Thursday, March 27, 2014

My Most Criminally Overlooked Tweet

I can't seem to let it go. Two weeks ago I tweeted the following:

John Piper, in case you're not familiar with him, is a pastor out of Minnesota. He's highly influential among the "neo-reformed" movement in conservative evangelicalism. It was Piper who famously tweeted "Farewell, Rob Bell," upon the release of Bell's book Love Wins, which landed Bell on the cover of Time Magazine. A tweet by Piper about a 500-page book by an unknown scholar on the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) launched it into bestseller territory. Piper is kind of a big deal. I imagined my Klout score going through the roof.

Nobody retweeted my tweet. Nobody favorited it. Nobody nothinged. I tried to start a meme:

Nobody joined in. Nobody expressed outrage on Piper's behalf. Nobody hashtagged. #Frownyface.

The original tweet was inspired by an infographic posted to Tim Challies's blog in mid-March that explained the history of the movement known as the "New Calvinism," of which Piper is a revered leader.

Midway through the infographic (circa 2006) was the performance by rapper Voice at Bethlehem Baptist Church, where Piper was the pastor. The notion of John Piper causing an explosion of rap's popularity in the mid-2000s was funny to me. I can picture Eminem, receiving his Grammy, rehearsing the litany of legends who shaped rap history, dropping Piper's name like it was hot. I can picture Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake giving a shout out to the Passion Conference during one of their regular odes to rap music. I can picture John Piper with grills on his teeth and pants on the ground. I can picture all these things. But for whatever reason I couldn't get a meme going about it.

I can't seem to let it go. Pray for me, John Piper!

1 comment:

Mark Nelson said...

I must offer my sincerest apology...I loved the Piper tweets. I read them multiple times to a variety of friends...I should have taken it upon myself to retweet again and again and again...

Clearly I failed...

Seriously enjoyed them...in fact, if I remember correctly, it was an accurate description of why I did indeed watch the MASH finale...

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