For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:18-20)
I know many of young men who are convinced this verse is talking about viewing online pornography. Many became addicted to porn long before coming to Christ. Battling this addiction as a new believer (or even as a long-time believer) can feel like a losing battle. There’s a John Piper article I’ve had in my arsenal for awhile now that helps folks deal with the guilt of sexual failure. One of my greatest joys in ministry is seeing young men set free from the shackles of pornography addiction. But I’m dealing with a new kind of pornography that I’m finding even more insidious (if not more so) than the sexual variety.
It’s what Tim Kreider has termed outrage porn. It’s any type of media that is designed to evoke outrage for the purpose of getting traffic or attention online. These articles might be written to tick you off (speaking against your tribe) or to fire you up (speaking against another tribe). I don’t believe I can summarize it any better than Tim Challies has:
Like pornography, this kind of outrage is ultimately self-centered and self-gratifying. One person calls it “self-gratification through feigned indignation.” Even when it isn’t feigned, there is still that element of selfishness, of self-pleasure, in it. The outrage isn’t for them, it’s for us. We feel better for having done it, for having participated in it. It is expiating in a sick sense. With the outrage behind me, I am satisfied that I have done my bit, and now I can move on to the next thing. Expressing outrage is almost a kind of brand loyalty–we are outraged together in this common cause. (From Outrage Porn and the Christian Reader)
I believe this type of pornography is even more insidious than sexual pornography because it’s not quite as obviously wrong. Within the church we’ve been socially trained to feel a massive wave of guilt when viewing online pornography. And rightly so. But I’d argue we’ve actually dulled the conscience’s ability to experience this wave of guilt in matters related to anger. The church has often used anger, wrongly, to fire up the base. We too readily equate indignation with godliness and concern. And we preachers know the red meat we can throw out to our congregants to get the “amen” crowd fired up. This has led, I would argue, to the ability to spend hours on the internet reading and sharing outrage porn without much feelings of guilt.
But what if we took outrage porn as serious as the better known variety?
Hopefully our members wouldn’t dream of sharing pornography on social media. I would think they would be quickly called out for sharing such inappropriate things. But why don’t we do the same when people share outrage porn on the internet? Do we not view it as serious? Do we believe the outrage porn? Surely, we don’t think a young man can digest hours of pornography without it harming his soul. Yet, why do we believe we can digest an endless stream of negativity from social media and political pundits with no harm to our souls?
So for the next few days I want to ask that question. What would it look like if we took outrage porn as seriously as we take pornography?
First, is it really the same?
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