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Barring a divine intervention of which we as a species are not worthy, social media isn’t going away anytime soon—and thus, neither is apologetics on social media. So as long as it’s here, we might as well try to improve it. We might start by recognizing that faith, religion, God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, morality, and everything else we believe in are not a game.
Well, duh. It’s religion, not baseball. Oh really? Then why does online apologetic sound like baseball trash talk?
I’m not exaggerating. As a stock Young Person on the Internet who is plugged in to both Catholic twitter and baseball twitter, I’m astounded at how frequently I see one tweet from, say, a fellow Padres fan ragging on a Dodgers fan, scroll down a few tweets, and see a fellow Catholic taking the exact same tone with a non-Catholic (or just as often, another Catholic). “Cope and seethe, loser” is a verbal bullet you’re just as likely to see fired on behalf of the New York Yankees as Jesus Christ.
Trash talk isn’t inherently bad. It’s like a friendly roast: fine as long as no one crosses a line or takes himself (or his team) too seriously. That’s because the subject matter is not important. There are no stakes to my winning or losing a tit-for-tat exchange over whether Manny Machado is a better third baseman than Nolan Arenado (he is). My Dodger fan interlocutor doesn’t endanger his soul if he never “converts” to Padres fandom (as thrilled as I’d be to welcome him). So long as I’m not genuinely uncharitable, verbal pokes and jabs over this stuff do no harm.
Continued below.
www.catholic.com
Well, duh. It’s religion, not baseball. Oh really? Then why does online apologetic sound like baseball trash talk?
I’m not exaggerating. As a stock Young Person on the Internet who is plugged in to both Catholic twitter and baseball twitter, I’m astounded at how frequently I see one tweet from, say, a fellow Padres fan ragging on a Dodgers fan, scroll down a few tweets, and see a fellow Catholic taking the exact same tone with a non-Catholic (or just as often, another Catholic). “Cope and seethe, loser” is a verbal bullet you’re just as likely to see fired on behalf of the New York Yankees as Jesus Christ.
Trash talk isn’t inherently bad. It’s like a friendly roast: fine as long as no one crosses a line or takes himself (or his team) too seriously. That’s because the subject matter is not important. There are no stakes to my winning or losing a tit-for-tat exchange over whether Manny Machado is a better third baseman than Nolan Arenado (he is). My Dodger fan interlocutor doesn’t endanger his soul if he never “converts” to Padres fandom (as thrilled as I’d be to welcome him). So long as I’m not genuinely uncharitable, verbal pokes and jabs over this stuff do no harm.
Continued below.
Apologetics Is Not Trash Talk
We should never treat online apologetics like sports trash talk. That's harmful for both our neighbor and for ourselves.
