Spitting on Christ for Clicks
Navigating outrage, discernment, and mercy in the digital age.
Sometimes I see things like this on twitter, and it makes me want to scream and cry at the same time:
Followed immediately, of course, by a link to her store:
I’m almost at a loss of what to even say. This woman, if it’s even a woman running the account, is purporting to be Christian, yet using sex and racism in order to sell clothes online in an extremely mercenary way. What’s worse, she claims to be Orthodox.
This disgraceful grift of a post is just one example of a troubling trend I’ve been seeing more and more as I dive into online ‘Christian’ spaces. Notably, the rise of outright white supremacists, and e-girls trading softcore porn for attention. It’s shocking to me that so many nominal Christians promote this sort of thing, and apparently even support many thriving businesses.
Now I’m a new convert, and I do try to be careful about coming into the Church and immediately criticizing too much. However for me, this example cannot be any more clear cut as something which is absolutely WRONG, and a perversion of the Gospel teachings.
I want to clarify though - I’m not trying to attack or demonize this woman in particular. I’m sure she has plenty of internal justifications for why she is acting this way, and in fact I’d imagine most people in her life are incredibly supportive of it. Especially if they profit off of this enterprise.
That being said, it’s clear to me that many who profess to follow Christ in the West tend to take the window dressing of Christianity, and then continue to act exactly like secular modern peoples. It’s a fine line to walk here, where I do not want to judge these people and/or see myself as better than they are, but I also can’t help but express the frustration and obvious truth within myself that Christ’s teachings are being mocked and abused in an awful way.
Outlining the Problem
There are a number of historical reasons we see these types of posts, most notably the (almost) complete emptying out of most of Western Christianity after the Protestent Reformation. Sadly, the rash of Protestant converts to Orthodoxy in the last few years threatens this fate befalling the Orthodox (in America) as well. That’s for another post, however.
Spending time hating on other Christian denominations isn’t particularly fruitful or Christlike though, and it doesn’t help us move forward. One of the most salient reasons for this current debacle is due to something that even many secular commentators are complaining about: algorithmic content.
Attention stealing is now such a popular topic that long-form articles are written weekly describing its causes and consequences. I’ll start with something you may or may not have felt yourself before:
The second way it plays out, though, is the ‘mindless grasping impulse’, when we pick up our phones for no particular reason whatsoever. As we get used to reaching for our phones all the time, for all manner of reasons, this impulse becomes a force of habit. When I reached for my phone in the post office, I did so with nothing specific in mind that I am checking. It’s simply that my mind would rather fixate on something than the alternative: just being present for a moment, with no stimulation, no task, to fixate my attention on.
Dan Nixon
I’d like to link three important recent articles discussing the problem in great detail:
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.
The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.
Ted Gioia
Read Benjamin’s War on Attention if you want to learn more.
As most savvy internet folks know nowadays, these algorithms thrive on upsetting us, and driving viral re-engagment. You saw me falling to the impulse earlier in this article!
Here is a perfect example of a statement designed not to say anything meaningful, but to drive algorithmic response:
Joel here likely is not a theologian, does not really know what classical Christian virtues are, or even care. Most likely, he’s just a man who has been practicing playing The Algorithm for years, carefully noticing what will drive the most eyeballs/clicks, and optimizing for that metric.
A typical pattern I’m noticing is that Christianity must:
embrace ‘whiteness’ as a core characteristic
become violent
put women “back in their place”
turn against Jews
This complete backwards reading of the Gospel would be laughable, if it weren’t so common.
These tactics work because Christians who hold to the core teachings of the faith will be outraged, will share, and click. And then of course those parts of the conservative movement who are genuinely racist, sexist, anti-semitic and whatnot will share because it promotes their message.
Where to go From Here?
This is where many other Christian online commentators might fall into depsair and hatred themseleves. They may ask, what do we do??? And respond by saying we must demonize these people, call them out wherever we see them, and try our best to destroy them to protect our precious faith.
Again, I myself am not above this impulse. I began writing this article in that vein, and only by the Grace of God was I able to shift direction.
Because the real answer, the path to salvation, lies not in condemening. Instead we must forgive these people for their sin, try to love them, and pray to the Lord to help us navigate this time.
As St. Dorotheos of Gaza says:
Saints do not condemn one who sins, nor do they reject him, but rather sympathize with him, they are sorry for him, they instruct and comfort him, they heal him as if he were an ailing man, and do everything to save him.
I’m not saying we abdicate all responsibility for calling out their bad behavior, or making it utterly clear that this sort of thing is anti-Christian. Hence why I’m leaving the denouncements above. But were I to simply denounce these people, and create a firestorm of hatred against them, I would simply be perpetuating the cycle.
I ask that we love them, pray for them, while understanding that those who ask us to spread hatred in Christ’s name are deeply wrong, and sinful.