When it comes to getting progressive Christians worked into pious, self-righteous indignation, there is nothing that holds a candle to the Christian satirists who work at The Babylon Bee. Global poverty, the immigration crisis, lack of potable water in the third world, communist genocide in the Far East, or the West's steady decline into the pit of sexual immorality? None of that will get left-leaning believers stomping and tweeting quite like a Bee headline.
I have written about Howard's pharisaical tendencies before, and it only takes a quick Google search to reveal that he's been falsely accusing The Babylon Bee of being racist for several years now. Still, I was curious what headline from The Bee had prompted this most recent explosion of anger on the Christian Left. I'm still struggling to comprehend how this was it:
Since I work for The Bee's sister site, I thought it might be wise to acknowledge my own implicit bias and bounce the headline off a couple of largely apolitical Christians I know, asking them what they thought it meant. The response was the exact same as mine: This is mocking Anthony Fauci for his freedom-curtailing COVID leadership, comparing it to what the Chinese government is doing to its citizens.
To be blunt, I can't imagine how anyone could struggle to understand what is being said in that story. The tyrannical Chinese are impressed with the tyrannical Fauci and have covertly recruited him to lead their onerous lockdowns.
- Obvious target 1: Anthony Fauci
- Obvious target 2: The oppressive Chinese government
Now, who is the oppressive Chinese government oppressing? The billion Chinese people living within their borders. In other words, The Babylon Bee is satirizing, mocking, calling out those who are oppressing Chinese people. And that is somehow offensive to… Chinese people?
Ordinarily, people who are either intentionally or unwittingly too dense to understand a joke aren't worth the time to comment on. I couldn't care less that progressives dislike The Babylon Bee, call it "trash," say they only have "two jokes," or that they're "not funny." Conservatives say the same thing about SNL, Stephen Colbert, and virtually the entire catalog of content coming from Comedy Central.
The Bee regularly harpoons progressivism's sacred cows, and even more potently skewers the idols of progressive Christianity. Of course those watching their gods be torched aren't going to be big fans of the dudes spitting the fire.
But what is worth rebuking is when the name of Jesus is hijacked to grind a political axe. Say, like this:
Particularly since Won's condemnation of The Bee's anti-Asian racism uses an appeal to Christian morality, shouldn't there be an expectation that justification be given for the claim? Hurling accusations of racism in the name of Jesus doesn't make the claims any truer, but it does put the onus on the accuser to validate those claims lest they violate the 3rd Commandment and misuse the name of the Lord for their own purposes.
What is jarring is that while The Bee's satirical post is a defense of the Asian people in China suffering this kind of oppression…
…Won's own social media feed is absent any solidarity with suffering Chinese citizens – either those being tortured in Uighur concentration camps, or these recent examples above. Nevertheless, that uncomfortable reality didn't deter others in the progressive Christian echo chamber from embracing Won's narrative and concocting their own responses that were comically melodramatic:
Again, I feel like I've stepped into Bizarro World. what about that Bee headline is white supremacy? White supremacy actually is something – and it's vile. Abusing and misapplying the label simply as a pejorative meant to insult Christians you don't agree with robs the term of its serious meaning. Diluting the seriousness with which the sin of white supremacy is taken is what is truly offensive.
Even if we grant Won, Thomas, Howard, and all the others who ran with the slander the benefit of the doubt – the very benefit that as professing Christians they are unwilling to grant the writers at The Bee, mind you – we can at least acknowledge their conduct is completely lacking any reasonable proximity to grace.
So imagine my surprise to see Joash Thomas being featured at a forum with Beth Moore, Karen Swallow Prior, and others, with a title you have to see to believe:
I'd be curious to hear if Mr. Thomas explained how hurling judgmental invective like "trash" around in an attempt to buttress his own public accusation that fellow Christians he disagrees with are "white supremacists" fits his definition of graceful engagement.
It's a thought so preposterous it seems almost ripe for satire.
