The Super Bowl used to have an add-on known as “The Halftime Show.” Now, it seems, “The Halftime Show” has an add-on known as The Super Bowl. While the game itself ended at 10:12pm ET on Sunday night, the halftime show continues online. . . and what a disturbing and heart-breaking show it is.
I remember hearing someone once tell me, “I went to a fight. . . and a hockey game broke out.” Well, I don’t know what round we’re in now that we’re three days out from the Super Bowl’s final whistle, but the fighting that began well before the game broke out continues, and social media is the ring where it’s talking place.
I can hardly stand what’s been happening on social media this week. It’s now looking like Team Bad Bunny and Team Kid Rock are really, really livid, furious, enraged, and incensed with each other. And the screaming I hear which grieves me the most is that which is going back-and-forth between people I know who are professing followers of Jesus Christ. Screams rooted in emotion and anger rather than in truth and reason generally come when someone has lost control of themselves and they desire to assert their dominance by exeercising power and trying to gain control. It’s sad. And if I’m honest, I’m far more concerned about how this is all playing out in the church, rather than how it is playing out in the culture-at-large.
As I’ve listened to and watched this fight play out it’s been. . . truth be told. . . incredibly draining. It’s also been quite telling. Listen to the arguments and it doesn’t take long to see that the halftime shows – both the official one and the alternative one – are both “screaming.” While most believe that the “screaming” has been primarily political in nature, something else is really quite obvious. Yes, it at least seems like much of the screaming among professing Christians is rooted in politics. . . which is what leads to what’s quite obvious. You see, we’ve allowed our ideologies to cloud our eyes to any shred of spiritual wisdom and discernment that might be there. . . but which is being pushed aside in the moment. Or, maybe it’s evidence that spiritual wisdom and discernment are frighteningly non-existent in the world of professing Christians these days.
You see, it doesn’t matter which side you’re on. When you allow something other than the Word of God to set true north in your moral compass, you get lost. And when you’re lost, you focus on certain things at the expense of other equally important or even most-important things.
Here’s one observation I’ve had this week that is really troubling: I can’t believe how certain people I know are so easy to embrace individuals and ideologies while at the same time excusing the words and lifestyles of those same individuals as they promote a narrative for belief and behavior which clearly advances the kingdoms of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And please hear me: this is happening on all sides.
As someone who watches culture while working to teach kids skills in wisdom and discernment, I’ve been struck for years by the lack of thinking critically and Christianly regarding media and music. It’s snowballed over time, and we’re now bearing the ugly fruit in the church. Now what I’m about to say should be argued regarding both sides in the “Halftime Wars”: We are being blind, hypocritical, and a voice of foolishness void of discernment when we fail to see the belief and behavioral narratives being promoted by our guy, all the while pointing fingers of condemnation at those of the other guy.
Consider this thought: Sometimes our choices are not between good and evil. . . and when the buffet table is illuminated and looked at carefully. . . seen to be set with nothing but the latter, our blind hunger yields nothing but toxic options. And so we eagerly fill our plates with options that all bring joy to the evil cook’s face, especially when we jump into the feedback loop of discord, dispute, and disagreement. You know who always wins? The evil cook. . . who looks out of the kitchen window at the discord, disputes, and disagreements. . . gloating as he proclaims, “Mission accomplished!!” Nothing leads us further from the Truth than lies and half-truths. And when one lie or half-truth is opposed to another. . . well, the wrecker of this world sits back and laughs. And so, we must humbly seek and gorge on the Truth. Fill your well with His Truth.
And so, I step back from what continues to play out among professing Christians on social media this week and I am even more convinced of two things that halftime has been screaming. . .
First, we need wisdom and discernment! The Psalmist prayed, “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commmandments” (Psalm 119:66). Paul said to the Ephesians, “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). He told the Thessalonians, “Test everything: hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:21-22).
I love Tim Keller’s definition of wisdom: “Competence with regard to the complex realities of life. It has to do with understanding a particular situation and then knowing the right thing to do.”
What about discernment. I’ve come to understand discernment as the developing skill of knowing, understanding, and applying the truths of God’s Word to all of life, in order to distinguish truth from error, wisdom from foolishness, and right from wrong. Sinclair Ferguson tells us that “Discernment is like the physical senses; to some it is given in unusual measure as a special grace gift (I Corinthians 12:10), but some measure of it is essential for us all and must be constantly nourished. The Christian must take care to develop his ‘sixth sense of spiritual discernment.'”
At CPYU, we’ve been working hard for almost four decades now to teach our kids skills in wisdom and discernment. We continue to distribute our How To Use Your Head To Guard Your Heart: 3(D) Guide to Making Wise Media Choices as a way to help students develop eyes and ears to Discover underlying worldviews, Discern how those worldviews measure up to God’s narrative, will, and way for their lives, and to Decide what to believe and how to live.
Second, we’ve got to start behaving ourselves on social media! We’ve talked often about the need to learn how to take a social media “purposeful pause”, especially in these hate-spewing and virtue-signaling days. As I’ve shared before, it’s incredibly wise and discerning to lean into the recommendations of Alan Jacobs, particularly this week. . .
- I don’t have to say something just because everyone around me is.
- I don’t have to speak about this I know little or nothing about.
- I don’t have to speak about issues that will be totally forgotten in a few weeks or months by the people who at this moment are most strenuously demanding a response.
- I don’t have to spend my time in environments that press me to speak without knowledge.
- If I can bring to an issue heat, but no light, it is probably best that I remain silent.
- Private communication can be more valuable than public.
- Delayed communication, when people have had time to think and calm their emotions, is almost always more valuable than immediate reaction.
- Some conversations are more meaningful and effective in living rooms or at dinner tables, than in the middle of main street.
So, let’s be people of the Book and let’s raise people of the Book who choose to live counter-culturally in this knee-jerk world that feeds and values hostility. Let’s be and raise people whose lives are marked by wisdom and discernment. . . know how to live, what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. In this world we will have trouble. But let’s not be makers of the kind of trouble that puts a smile on the enemy’s face.