Grace Baptist Church is a small Baptist church on the southside of Des Moines, Iowa pastored by Doug Van Wey. I’ve preached there years ago on two or three occasions to fill in for Pastor Doug when I worked with Serve Our Youth Network.
The church faithfully proclaims the Gospel. They teach the word of God. They have not been controversial that I’m aware of. Their Facebook page, the only social media presence the church has, has been used to promote sermons, Sunday services, and events like their Vacation Bible School.
On Thursday, when one of their Facebook page administrators logged into the church’s page, they received a message the page had been unpublished because it “goes against (Facebook’s) community standards.”
There was no specific post flagged by Facebook, but their office manager told Caffeinated Thoughts their last post could have been the “trigger” because it used the phrase “Breaking News.”
Seriously? It was an announcement for their Christmas program this Sunday.
Thus far, there have been no answers from Facebook. No specific information provided as to what “community standard” the page violated.
It’s unlikely that a human being made this decision. Facebook’s algorithms are known to be very sensitive – ask my friend Steve Sherman. No answers have been provided to Grace Baptist Church and there has been no recourse other for the church’s Facebook page administrators to say they disagree with the decision.
They deserve an explanation and an apology.