I wrote an article a couple months ago which was picked up by the pop-ad king of blogging, the Christian Post. That means that my little article was read by about 10 times my typical audience. I ended up even being interviewed by a radio station somewhere in California. The article was about our culture of outrage. And, in a bit of predictable Alanis Morissette-type irony, my piece ended up causing a bit of outrage. It wasn’t quite as bad as the time I received bomb threats from England, but there was a bit of vitriol aimed towards me from an audience which I wasn’t even speaking to.
I tell you that story to say I’m well aware of the culture of outrage. I’ve been on the receiving end of it a few times, and I’ve likely participated in it myself. This is why I was excited to read the thoughts of Ed Stetzer in his new book Christians in the Age of Outrage. Ed certainly has received his fair share of outrage. And some could perhaps even argue that he has contributed to the culture of outrage himself. So I was interested to see how he’d navigate this topic.
Stetzer begins by explaining the culture of outrage. This is one of the areas where you’d expect someone with the position and experience that Stetzer has to really shine in his cultural analysis. He does not disappoint. I’ve given a good deal of thought to the heart behind all of this outrage, and Ed (unsurprisingly) has thought through this in ways that I have not. And he has statistics to back up his claims as well. He spoke of our growing tribalism as well as the increasing secularism in our main-stream culture. He also helpfully outlined the cycle of outrage and gave examples of the different kinds of Christian behavior which hurts our online witness. In the first section he not only outlines the problem but begins to forge the path ahead by using the example of the Roman highway system. Christians used this to spread the gospel. But the same roads were used to persecute Christians. In the same way the information super highway can be used to further ministry or to hinder the spread of the gospel.
The second section of the book looks at four lies which contribute to our outrage culture. I appreciated Stetzer’s balance here. In the first lie he defended Christians against the claims that we are the absolute worst. While we can certainly do boneheaded things the truth is that most of the things Christians are blamed for are the actions done by nominal believers. The second lie, though, is pointed towards Christians who believe it is their righteous indignation which gives them a pass in the culture of outrage. The third lie is Stetzer’s attempt to call outrage what it is; namely, sinful idolatry. He shows how politics, identity, and personalities will not save us. The last lie he tackles is a point we’ve come to expect from Stetzer—mission is optional. I really appreciated his point here that “outrage is our mission field”. This is our cultural moment, so we must live out the mission of Christ in the era in which God has sovereingly placed us.
In the third section Stetzer outlines the path forward. It’s a simple path, really. Have your worldview shaped by the gospel instead of outrage culture and winsomely love and engage people, that’s the formula. There isn’t anything too complicated about this, but I think Stetzer has really hit on a key here. When we aren’t engaging people who are actually in front of our face what makes us think we are going to be more civil or more missional online? I also appreciate how throughout he showed the importance of the local church. I liked this statement in particular:
If we can’t disagree effectively with someone in our local church or faith group who is also committed to living out the gospel, how can we hope to productively engage someone whom the world assumes we hate? If we cannot demonstrate the humility and love necessary to listen to other perspectives within the body of Christ, we will never be able to engage those outside the church with the gospel. (Stetzer, 116)
Ultimately our online outrage problem is a reflection of a much deeper discipleship problem. We shouldn’t be shocked that works of the flesh are fully displayed in the digital lives of unbelievers. But it’s telling when professing believers are exhibiting those same characteristics online. The reality is that we are likely even more our true selves online when we are able to hide behind the perceived safety of our keyboard. And this shows that the church really does have a discipleship problem.
The local church is also the solution to our outrage culture. Real flesh and blood relationships are what will impact our online interaction. I read one review of Stetzer’s book which suggested that his concluding chapters fell flat because his solution isn’t really digital. I disagree with that reviewer. I think Stetzer’s solution is both biblical and wise. Neighboring with flesh and blood people is the way in which we will see our online interaction improve.
I couldn’t help but go back to what I believed was a very helpful interaction on Tim Challies’ blog a couple years back. Tim had written a review of Ann Voskamp’s popular book One Thousand Gifts. And then he received an email from her inviting his family out to her farm for a meal with her family. So Challies wrote a follow-up article in which he asked of her forgiveness. Here is one of the things he said:
…something happened inside me when I saw Ann’s name in my inbox, and that’s what has compelled me to write this little article. Seeing her name brought a sudden and surprising realization and with it a twinge of guilt and remorse. It has happened to me before, this strange feeling that comes when I suddenly realize that the name on the front of the book—“Ann Voskamp” in this case—is not some cleverly programmed, unfeeling robot that spits out blog posts and magazine articles and books, but a person. A real person. That should have been no great revelation, yet there have been too many times over the years that I have had to remind myself of this simple fact. I try to remind myself before posting a review; sometimes it only comes later. (Challies)
This, I believe, is why Stetzer finished his book the way he did. When Challies saw Voskamp as a real person instead of an “unfeeling robot that spits out blog posts…” it caused him to rethink the way in which he had written his review. He rightly acknowledged that he still had concerns with her book, but he also said he would have done them differently had he considered her a “friend” or an “insider”. And that is Stetzer’s solution. When we engaged with real flesh and blood people in the way that Christ would have us engage it has a way of shaping the way that we also engage online. If we aren’t doing that in the “real world” we certainly won’t be doing it online.
Stetzer’s book, I believe, is helpful in that it gets at a real solution. I’ll admit it’s not one that I particularly like. I’d prefer it if our online problems could be solved with online discipleship. It’s easier. It’s less messy. You can engage, then turn off your computer, unfollow, unfriend, block, etc. But you can’t do that quite as cleanly in the real world. And that’s why our digital outrage will only be fixed by authentic discipleship.
You can purchase the book here.
