Christianity via Twitter

For this week's post I will look at three more examples of how religion is lived out online through the Twitter accounts of Max Lucado, Hood Jesus and Revered Run Wisdom. I gathered two tweets from each account that was posted on September 25th and then one tweet from each account from today, September 26th. 

The following are screenshots of the collected tweets: 

September 25th Tweets: 

September 26th Tweets: 

This week I really wanted to look at how each account personalizes their tweets to their target audience as well as how their tweets are a complete representation of themselves and their own beliefs. 


When analyzing my data for the week I wanted to think particularly about the following: 

1. How do the three accounts use Twitter and their tweets to portray their personal religious beliefs? Are they unique with their tweets? How do their tweets compare to each other as well as other Twitter users? 

Max Lucado, Hood Jesus and Reverend Run Wisdom all use their tweets in very similar fashions. Particularly, they tweet inspirational messages to promote a positive message. After reading through the three account's tweets I have come to realize that all of the tweets by Hood Jesus are Christian faith based and inspirational while sometimes tweets by Rev Run or Max Lucado are personal to their own lives and do not necessarily have anything to do with their faith. (Although the majority of their tweets are inspirational based). 

Hood Jesus is extremely unique with their tweets. The account has been notorious for taking references to popular culture and adding a Christian spin to their meaning. For example, the tweet from Hood Jesus which reads "Da only bandz dat should make her dance are dem weddin bandz!!" This is in direct reference to a popular rap song by Juicy J called "bandz." The song is referring to rubber bands around the rapper's stacks of money that he is using at a strip club. Hood Jesus is obviously referring to wedding rings in the tweet. Max Lucado and Rev Run often tweet Biblical verses- so they are less unique in comparison to Hood Jesus. 

Compared to each other Max Lucado and Rev Wisdom tweet in similar ways as I wrote before. They both tweet inspirational messages alongside personal thoughts. Hood Jesus, on the other hand, is an anonymous account dedicated completely to sharing Christian themed tweets to a predominately college based audience. 

2. How do the accounts use pictures, links, etc to effect the message of their Tweets? 

All three accounts tweet pictures and links. Often times the links that are posted connect readers to a website mentioned in the tweet, to a blog post or an area where longer than 140 characters are allowed to be typed. Pictures enhance the tweets of all three tweeters by just adding a visual to the message.

3. What is the main goal of each tweet being posted? What religious ideas are they promoting? 
Hood Jesus: "The only bandz that should make her dance are dem weddin bandz!!"

Refers to popular rap song-- promotes the Christian idea of the sanctity of marriage. 

Hood Jesus: "Love thy neighbor as u love dem Starbucks seasonal drinks"

Refers to one of the ten commandments "Love thy neighbor as thy self" and promotes the Christian idea of not idolizing the things of the world. 

Hood Jesus: "Christian dude needa be like 'Girl is dat a mirror in your Bible? Cuz you is reflectin the mirror of Christ!

Refers to a common value held by Christians of the importance to find a Godly spouse. 

Rev Run: "Daily Prayer: Lord please guide my feet into happiness, health, success &blessings Psalms 37:23 Lord order my steps pls" 

Refers directly to scripture. 

Rev Run: "Your faith is your fortune" 

Refers to the idea that salvation through Christ is the ultimate prize.

Rev Run: "Assume it's going to be GOOD and doubt the BAD"

Portrays a positive outlook on life and hard times which are parallel with Christian teachings. 

Max Lucado: "Going through hard times? Lean on God's people and share your prayer request on the #Youllgetthroughthis prayer wall. (link)" 

References the idea of power through prayer

Max Lucado: "God promises to render beauty out of "all things," not "each thing." The ultimate culmination is good. #youllgetthroughthis" 

Inspires readers to remain hopeful through hard times promoting the Christian idea that Christ ultimately offers all hope. 

Max Lucado: "Is God good when the outcome is not? #Youllgetthroughthis" 

Promotes the idea that God Is Good and ultimately so--- refers to God's omniscience


Overall, I have found that each account is really good about tailoring each of their tweets to their desired target audience. Hood Jesus attracts the college aged by referring to popular culture. Max Lucado offers helpful encouragement to those who are suffering (a slightly older crowd than that of Hood Jesus). Rev Run's audience falls in the middle of Hood Jesus and Max Lucado age wise. 

Comparing Tweets over a Week

After discussing my original case proposal I thought it would be better to add another twitter account to be analyzed in order to broaden the scope of the research. I am still analyzing twitter accounts. One account, Max Lucado's, is the example of the official religion twitter account because he is the one of the three that is an actual practicing preacher. The Hood Jesus account and Revered Run Wisdom's account would be the examples of a lived religion. 

I took three tweets from each account during a span of a week. I selected tweets from September 15th, 14th and 12th. The following tweets I selected are below: 

Twitter as a social media platform is unique compared to other forms because it allows the audience to directly interact with the one posting the tweets. It creates the facade of a personal relationship with the tweeter because you are able to correspond back and forth with each other. Most times celebrities and other well-known accounts will interact with their followers on a regular basis. This gives a more colloquial feel to religion as opposed to a traditional more structured view of communicating religion. Twitter opens up the dialogue for religious conversation. Those tweeting devotional tweets are exposing themselves to possible direct reticule and backlash from followers or random people who happen upon their posts. This opens vast options for both those trying to send out a positive Christian message as well as the consumer of those messages. It opens many doors to those creating the messages because it allows for the previously mentioned closer relationships with those following the messages. It also allows the message creator 24/7 access to the consumer because they can constantly update their twitter feed rather than waiting to put out a certain message on Sunday mornings during a church service. They can be in constant communication with the congregation leading to what some might see, in Max Lucado's case, as a stronger bond between the pastor and his clergy. It offers many avenues for those running the Hood Jesus account as well as Rev Run because they are given an audience of what could be millions to spread a message. The possibility of such audience gives a lot of power to the hands it is put. Twitter also offers limitations as well. Twitter is limiting in that you can only write a 140 character message. Often times that can inhibit the content of the message you are trying to present or forces you to summarize a more complex thought. Often times, if quoting Biblical scripture, the quote is much longer than the allotted character space and a paraphrase is necessary. Paraphrasing can often be tricky because depending on the paraphraser's interpretation of the scripture can completely alter another's understanding of that same scripture. Also with Twitter's space restraints no previous context is allowed which can sometimes result in mixed messages. 

After reading through the chosen Tweets by my selected accounts it is apparent all three Twitter user's goal is to promote a positive message through Christian ideals. The primary message each seem to be communicating are as follows:

• Despite hard times, do not worry because God is in control
• Salvation through Christ is the ultimate prize

Just by studying three tweets over a week span from each account I was able to get a good understanding of what kind of future tweets I can expect from each account. Max Lucado, as expected, tweets very traditional values and scripture. Rev Run tweets sometimes seem lyrical as if he were rapping them. Hood Jesus tweets using slang term and abbreviated words to express the feeling of rap-like speak. Despite all of the major differences in syntax the overwhelming theme of all three accounts is that Christianity and positivity are the answer. 

Hood Jesus vs. Max Lucado

            For my Religious Communication class we were asked to formulate a case study analyzing religion's role in new media. I wanted to do research over a medium that I use daily so of course I thought of Twitter. The following is my case study proposal: 

          Although often a taboo topic, religion has remained a consistent facet in life since the dawn of time. This is even found true in the modern technological era. Religion has transcended any previous restrictive barriers and is now predominantly displayed via the Internet through every social networking medium. Twitter is no exception. Both famous Protestant pastors as well as no-named parody accounts of Jesus Christ himself litter the web. The proposed case study will be an in-depth comparison of three Christian faith-based Twitter accounts. The first being the personal Twitter account of famous San Antonio based evangelical pastor and author Max Lucado. Max Lucado's account would be an example of official religion. The second is the anonymous Jesus Christ parody account known as “Hood Jesus” and the third is the personal twitter account of Reverend Run Wisdom. "Rev Run" is a former rapper from Run DMC turned inspirational tweeter. The case study will include a comparison of daily inspirational tweets, use the content of the two accounts to assess how religion is displayed over social media, compare follower’s responses to similar tweets via “favorite” and “retweet” tracking as well as attempt to better understand whether or not the prevalence of well-known religious heads alongside holy parody accounts and inspirational figures affects the perceived sacredness of religion.

            The comparison of the three Twitter accounts will prove interesting because they are all centered around Christian ideals, yet, they represent two polar ends of society. Max Lucado is prestigious, wealthy and educated while the anonymous Hood Jesus parody account pokes fun at society’s obsession with hip-hop music through the translation of Bible scripture into pop culture references and lyrics in each tweet. Rev Run Wisdom also represents pop culture through his previous rapping history, yet promotes a positive Christian message alongside rap culture. One account is straight laced and serious while the Hood Jesus account is a silly rendition of turning “rap life” into “real life.” Rev Run holds a middle ground; He is a prominent figure in society but still promotes the same popular culture which Hood Jesus resides. By comparing the three accounts the study will strive to answer the question of whether or not religion is losing its’ reverence by engaging in both comical, serious and popular outlooks of one’s beliefs over the same social media platform.