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.
But religion involves the highest possible stakes: our eternity. What does it say when we respond to a critique—no matter how tired or trite—with a snappy retort? It might make us feel like Jordan throwing down a massive dunk to the adulation of fans, but to the critic and the neutral onlooker, it says, “I want to win internet points at your expense more than I want you to become a follower of Jesus Christ.”
And I’m not just talking about being nasty. I mean even the minor jabs, like the time I (regrettably) replied to “Catholicism is a man-made idolatrous religion that worships Mary and elevates man over God” with just “lol.” Yes, that’s how I privately react to such a warmed-over take, but shaking off a real person with that reply tells him I’m not taking this seriously. I’m treating it like a game where I need to win more internet points than him by amusing onlookers.
I’m not saying be a pushover. I do feel angry and defensive when someone speaks falsely of my beliefs. Occasionally, we need to be a bit sharp in our response—but only when we discern, out of love, that this sharpness is necessary to get through to our neighbor. It shouldn’t be our default tone, lest we drive him away; and it should never spring from a self-indulgent motive, since we will be judged less on the effect of our works than on the love with which we perform them.
Maybe I got more likes than the other guy. But that’s not what the King of the Universe is looking for.