Chick-Fil-A, Love Wins, the maelstrom over a particular post about 50 Shades of Gray – sometimes I find myself worrying that this will be the legacy of the Christian blogosphere, that these controversies (and hundreds like them) will be all that people remember in twenty or fifty years.
Sure, we wring our hands at the unpleasantness of it all, but that’s usually while we are busy rolling out the outrage machine and the language of persecuted minority or righteous-defender-of-all-that-is-good-and-true.
We say we wish it wasn’t like that, that we don’t want to be this way, that they started it.
But, sometimes, I really don’t think that’s the case.
I think much of the blogosphere can’t do without it. We have become the outrage-industrial complex, building a digital empire by speaking in the vitriolic language of us vs. them.
I think that if there wasn’t a conflict we would have to start one.
I worry that if people twenty years from now remember the Christian blogosphere as driven by controversy, outrage, and infighting, tragically they might be more right than wrong.
How many blogs would soon fall silent if there wasn’t an “enemy” to oppose? We get a high off it, but like any junkie we are quite talented at denying we have a problem, no matter how much damage we are doing, no matter how out of control it has become.
And it’s a shame, because so many of you have beautiful stories to tell, and incredibly brilliant ideas to share. So many bloggers are writing and doing things that are redemptive, imaginative, an outworking of the Gospel story.
But those bloggers, the sort who don’t want to play the game, they often tend to drop out over time, exhausted and disheartened by it all. Or, these wise and quiet voices get passed over in our mad dash from one controversy to the next. And so, one way or another, we never hear them.
I suppose that is part of what I appreciate about this community. True, it is not afraid to address difficult or controversial issues – but it finds its identity not in outrage but in grace, love, and the little bits of life that we share through our stories.
I think if all the controversies went away, by some miracle of God’s mysterious grace, the people here would have just as much to say. These writers would not fall silent.
Because it isn’t simply writing about a controversy that’s the issue, it’s when we start to confuse these controversies with the Gospel, and confuse our stance on them with our identity as children of God. These controversies are not our story, or at least, they shouldn’t be, because our real stories are far better.
And it’s those stories, those stories about love and grace and resurrection, that I hope people remember long after the controversies have been forgotten.
Amen.
Sadly this sounds a lot like church to me. So much of what I have seen has been people rallying around an issue or idea and finding their energy and purpose in that. I hope one day to be part of a community that finds it’s identity in the grace that is offered and the love that is received. I too am glad for this page. It’s real, honest and raw. Not built around working people up but rather working people in.
Thank you so much! Your words are so refreshing, just what my spirit needed!
Yes! We all know it’s the truth, no matter how much we deny it. I for one, some time ago decided I would be a little bit more scrupulous about the controversies I plunge myself into. Our blogs are not tabloid magazines. No need to say the same thing everyone else is saying. Then it’s just noise.
great thoughts, mason. so many of the controversies seem so hazy to me, illusions put up to distract us from the real purpose of the gospel. i firmly believe one very real way to be subversive has always been to give voice to those who haven’t been heard, and this is a great reminder.
“it’s when we start to confuse these controversies with the Gospel, and confuse our stance on them with our identity as children of God. ”
Um, yes.
Yes, yes! I agree. Between the controversy and the marketing skills, people start to wonder if this is genuine or is it all a side show, flash in the pan thing. It is hard to think eternally. Did God call us to stand for our rights no matter what (chick fil a)? OR to do something bigger for him?
Oh, well said and something that needed to be said.
“I suppose that is part of what I appreciate about this community. True, it is not afraid to address difficult or controversial issues – but it finds its identity not in outrage but in grace, love, and the little bits of life that we share through our stories.” <– I agree with this part in particular; I often feel like this place is a respite from the craziness out here. It's my mini-therapy when I've accidentally overdone it on "those kinds of blogs".
Well said, Mason. I think it’s a reflection of life, actually. The big events and big names and big disasters that define our time and get recorded in history books pass over the daily lives of people, the simple rocking of a baby, wrestling with the kids, praying together before bed. But I wonder, in God’s eye, if the second doesn’t matter more than the first.
That’s what I’ve decided to continue to write and record and make friendships and laugh – and avoid blogs that run after controversy. After a career in TV news, I don’t care to argue anymore or incite outrage. I do what I can do and I pray deeply and I ask the Spirit to help me see what true meaning is.
Yes. And thank you. And yes. So many ways we can choose to divide ourselves and be divisive. Let us speak of the Gospel rather than of controversy.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! sharing this mason. thank you.
Simply….Thank you. Exactly how I feel and it’s nice to know someone else feels the same way. Without my complete dependence on Him, I could become very disheartened and wring my hands over so many issues. But if I sit quietly and ask Him to speak to me…and LISTEN to what He says to my spirit, things begin to make sense again as over and over again He reminds me “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”
*applause* Well said.
This was such a beautiful post. I didn’t notice at first who was writing it and thought it was Joy!
This issue has been a burden on my heart for a while. Although I am passionate about my convictions, I do my best in refusing to participate in the controversies and focus on the negative hysteria that so often distract us from where our focus should be: on Christ. (Although occasionally get sucked into the muck and mire.)
I cringed every time Christians went on a rage against that book, (even though I object to it)
because all it did was send our minds where it should not have gone-away from what is true, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy. and in the process, it just brought more attention to it.
We are called to so much more than leaving a legacy of ranting. I hope Christ-followers will put down the virtual pen of rage and pick up the pen of edification; the one that points us back to the Cross of Christ.
Yes!
As a relatively new blogger, I have seen the temptation to post on the Big Controversies of the day. But I haven’t. That’s partly because I’m chicken, and I don’t think I could handle the bile that is spewed out on the Internet in the comments section, and partly because I am short of time, and I want to tell the stories and think about the things that will help people like me, at my stage of the journey, those who are aching and need perspective.
I love A Deeper Story for this. Thank you all.
Lovely. Thank you.
Mason, this was convincting. Thanks for writing it.
Amen. Thank you. Preach it. Gently. Calmly. Kindly. Yes.
I agree with another that commented that these words are refreshing, indeed. I put one post on Facebook that gently suggested that we should be temperate with the Chick Fil A issue. Boy! Was I ever blasted! I think I may have lost a friendship or two. I like something that a missionary friend wrote. She noted that we are not here to correct the world. That’s God’s job. We are here to keep our own house in order. And to love those who need to see the Truth.
I agree with another that commented that these words are refreshing, indeed. I put one post on Facebook that gently suggested that we should be temperate with the Chick Fil A issue. Boy! Was I ever blasted! I think I may have lost a friendship or two. I like something that a missionary friend wrote. She noted that we are not here to correct the world. That’s God’s job. We are here to keep our own house in order. And to love those who need to see the Truth.
Yes and yes. There will always be a tendency toward controversy that we must war against. I’ve reminded myself often lately that people don’t need my opinion, they need Jesus. And my opinion, even if I believe it to the core, may still harm the kingdom if I share it too strongly, too loudly, or hurtfully.