' isn't Twitter or Facebook or Parler? Our 'Christian platform' isn't even the pulpit or our church services or our Christian events.

Our 'platform' is our lives - the intimate struggle of day in, day out that our neighbours and regular interactions bear witness to. That argument you had with your kids last night with the screen door open? Platform! That frown you always wear when you pick up your coffee in the morning? Platform! Picking up your neigbour's bin and refilling it after the teenaged vandals in the area spilled it? Platform! Offering eggs when the neighbour hasn't had breakfast? Platform! Growing a verge garden for people to freely pick from? Platform!

I mean, it's just living, and not as exciting as the thrill of knowing hundreds, nay, thousands, nay millions of people are hanging breathlessly on your every character. But a handful of people who love your character? Ask Paul how loving the people who were around him worked for 'platform'.

We don't *need* social media. We don't need to boycott it if we haven't been banned - it's not an either/or proposition. We just don't *need* it to continue to live lives of love and care and thoughtfulness to our society and people.