A case for sarcasm
Posted by Don Bryant on November 3, 2009
As I have often quoted to the church, today’s preaching is “a mild mannered man preaching to mild mannered people about being more mild mannered.” Let’s call it church as cotillion society.
The church is uncomfortable with criticism and critique, (though it loves gossip). “Can’t we all just get along?” Thus guys like Mark Driscoll are being spawned. His technique is to humiliate what he opposes. I don’t like it, am uneasy with it, suspicious of the arrogance of it, and yet……
It is no doubt effective as an offense to laugh at one’s opponent. To laugh at the laughable is itself a way to defeat the opposition, the foolish, the absurd. It demonstrates how unworthy the opposition is. God does so in Psalm 2:4. “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.”
The one thing that the proud cannot stand is to be laughed at. It’s the ultimate sin against them. That makes sarcasm the ultimate weapon.
This is where Martin Luther excels. He is fascinating to read. You can feel the life forces, the passion in the blood, the power of the Gospel. That which so many took so seriously (the church with all of its institutional plumery) Luther dismisses with the wave of the pinky finger. While others quaked before the trappings of power, Luther drank his beer and made jokes.
King David in the psalms makes free use of sarcasm, and so do many of the prophets.
In the blogosphere sarcasm is used profligately. Some bloggers try to keep their blog polite and civilized. And it does require some effort at moderation to keep the nut jobs from sacking Rome and burning down your blog. But belittling the opposition can be at times the best way to handle them. They are small and should look small. Treating the small as big can leave too much room for that which there ought to be no room for all.
Of course, there is a line here that should not be crossed. But that line is in the eye of the beholder.
