Much of social media exists to answer the question: “What are we outraged about today?”
On one app, I can find the cultural flashpoint that is angering at least half the nation. On another, I see the political issue that supposedly warrants not simply my attention, but all my emotion as well. I must be offended and I must be outraged.
The invasive outrage culture has been relentless. But why is that? Why are we so consumed with feeling indignation or claiming offense? In a sense, outrage is cultural superglue, binding together individuals quickly and strongly over shared dislike and disgust. It is a shortcut to developing community and finding purpose.
A study by a social psychologist at the University of South Florida found close friendships most often centered around mutual negative feelings toward others. The study also found people believed they were much more likely to develop a positive relationship with a stranger if they both had the same negative opinion of someone else.
At The New York Times, Teddy Wayne wrote about this ten years ago. Consider how much worse it’s gotten since then.
[O]utrage is lavishly rewarded on social media, whether through supportive comments, retweets or Facebook likes. People prone to Internet outrage are looking for validation, Professor Martin said. “They want to hear that others share it,” he said, “because they feel they’re vindicated and a little less lonely and isolated in their belief.”
Notice what people gain from participating in the outrage: vindication and community, a purpose and a cause. Outrage grants meaning to life. I exist to defeat this ideology or political persuasion. This, above all else, demonstrates why Christians should avoid the outrage culture—it’s a false idol.
Outrage sets itself up as a false god demanding your time, energy and devotion. It promises the right people will accept you and you’ll challenge the thinking of those who are wrong. It whispers in your ear to yell louder and be offended … for a good cause.
Yet, the Christian already has a cause—the cross. We don’t need acceptance or validation from others, as we have already been granted those through Jesus. Community does not come from a shared outrage online but shared service in the body of Christ. We seek to advance the kingdom of God, not a political ideology.
But just like any other idol, outrage sneaks into our life and slithers in our ear, “Did God really say … to rest in Him? To seek peace? To love your enemy? To trust His plan? To find your identity in Christ and your community in His church?” Far too easily we succumb. Far too quickly do we reach for the fruit and sink our teeth into the flesh of another person created in God’s image.
Like most idols, however, we often worship outrage unaware. As we slavishly follow outrage, we mistakenly believe our service is to Christ. Recognizing this human temptation long before the Internet, C.S. Lewis provided a helpful test in Mere Christianity.
Suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. Then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. Is one’s first feeling, “Thank God, even they aren’t quite so bad as that,” or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? If it is the second then it is, I am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. If we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. Finally we shall insist on seeing everything — God and our friends and ourselves included — as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred.
There are times when outrage can be warranted, but it cannot be deserved all the time. We can tell something is more worthy of our outrage when it is a substantial issue that is not quickly forgotten by the next issue du jour on social media. Even still, the more we succumb to outrage, the more dangerous it becomes for us. Many Christians are unwittingly constructing a “universe of pure hatred” around themselves where outrage reigns supreme and grace is conspicuously absent.
Lewis spoke of this temptation again in The Screwtape Letters. Our outrage inevitably leads to idolatry as we substitute our faith and our worship of God with our cause and our commitment to it.
The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner.
Don’t give in to the outrage today. Demonstrate that true meaning and community are found in Christ, not in being offended. That’s the type of counter-cultural Christianity society desperately needs.
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.
Door Jam
Interesting articles from others
Production on Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie(s) is reported to start in August and run for seven months.
Netflix’s ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ Movie Eyes August 2024 Filming Start — What’s on Netflix
This has led to the inevitable increase in speculation surrounding the movie(s). These articles don’t seem as if they are reporting any news. Instead, they are speculating about the schedule and the casting.
Chronicles of Narnia Movie Update Makes the Perfect Release Date Possible for Greta Gerwig’s Reboot — Screen Rant (They point to Christmas 2025 as being a good time to release fantasy movies and movies on Netflix.)
Greta Gerwig’s Narnia films might be shooting back to back — Film Stories
Casting the Pevensie Children for Greta Gerwig’s Chronicles of Narnia Reboot — Screen Rant (Ideas of younger actors who could play the Pevensies as well as Eustace, even though he would possibly not fall under Gerwig’s reported Narnia deal.1)
For news about the other fantasy world written by an Inkling:
‘The Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy Returning to Theaters, Remastered and Extended — The Hollywood Reporter
Brändström’s rise to Power — Drama Quarterly (A Rings of Power director shares insight into her work overall and on the upcoming second season.)
I loved the episodes I did in season one. I was very proud of them. I spent a lot of time with the showrunner on the look and on the characters to see what we could improve, what is changing, what do people want to see? You don’t sit there and think constantly about how massive it is because it would scare you a lot. The sad thing is a lot of people had judged the show before it even came out, so that was actually tough. But then you try to adapt to that and see what they are really looking for.
Some fans were mixing Peter Jackson’s films with Tolkien’s work, and we’ve been trying to stay true to Tolkien and give it a really cool look. I love Peter Jackson’s films – that’s why I got involved in the first place. So I guess we’ve tried to mix everything. But the new season is definitely darker. It’s edgy, there’s more drama. I don’t control everything, but I hope people like it.
Lamp Post
Additional recent articles from me
Most Pastors Report Feeling Lonely — Lifeway Research
In The Wardrobe Door Archives
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She is reported to have a deal to write/direct two Narnia movies for Netflix. If that is the case and she goes according to publication order, she would do The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. Eustace arrives in the third book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Very timely.