Last Friday I ran across an article entitled “Why Evangelicals Hate Jesus” thanks to the recommendation from Rachel.
I have yet to read the article and I have no plans to in the future. And while I did link to the article so you can read it, I wouldn’t recommend you read it despite it probably having some very legitimate things to say.
Why am I so against reading it?
I have a major problem with sensationalism. So much of a problem with it that believe we should put an end to it. I’m not naive enough to think I have that kind of power, but I don’t think it has any place in society.
Social media hasn’t helped any of this, because everyone is given advice on how to get more followers on Twitter, how to get more people to read your blog posts, and most of the advice says the exact same thing…make yourself look/sound interesting, or in other words, sensationalize who you are and what you are talking about as if people won’t notice the fraud of it all.
We see this in church all the time as well. I don’t use Twitter or Facebook most of the time while I’m at church for this very reason. I’d hate to turn an experience I had with my church family into the greatest thing to ever happen at a church.
But this is how we begin to describe our experiences or how we begin to title our news articles in this instance. They’re always the best ever, or some other over-the-top way to describe something so more people will take notice.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love creativity and using human languages to convey a point is something that takes creativity. I just don’t want to be roped into reading something by someone being overly provocative.
My two main issues with sensationalism…
- It devalues the human ability to decipher what is truly worthy of our attention and energy.
- It subtly teaches us that God does not show up in the ordinary moments of life and we need to push for extreme experiences to find God.
