Twitter’s trending topics list continues to keep the company relevant while Facebook struggles without a real-time widget of its own. Twitter makes it easy to log-in, see what people are talking about, and join in on the conversation.
Most trending topics are either about the latest news or craze, while some are simply everyday statements like “goodnight.”
But something different and unusual hit the top of the trending topics list at the end of August: #howgoodisGod.
World Magazine wrote about the unlikely topic:
A poll asking that question spread among users—with answers ranging from “He’s the reason we all exist” to “NOT. look at all the pain/injustice!” “He makes a way out of no way,” wrote one. “God is the number one cause of death,” wrote another. But most of the 140-character responses were pro-God: “very good.” “Great enough to die for you.”
The twend continues. Last night God struck the top of the list again in the topic #thankuGod.
There’s no rhyme or reason as to why or when such religious tweets appear, but the message is loud and clear, even to the media.
2009 is the year the media embrace Twitter. News outlets large and small look to the social site to find out what’s going on and what people are talking about. Stories even break on Twitter.
The media often have a blind spot, however, when it comes to religion. Many news corporations pretend not to understand Christians and skimp when it comes to coverage of religious issues.
The news forgets that the majority of Americans claim to be Christian believers. Fortunately, Twitter serves as a reminder that the same nation that put God in the pledge and on the penny will praise God in the pews and in their tweets.
The message is a clarion call: “Just because we’re Christian doesn’t mean we don’t know what Twitter is.”
Christians are plugged into Bibles on iPhones, church podcasts, and GodTube sermons. The social appears to be the final frontier for the faithful.
Christians recognize that Twitter is growing. Ever-more-frequent God-tweets are signs that Christians have taken note of the site’s growing potential.
Twitter is now the 46th biggest property on the web (according to ComScore’s media metrix), with more than 20 million visitors every month. Christians have utilized the company’s rapid growth to show that the faithful still have a voice, and a loud one at that.
That’s typically unheard of in a world where fickle attention spans pay homage to fleeting and frivolous topics like Peyton Manning and Gossip Girl. Yet Christians are using the top ten list of top ten lists to witness in the digital age.
Twitter’s trending topics have become living tracts with real people rejoicing and praising God, sharing their stories, their love, their faith.
Christians have also started using Twitter to post prayer requests, church news, and send encouraging Bible verses. The 140-character limit makes it easy to find any number of uses for the service.
Putting God on the trend means reminding people of something far more important, lasting and personal than just the hot topic of the moment.
In a web overgrown with secularism, Christians have found their place in social networks, finally understanding that witnessing on the web is just as important as witnessing on the street, and perhaps even a bit more convenient.
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