In June of this year, the New York Times ran an opinion piece titled, America is Getting Meaner. If you read that editorial, you will not agree with everything in it, but it is hard to argue with the basic premise. Our society is getting meaner by the day. Just this week I spoke with a local business owner who lamented the rudeness of customers in the past few years. A few weeks ago in a big box store I watched a cashier berate a customer for some perceived slight or insult.
But, a quick Google search shows that this spate of meanness isn’t brand new. I found numerous news articles and editorials dating back to 2017 that pointed out the rise of anger and discontent in Western society. In fact, an article from 2012 theorizes that there may be a 50 year rage cycle that explains spikes in violent crime and civil unrest.
Why are we so angry?
- Social media
- Fake news
- Election controversies
- COVID lockdowns
- Elevation of politics to a realm that belongs to religion.
- Educational inequalities
- Cable News
- Covetousness
- Malice
- Envy
- Strife
There are many explanations, but most people would agree that there is no single cause for the anger in our culture. There are many different reasons to be angry today.
My greatest concern is not that our culture is angry. My greatest concern is that this sense of meanness has even invaded many corners of the church. Christians on both sides of the political spectrum justify their anger toward others by claiming to be fighting for justice or Christian liberty or the future of our country, or whatever other narrative fits their desire to express their more base emotions.
Pastors have been forced out of churches for requiring masks or not requiring masks. Churches have fought over elections. Christians have divided over CRT and wokeism. And in so many of these cases, the disagreements have been marked by anger, malice, and plain old meanness.
But, where is Christ in all of this?
The way of Jesus is gentle. Dane Ortlund has pointed out to us this year that the very heart of Jesus is gentle and lowly (Matthew 11:19). Gentle isn’t only the way of Jesus, gentleness is a descriptor of Jesus’s people.
When Paul described the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, he showed the characteristics that should define Christian people:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Christians should be the absolute opposite of mean and angry. Jesus’s people are to be kind, gentle, joyful, patient, peaceful, good, and self-controlled. None of these character traits define American culture today, but they must define Christ’s church. The church of Jesus Christ is its own society, its own culture, a lighthouse in a dark world.
Some would argue that in this dog-eat-dog world, Christians must adopt the same tactics as the world around them. However, Jesus offered strong words to his followers, To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer to him the other also. Paul urged the Corinthians to respond to reviling with blessing. James taught, But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
There is no room among Christ’s followers for meanness. In a dark world the light of Christ must shine through with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Christians must be willing to be wronged, if being wronged enables the gospel of Christ to go forward and the glory of Christ to shine brighter to a lost world.
Yes. The world is angry and mean. But, gentleness is still a Christian virtue, and it is high time that followers of Jesus work diligently to recover this virtue and live it out within the church and beyond.
Photo by Randalyn Hill on Unsplash
