Lay Down Y(our) Weapons

No.243: January 10, 2024

Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This is a paid subscription feature with a preview before the paywall. Please consider subscribing to enjoy this weekly missive along with an occasional “Off The Shelf” feature about books, a frequent Pipe & Dram feature of little monologues/conversations in my study, and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.

Dear Friends,

I don’t know if you have been paying attention to the news, but the wildfires in Los Angeles County are nothing less than catastrophic. Perhaps even on a level with the 1906 San Fransisco earthquake. Whole neighborhoods—towns, even—reduced to ashes. The cities of Malibu and Palisades and Pasadena have been essentially destroyed. I mean destroyed. Smoking piles of ash. Hundreds of thousands of people are evacuated, and thousands instantly homeless. It is apocalyptic in nature.

So, first off: pray for the people of California. Pray for firefighters and first responders. Pray for subdued winds and for coming rain.

Second off: put down your weapons. Social media is a thermometer that gives a reading of the state of civic health, and right now it is reading that we are a society terminally ill with resentment and victimhood and bitterness. (Even if “X” or Twitter isn’t an accurate reflection of “real life,” it is still deeply concerning.) People will grab any and every weapon to hand to bash the skulls of their perceived “enemies,” even using a horrific tragedy to advance some ulterior agenda or cause. People are taking to X to laugh at the “rich” people who have lost everything. Yes, this is about class warfare! Instantly, people pretend they know—KNOW—the culprit. Global warming is the cause! Others wasted no time pointing their damning fingers at politicians and government mismanagement.

Maybe some combination of or all of it together is true. We shall know in good time. But people confidently doling out blame in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy—no, that’s not quite right—during an ongoing tragedy are not trustworthy. Their conclusions were premade and simply ready to deploy. They are activists using this as a useful political cudgel to advance other aims. “Never let a crisis go to waste” used to be the progressive playbook, but everyone wants in on that action now. Make sure to use the misfortune of others to advance your aims. Often that involves bitterly dividing people against each other.

It is sinful, self-aggrandizing cruelty and positively un-Christian.

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

I know it is tempting for some of us to think that Californians are worse sinners than the rest of us, or that “they” had it coming for some reason or another (e.g., lefty politics, Hollywood debauchery, etc.), but Jesus has a word for you and me: “Repent,” or you’re next.

I am more concerned about social media as a thermostat than a thermometer, however. A thermometer measures temperature; a thermostat regulates the temperature. And this kind of behavior is becoming rewarded, incentivized, and normalized. It gets attention and clicks, and it is becoming standard operating procedure. See event or fact “X” and immediately ask, “How can I use X to humiliate and embarrass my enemies?” Like Cain reaching for a rock, everything and anything is a weapon to vanquish others. This is another example of the politicizing of any and every aspect of society and life, and it is, as I say, a sickness.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. It isn’t any more complicated than that.

So reflexive is this phenomenon becoming that some people cannot even rejoice over objectively good things without making some ulterior use of it to bash their enemies. I am going to talk about this in the next segment, but it really is a wonderful turn of events (and I’ll explain why) that super-podcaster Joe Rogan had a young Christian apologist on his show for a three-hour conversation about the Bible. This is how one prominent public figure decided to present and frame it:

I have purposely left this person’s name out of it for his or her sake. Wesley Huff goes on a program and presents a wonderful and winsome articulation of Christian truth and this person’s reflex is to immediately wield it as a critique of perceived enemies—in this case, “Big Eva.” I can’t really find any polite words, so I’ll just go with: this is profoundly dumb. As though these “Big Eva” bogeymen would somehow disapprove of Huff or feel themselves inadequate because of him? Why would it occur to anybody that there is some kind of a competition regarding who is “better” at proclaiming the name of Jesus? This is “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas” kind of tribalism that is becoming common and it is deeply concerning how people are blind to it.

But it is even dumber for a more basic reason: “Big Eva” is being back-handed here for their “strategies and programs” for how to be “winsome, cool, relevant, third-way, and intellectually sophisticated,” and this is contrasted with “a guy just unapologetically presenting an unashamed gospel.” But the guy presenting the unashamed gospel did so in a manner that was winsome, cool, relevant, third-way, and intellectually sophisticated. That’s what made it … good. And effective. Bubba the Bible-Thumper armed with his 1611 King James Version would not have made nearly such a compelling guest. The contrast is not between just “telling people about the Jesus of the Bible” versus “winsomeness” or “intellectual sophistication.” It is clear—bright as the noonday sun—that it is the combination of those two things that caught Joe Rogan’s attention. I’d think Big Eva—whatever that actually means—would be having quite a celebratory bash.

My real point isn’t the dumbness of the Tweet, though that should be noted. It is about the reflexive reaction to make everything about “owning” one’s perceived enemies. This is a non-partisan virus—it’s called “sin,” and we should all be on our guard.

Lay down your weapons. Give it a rest.

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Joe Rogan is a big deal.

I don’t know why or how—not the slightest idea. He’s in my conscious memory as a middling-talent fellow who once upon a time hosted a reality TV show called The Fear Factor. I remember contestants had to do gross things like eat bugs. Wasn’t my thing.