“Because it’s based!”

That’s what a fellow partygoer said when I asked him why he was a Christian. After that night, we became friends on facebook and I saw that he frequently posted Christian memes on his page. We got to know each other more, and I found that, contrary to what he said before, he in fact did not attend church, and smoked weed on a regular basis. What’s worse, this person regularly engaged other Christians on facebook in debate about how his denomination (I leave it to the reader to decide which one) was the only true Church.

Sadly, I have come to know many, many more people like this, especially from the connections made through my channel and blog.

I call it “meme-Christianity.”

As Western culture becomes increasingly atheistic and morally degenerate, conservative Christianity has become the new punk. Christian podcasters are our rock-stars. Eastern Orthodox icons and Medieval sacred art are our fashion-statement.  And like any sub-culture, we have our own catchphrases: (e.g. ‘based,’ ‘cringe,’ ‘prot,’ ‘ortho-bro’ and ‘trad-cath’).

The problem, is that many people publicly identify as a Christian, and spend countless hours on social-media arguing about Christian theology, solely because they perceive Christianity to be the most “based” and punk counter-cultural movement they can align themselves with. Christianity has the “spiciest memes,” the most “trad” aesthetics and the most “based(!)” public figures.

But what’s missing? What word haven’t I said so far?

Jesus.

I remember talking to another friend of mine who constantly posted Christian memes on social-media. I said the words:

“I love Jesus,”

and from the corner of my eye, I noticed that he cringed. I asked him to tell me about his own relationship with Jesus and the love he had for God and to my grief… He had nothing to say. I asked him about why he came to faith, and he defined Christianity by what it was not (degenerate, atheist, Marxist) rather than what it was. And then I found that he had only read a few passages from the Bible. Later that day, he posted a meme that said:

“A Christian should argue with a blasphemer only by running his sword through his bowels as far as it will go.”

I looked at that meme, and it just felt off. Was my friend’s faith being shaped more by memes than by Scripture? What are the consequences of being introduced to Christianity through memes rather than the Word? And is the ‘Jesus’ we allegedly encounter in memes the real thing? And that’s when I wondered if there’s a certain point where memes become blasphemy.

I don’t want to be a bore. Having a sense of humour is great, and there’s no reason why Christians can’t have in-jokes, but the issue is when we spend far more time before a screen looking at and posting jokes than we do on our knees before the Living God.

Moreover, there are some topics that should not be joked about. Laughing about how non-believers are going to hell, is not acceptable in the eyes of the One who said “love your enemies and pray for them.” Taunting fellow Christians about how they should be burnt at the stake like their heretical ancestors were is egregious in the religion that teaches us to be “one.”

Do you think the Bridegroom, finds it funny that His people reject Him? Do you think He grins and smirks about the divisions in His Body?

Anything can be made an idol, and I think that for many people that is exactly what memes have become. Do we long for being funny more than being justified? Do we think about jokes more than about God? Is the Law summarised by the word “love” or the word “based”? And like all idols, if we worship memes too much, we become formed in their image. We become, in the end, a joke.

And it’s not a funny one.

Response

In Philippians 4:9, St Paul says this:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.“

These should be our focus, because St Paul does not say this:

Whatever is based, whatever is spicy, whatever is funny, whatever is not cringe, whatever is trad, whatever is punk, whatever is controversial… Think about these things.

Look, there’s nothing new under the sun, and for as long as the hills have stood people without a true faith in God have managed to turn religion into a culture. There will always be weeds in the field who don’t truly love God and who instead hijack our doctrines, language and aesthetics for their own ends. The biggest problem is when this impacts true believers.

As a young-adults leader, I have seen this too many times: someone comes to faith in Jesus, and at first it is deeply personal and affectionate, but once they become immersed in the new punk counter-culture of online Christianity, their spiritually is worn to a nub. Young people often come to me asking what they can do to restore the quiet intimacy their faith once had. My most common answer? Leave social-media for a time and see what happens. The result, every time? Their love for God returns.

Dearly beloved, it is okay to joke. It is okay to have a clubhouse. But, it is not okay for our relationship with Jesus or our love for our brethren to be damaged. Don’t pollute your soul with the things that will poison your love. And remember, you will not be saved for being “based,” you will not be rewarded for calling people heretics. Your eternal salvation is dependent only on this: do you know Jesus?