It sure has been a busy month in the kingdom of Western Christianity.
October 18th – John MacArthur tells Beth Moore to “Go Home”. Outrage ensues and party lines drawn between MacArthur and Moore supporters resulting in countless insults being flung at one another on social media.
October 25th – Kanye West releases “Jesus is King” album as a public declaration of his faith. Party lines were drawn between Christians declaring that this was a marketing scheme, while others embraced him at his word resulting in countless insults being flung at one another on social media.
November 17th – Kanye West speaks and performs at Joel Osteen’s church in Houston, TX. Kanye preaches the gospel. Party lines were drawn between Christians who support Kanye and Christians who can’t stand Joel Osteen resulting in countless insults being flung at one another on social media.
November 18th – Chick-fil-A announces they are focusing their donation efforts in 2020 and bringing the number of organizations they donate to down to 3 focusing on homelessness, hunger, and education. Party lines drawn between those who supported Chick-fil-A on November 17th but are now furious and walking away, and those who still support Chick-fil-A after the announcement, resulting in countless insults being flung at one another on social media.
Now, this is just an observation from watching what has taken place over the last month, but here is what I have noted…
…many believers love to make fun of liberals and/or millennial’s as being easily triggered and talk about how being triggered is just a result of a soft generation being coddled by weak parents/teachers/society.
Trust me, I know…this used to be me.
It’s presented as though one generation seems to have the leg up on being strong while the other generation is just so weak that all it takes is the wrong look or word, and they are suddenly catapulted into a fit of rage.
They’re usually accompanied by memes like this:
After watching the western church response to John MacArthur/Beth Moore, Kanye, then Kanye/Joel Osteen, and now Chick-fil-A I can confidently say that the reality is these folks get triggered just as easily as their liberal and millennial counterparts…they just get triggered over different things.
Look, I don’t write this to belittle anyone…it’s an observation. But it’s an observation that I think we all need to not take lightly. There is nothing funny, amusing, or entertaining about people getting triggered over what should be a minor issue.
Sure…folks will argue that these are not minor issues….but you say that because these are things YOU care about! Therefore it is not minor to you. On the other hand, you think that what liberals and millennial’s get triggered over is a minor issue…they don’t think so…because it’s things THEY care about! So it isn’t minor to them.
People on both sides are getting triggered…left and right…republican and democrat…conservative and liberal…millennial’s and boomers…Christian and atheist…
You get the point…right?
Here’s the hard truth pill we’re going to have to either pass on or swallow and that is this…we can continue to complain about the liberal and millennial outrage culture and continue to ignore our own outrage culture…OR…we can take a long hard meaningful look in the mirror and realize that we aren’t so different…you and I…and that we have a lot of work to do ourselves to ensure that we aren’t fostering our own version of the outrage culture.
Instead of feeding into the outrage culture ourselves…how about we cultivate more of the fruit of the Spirit? You know…the fruit we find in Galatians 5:22 and 23 that is:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- AND Self-control
What do you say? Shall we set our course for greater things or continue to be dragged deeper into the outrage culture mud pit with the rest of the culture?
I choose Galatians 5…don’t be angry!
Interesting observation, one that I agree with. Much of the hoopla has nothing to do with Christ. I can see arguments that Joel Osteen does a poor job of expressing Gospel truth. I guess it’s a question of what is worth opposing?
Yep. What hill is a hill on which to die. Most hills are not worth dying on.
The hill of salvation is one that I’ll rouse myself for. Removing Christ or adding works to the Christian recipe for salvation. That’s not something I ignore. Lots of stuff is just that – stuff.
Agreed!