Should I allow unscrupulous people to follow me on twitter?

Several people have asked me that question, so I thought I would blog about it. Here are my thoughts:

I follow the same basic rules in the virtual world that I follow in the natural world.

1Th. 1:6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 

I allow anyone who wants to follow me on twitter to do so, the same as I would allow someone to follow me on my web site. Anyone can follow our Summit Church web site. Would I stop someone who is a sinner or a prostitute from going to my web site if I could? No. Then why would I stop someone from following my twitter posts. Yes, they may be trying to sell me porn, but I'm not concerned about that, because I'm not tempted or interested. How are we going to reach the world if we don't allow people to follow us as we follow Christ? When you are holy, then everything you tweet will be holy. And don't we want the world to see our tweets. Part of Summit Church's mission statement is to touch others with the touch we receive from God. I want to use twitter to edify believers and touch those who don't know the Lord. How will we do the latter, if we block them from following us as we follow Him?

In the natural if someone wanted to follow our ministry by coming to Summit Church, would we block them if they have an unholy lifestyle? Duh! Of course not. Ok, I think you get the point.

Here are some exceptions and safeguards:

1. If they have naked photographs or images associated with their profile, block them.

2. If you have challanges in the area of sexual sin or have just been freed from pornography, then yes, by all means, block those people from following you if you're not strong enough to handle the temptation.

3. When you find that someone is following you, you don't have to go to their page. However if you do visit their page, and find that it is garbage, don't click any of the links.

4. Don't follow them. I would not follow those who have ungodly lifestyles in the natural, so I wouldn't follow those with unholy lifestyles on twitter. As I said, they can follow me, but I won't follow them.

I hope this helps.