The Gift and Curse of Outrage: An Introduction
The failure of our Christian conversations is that we throw mud at our own, expecting our white shirts to be untouched by dirt.
Outrage can be a useful prophetic gift when used rightly and timely. Elijah, for instance, reserved his anger for the Ahabs and Jezebels of his world while bringing consolation to a widow and child. Our Lord reserved his outrage for the false religious leaders while comforting the weak and hungry in Israel. Outrage can be useful, but if everyone and every issue are worthy of outrage, our outrage is in vain.
H.L. Mencken was right when he noted that “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” There is plenty in the world, the flesh and the devil to demand our sacred violence. But the social sphere has turned outrage into a gimmick; a cheap ticket to the best seats at the Superbowl. Outrage is the greatest rage out there. The problem with unremitting outrage is that while bringing out the crazies to your defense–-after all, crazies love’m some outrage–-it limits the Gospel to self-righteous, angry outbursts, a kind of via negativa of discourse.
But the Gospel is so outrageous on the topic of outrage that it outrageously limits our outrage. Take, for example, Jesus’ exhortation to the disciples as he sent them out to the wolves, “Be gentle as doves and wise as serpents.” I suspect wolves quickly devour doves, but gentle doves are subtle. They reserve their bows and coos for the right occasions. Their gentleness deceives the enemies who think they are easy targets. They disarm the wolves’ expectations.
Similarly, the serpent is cautious in its approach. The snake doesn’t attack without carefully studying the opponent. Calvin writes that serpents know they are hated, so they do not rush heedlessly to danger. You may think your outrage is the noblest form of Gospel expression; you are bold enough to head towards danger, but all the enemy sees is your “God Hates Fags” t-shirt. You need to be much more subtle and strategic in your use of language.
Overused outrage diminishes our ministry of persuasion. It ends the conversation before it starts. It hinders our Gospel message. The Gospel message is bold not because of its bullying but because of its distinctness. A zealous 20-year-old who works hard to take down the wokeys at 2 am may believe he is blessing the Church. But they would do better to read, serve, and listen in between every word of concern he may have about the future of the Republic. Blessed are those who pray first before tweeting. For unto such belong the respect of their elders.
The Pursuit of Outrage
The reason many Christians lose their soul in the process of their proclamation is that they demand speedy moral and cultural results without the careful, deliberate method of engaging, persuading, praying, hosting, and loving others. Most modern outrage is a form of addiction accentuated by social media offering its successive tribes of outbursts at everything with no distinction between real enemies and friendly fire. Discernment is necessary when using the outrage machine. There must be layers of outrage among the layers of people.
On the other hand, we chastise evangelical groups who made their mission appealing to the masses through sexy ads and strategies fit for businesses while using outrage as sex symbols for a new dignified revolution of youth pastors. For the record, the outrage sex icons are on the left and the right. We are amusing ourselves to death one outrage at a time, treating our sins as more dignified than “theirs.”
We outrage first and ask questions later. A harsh word stirs up anger, Solomon says. The alternative to harsh words is not outrageous words but a gentle answer, which is not synonymous with effeminate answers, but with an answer that shocks the opponent into listening mode. If we are going to call evil evil, the faith demands a robust outrage filled with imprecations mixed with a heavy dose of sacred language about a God who rescues sinners from homosexuality and trans-surgeries. Be angry and sin not, which is to say, dispense your anger like a Christian, not a toddler.
The Bible extols gentleness and careful pronouncements to those in the household of faith. The failure of our Christian conversations is that we throw mud at our own, expecting our white shirts to be untouched by dirt. But outrage is vicious because it is addictive. And before we know it, our entire environment is composed of statutes of outrage. “Look, isn’t his outrage something worthy of admiration!” ‘Doesn’t he outrage with preciseness!” Thus, we create divisions based on our indignation. Group A is not as holy as we are. Their outrage is a 1 on the Richter scale. How outrageously pitiful his holiness must be!
Biblicized Outrage
Bill Smith makes a great case for persuasiveness when he writes at Kuyperian:
Persuasive words are “sweet” (Pr 16.20) and “gracious” (Pr 16.24). The speaker and his words should be likable. If you are pugnacious all the time and your words are always abrasive and harsh no matter the situation, you will repel people. It may be the message, or it may be that you are a jerk.
Biblicized outrage is pastorally aware of who the target is and strategic about how to approach the target. To be persuasive means to speak effectively amid the cacophony of outrage and be the mediating voice of reason. Sometimes our outrage is just too loud, and our points are clouded out by our rage. We should desire a Christianized outrage like a fine single-malt Scotch sampled slowly. Too much of it no longer becomes a gift but a vice. It can be a great prophetic gift if we don’t confuse Ahab with a faithful brother down the street.
We need to direct our outrage carefully and objectively. If it is all clanging symbols, you lose your audience and the capacity to persuade. And it takes a long time to restore that voice. The culture needs the right outrage—the kind that draws people to goodness. If we express outrage, it better be the one that mimics the rallying cry of faithful martyrs urging the Church to faithfulness. We should all be contra mundum because the mundum hates our God, not because we actively give the world rhetorical reasons to hate our God.
Notations
Scott Aniol and I are good friends. We have spoken at the Psalm-Tap conference for three consecutive years, and we share lots of common loves in the realm of church music. In short, I greatly appreciate him, even though he hails from Pre-Millennial-dom.
Scott happens to be one of the fiercest voices opposing Christian Nationalism today. He recently responded to one of my tweets where I argued that the coronation offered a better proposition than Drag Queen Story Hour. My argument was that though England is nominal, it offers a beauty that is far superior to the U.S.A., especially in honoring their office.
Of course, England also has Drag Queen Story Hour (though not as prevalent as Gavin Newsom’s kingdom), but it still functions within a spectrum of liturgical beauty that is worth emulating. Scott responded kindly with a tweet that now has over 40K viewers:
Again, we are still back to the original question of whether cultural Christianity is better than secularism. I am not arguing that it is the best model but that it is a good model in comparison to the other thing. I would take the apathy of Southern Christianity at a local coffee shop any day over the blatant paganism of Oregonian culture.
I further argued that the Coronation provided a sense of beauty that must be restored to any Christian society:
We are stimulated towards sameness in our evangelical culture. We want the worship of the resurrected Messiah to share identical features to our daily experiences. We want expressive individualism reigning at the yacht club and worship. We wish to be moved by the same incense in our kitchen and bedroom areas. But worship is holy other. We may live in different zones, but the culture of worship is like a powerful coronation re-enactment descending from heaven by the power of the Spirit. The fragrance of the altar (Exodus 20) should challenge our weekly experiences by preferring heaven above earthly rhythms.
The Perspectivalist is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
As a mother of young children in this changing world I read your article and it has a lot of good points, but I see some problematic generalizations that bother me at the same time.
Outrage for the sake of outrage is obvious folly. Just anger over the corruption at the federal, state, and the public judiciary level is righteousness. There remains a biblical way to channel outrage righteously. I like Allie Stuckey’s words when she says “Christians should care about politics because politics change policies and policies affect people.” I believe there comes a point when Christian men need to rise up in bold action—not violent, not volatile— but in faithful, bold, and strong leadership. This isn't a time for gentle attempts to speak to a group of people who hate you. They want your children to attend satanic camp after school, and you to not be able to do a thing about it. They are past reasoning, there is no objective truth in their lives…
No, sadly this is a time for the harder conversations that aren’t as fun as football stats and backyard jokes. These are times for organizing meetings, teaching younger men important masculine life skills, going to the city council meetings to discuss issues in your local cities, being a representative of Christ in every aspect of your life (not excluding hospitality and all the rest that you listed). The people you work with should all know you are a Christian man, it’s not the time for a privatized little faith.
While emotional outage without biblical conviction or self control is easy to attack… I’m afraid this kind of message can easily discourage those types of men who might incline to be leaders and try to bring up important issues, but fear being labeled as an foolish insurrectionist or conspiracy theorist by a pastor or elder of their church. And it can, in turn, help to further coddle the apethetic men who would prefer to turn on NBC and tune out all the “crazy clown world” around them.
Isn’t now the time for good men to try and stand up for truth? Isaiah says it well when he writes that “truth has fallen in the street”. In America today you can legally claim you have two genders, you can identify as a cat, you can claim you’re minority attracted, you can pretend drag queen hour for kids is wholesome and healthy.
Where is our hope then in a falling civilization? Christ has conquered! So let Christian men rise up in faithfulness boldly and live out the gospel, not just in the safe, easy, and comfortable ways but in the hard moments when it really matters. I would argue that the problem with much of the Presbyterian church and CREC across America is a love of comfort. It’s so much easier to ride the middle ground and try not to get involved with anything sticky like politics or leadership. But men, it is the time to get involved! As a mother of small littles I wish I saw more men taking up the cross to fight for we are more than conquerors through Him. But that does not mean our children can’t be targeted, we can’t be persecuted— nor does it mean that it is wrong or outrageous to take preventative action to protect your families and children in whatever ways you are enabled by God!
I may be a woman, I may be young and dumb but I have seen that there are two pitfalls to the camp of outage and you are mainly focusing on the one. David’s men knew the times and acted accordingly.
I do not dispute anything you said. I don't think you read the article charitably. I am arguing for a hierarchy of outrage, rather than a flattened version.
"Biblicized outrage is pastorally aware of who the target is and strategic about how to approach the target. To be persuasive means to speak effectively amid the cacophony of outrage and be the mediating voice of reason. Sometimes our outrage is just too loud, and our points are clouded out by our rage. We should desire a Christianized outrage like a fine single-malt Scotch sampled slowly. Too much of it no longer becomes a gift but a vice. It can be a great prophetic gift if we don’t confuse Ahab with a faithful brother down the street."