Who Would Jesus Troll?
celebrity pastors in the social media age
Just over a week ago, a Christian Nationalist group called “Mayday USA” brought a provocative protest called “Don’t Mess with Our Kids” to Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.
Cal Anderson is in the heart of Seattle’s historic gay-borhood, and this group’s assertions that LGBTQ folks (in conjunction with teachers’ unions, of course) are recruiting and brainwashing kids into being queer or trans was predictably inflammatory, playing off of anti-LGBT “grooming” conspiracy theories.
A counterprotest showed up, followed by allegations of violence and over 20 arrests. While the Seattle Police Department claims that the counter-protestors threw water bottles and balloons filled with urine at them, counter-protesters have alleged that SPD moved in merely after a balloon (presumably non-urine filled) popped.
This Mayday USA protest didn’t come out of nowhere. The org partnered with local Seattle church, The Pursuit Northwest. Its pastor, Russell B. Johnson, is an ex-politico who seems to enjoy provoking Liberals. His star first rose when he defied government orders to shut down in-person services during COVID.
While Johnson’s aesthetic is hip and edgy, his theology is decidedly old-fashioned: purity culture with rigid gender roles, anti-government neoliberalism, all served up with a dash of prosperity gospel. He reminds me of no one so much as a baby Mark Driscoll, the disgraced Seattle megachurch pastor who was later charged with racketeering.
When I was growing up, the reputation of Christians was that we were nice people. Pastors, especially! But with the rise of social media, it seems like more and more pastors are trading in the humble work of relationship building for internet fame and the money that comes with it.
(Need proof of the trend? Look no further than the PreachersNSneakers Instagram:)
And the way to be famous on the internet? Piss people off. It doesn’t matter if what you’re saying is true as long as it gets clicks, right?
To be fair, people on the left do this, too. Go to any anti-Trump protest and you’ll see plenty of elaborate protest signs filled with expletives, jabs at Trump’s appearance, and other trollish nonsense. For people who are supposedly against deportations, there were plenty of “Deport Elon” signs at the Seattle rally I attended.
Other than refusing to be trolls ourselves, how should we respond to such provocations?
The internet adage says, “don’t feed the trolls”—that the best way to handle people engaging in bad faith arguments is to ignore them. And this makes a certain amount of sense—had the people in Cal Anderson just gone about their day, the protest would not have spawned a second iteration at Seattle’s City Hall days later, or a planned August protest.
In the aftermath of these protests, many in Seattle media are openly worrying that we’ll devolve into the chaos of Portland 2020. That year saw 100+ consecutive nights of protests involving scuffles between groups like Patriot Prayer and Black Lives Matter, including a murder.
On the other hand, there’s pressure on progressive Christians such as myself to clap back at groups like Mayday and Pursuit—to say they don’t speak for us. For too long “Christian” has been synonymous with Jerry Fallwell’s “Moral Majority” when, in fact, there is a much longer tradition of Christian social justice movements.
And let’s be honest, it’s pretty satisfying to be righteously indignant—to make snarky signs and yell. Protesting is invigorating. But I wonder if it’s simply an exercise in preaching to the choir? We certainly don’t win people over by slandering their side.
Jesus persuaded people to follow him by building relationships with them. It meant eating dinner together, dialoguing, answering their questions with more questions. Building relationships and gaining trust is slow, un-Instagram-able work. Leaders like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr built on Jesus’ model, leading nonviolent protests whose examples shamed empires and changed history. How can we draw on their lessons to fight injustice?
The crowdsourced motto of the internet age might be: “use social media to shout your opinions and troll your enemies.” But I think there is wisdom in the old hymn which says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
Maybe instead of planning counter-protests, we ought to be planning service projects and teach-ins. We need to be dialoguing and relationship building, even with those whose opinions we can’t stand. After all, how many of us once held views we now repudiate? Instead of out-arguing people, can we out-mercy them? Out-listen them? Out-love them?
Such a response would certainly be a radical shift.
How do you deal with trolls? Do you have any experience with Instagram preachers? What do you think about turning the other cheek online? I always love to hear your thoughts in the comments or via email or direct message.
BONUS MATERIALS:
curious about Christian Nationalism? I can heartily recommend April Ajoy’s book, Star-Spangled Jesus
We have lost so much of the radical nonviolence tradition of Dr. King. I love your point about how the most important work does not show up on Instagram.
I'm so glad I read this post this afternoon. What a perfect thing to read after church! I need these kind of reminders, over & over & over. Thank yoou