Christians are sharing their faith… and everyone is TICKED (aka: Please click me)

The big game is over, and Peyton Manning went out on top (assuming he is retiring after this season). The next day, I noticed something in my timeline that I see a lot, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Peyton Manning Just Opened Up About His CHRISTIANITY, People are TICKED…”

That was the juicy title that links to an article that basically hands out an excerpt from Archie Manning’s book where his son, Peyton, talks about his priorities: Faith, Family, Friends, and Football. The excerpt is a really great piece of writing, and it makes me want to read the book. Other than that, it was a rather deflated, poorly constructed article that lacked any flare for the dramatic, as its title had promised.

That’s not what frustrated me.

What frustrated me was, when I think back on it, these stories are being catered to grab the attention of Christians in a horrible way, and as believers, it’s our fault. Scroll through your news feed, and I promise you are going to see something along the lines of “ They told him not to say anything about Jesus, now everyone is mad, click to see why!” What many people may not realize is those titles garner hundreds of thousands, if not millions of responses a day. These strategic phrases of a somewhat incendiary nature drive TONS of traffic to stories that aren’t as spicy as you might have thought. It’s called click-bait.

Click bait is a small piece of a large pie called “Search Engine Optimization/Content Marketing,” and it’s part of what I do as a living. As a web developer and designer, the content marketing game is a large part of what I use to keep things relevant online. It’s guys like me that are responsible for your feed having articles that say “ This monkey was told it would never dance again, and then it did this… AMAZING!” This is a great example of all of those titles you click on at work to waste time, and it preys on a human’s “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO). We all want to be in the know first, at least at the same time everyone else is… so what does click bait have to do with Christianity? I’m glad you asked.

Content marketing is all about inciting emotional responses out of a target demographic. So it stands to reason that the best way reach your key people is to play to their online status trends. As a result, when websites want to get the attention of conservatives and/or faith based consumers, they cast a line that says “When this man stood up for his God and his guns… LIBERALS ARE FURIOUS!”

Why is this a tactic that has any success?

Because over the past several years, as social media has grown, we as the Body of Christ have become more comfortable with airing our frustrations with the world, instead of working through them with our Father God. It is almost as if you would think that God only communicated through Facebook. As a result we set an online trend that Christians communicate through petty complaints and are ok with people being mad that they are Christians… in fact, their faith THRIVES on that. I wish I could exclude myself from this, but I know in the past I have made grievences public on social media that were less than becoming of a man of integrity.

Why is this worth talking about?

1. It sends the wrong message to the world.

We have to start noticing things about ourselves, and start making a greater effort to reflect Jesus. The truth of the matter is, the world is getting darker. The last thing we should be eager to share and click, are things that would imply our excitement that people are mad about our faith. You can’t expect to have influence with unbelievers if you are seemingly intent on making them upset with the Gospel. Every time we share these things, whether we believe it or not, we are feeding into a societal notion that Christians are judgmental, graceless, and hypocritical. In the grand scheme, behavior like this grieves the heart of God and embarasses the Body of Christ.

2. Most of these links are deceptive.

Above is an headline that was shared over 78k times since it was posted 9 months ago. The title reads “ They Told Denzel “Don’t Say Jesus At Our School,” His Response Silenced Them All.” (You can read the story here.)

The story recaps Denzel Washington’s great commencement speech at Dillard University in which he states, “No. 1: Put. God. First! Put God first in everything you do. Everything I have is by the grace of God. Understand that. It’s a gift.”

I completely agree with that Denzel, way to be! Looking back on this title though, I’m perplexed. At no point in this article does it say that they told him not to say Jesus. Upon doing a little research you will find that the chances that anyone from Dillard University would ever tell him not to say “Jesus” are practically zero. The truth is that Dillard University “…resulted from a 1935 merger of two historically African-American and denominationally affiliated institutions. In 1866, the Methodist Episcopal Church founded the Thompson Biblical Institute for the training of African-American ministers. The Normal School for the training of teachers was added to Thompson in 1869, and the school that resulted was named New Orleans University. Also in 1869, the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church established Straight University in New Orleans. When the two institutions, New Orleans University and Straight University, were merged and renamed Dillard University, the denominational affiliations were maintained. Thus, Dillard University is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ.”(Source)

So this title was formulated, deceptively, and it garnered 78.5k shares. The majority I will assume is from those professing the Christian Faith. Why couldn’t it be worded like “ Denzel Washington says “No 1. Put. God. First…Amazing!” ??? Because it’s not as scandalous or spicy enough than dishonesty, and people took the bait hook, line, and sinker. It is vital to our witness and the heart of God that we know the truth about what we are endorsing when we invoke the name of Jesus in a way that deceptively paints a picture for the sake of “being edgy.”

Why am I making a big deal about this?

The real issue here is that “Christian Click Bait” is popular because it echoes the rhetoric and statuses that Christians post online everyday. Especially as it relates to public servants. Look to heroes of the faith, like Joseph or Daniel, that were welcomed into the courts of the king. They may have not agreed with them but they held fast to the Lord without insulting the king. What am I saying? You can’t gain the influence of kings if you are defaming them in the town square. We cannot possibly gain access to minister to broken hearts that lead our nation by calling them out with incendiary comments that solve nothing. We cannot expect to be salt and light to the hurting by shaming their decisions publicly online.

The truth is that these headlines exist, because of how the Body of Christ communicates online. We are moving into a season where people are going to be searching for truth in their lives, and as light bearers, we have got to do better about prioritizing the Great Commission over the First Amendment. Just because we have the freedom to say what we want in our country, doesn’t mean that we are being good stewards of the righteousness given to us when we do. The only solution here is Jesus. He modeled how we should live with our words when he followed the leading of his Father (John 5:19, John 12:49). My summary point is that I would implore you to join me on a search for humility in how we speak both online and offline, that we may encounter divine opportunity to share the scandalous grace and love of God with a broken, afraid, and dying world.