There’s a gathering of young white, male preachers filled with anger at church and state. I have dubbed them the “outrage prophets,” similar to the false prophets of the Old Testament.
One of their members, Joel Webbon, drew my attention with an outburst of outrage when he said, “Forcefully take away from the people their rights” and “give them less freedom.” I think his sense of rage has warped his mind.
Webbon wants to take away rights at a time when the demand for total rights is higher than ever in America. The demand for individual freedom never has been stronger than now.
He is an outrage prophet. A Reformed Baptist, he is president and founder of Right Response Ministries and senior pastor of Covenant Bible Church in Austin, Texas.
Rodney Kennedy
He says “old American ideals” no longer apply. Therefore, “When we come out on the other side, whatever that looks like, I think there are some basic principles that are inevitable, and one of them is going to be less freedom.”
As documented by People for the American Way, Webbon previously has said he wants to see the Apostles’ Creed added to the Constitution; abortion, pornography, no-fault divorce, in vitro fertilization and birth control outlawed; non-Christians kept out of his neighborhood and out of public office; Catholics relegated to second-class citizenship; immigrants shot for trying to enter the country; adulterers put to death; and women banned from voting and publicly executed for making false claims of sexual assault.
Webbon is not a serious theologian. He is a troll whose talent for outrage exceeds his mastery of reason and logic. His incapacity for philosophical reasoning is surpassed only by his rhetorical recklessness. He’s a lightweight attempting to become a heavyweight by saying the outrageous out loud.
Outrage, the verbal escalator, once started, rolls upward until it falls and crashes like Lucifer from heaven. If a preacher’s mental process goes like this: “What can I say to gain the most attention?”, the preacher has departed from the faith and entered the fantastical world of his outrageous imagination.
Why is there so much outrage? Rage feels like an old friend that’s been around since humans walked on two legs. It is our oldest emotion. Rage makes its first appearance in the biblical saga with Cain in Genesis 4:5.
Peter Sloterdijk, in Rage and Time, says: “Rage we understand. At the beginning of the first sentence of the European tradition, in the first verse of the Iliad, ‘Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles’ appears. It appears fatally and solemnly, like a plea, a plea that does not allow for any disagreement.”
Rage disrupts the mind enough to put it in borderline illiterate territory.
Rage disrupts the mind enough to put it in borderline illiterate territory. Decisions made from rage are unstable and dangerous. Rage created and still nourishes values contradictory to Christian understanding: White supremacy, hegemonic masculinity, carnivalesque violence and nostalgia.
The atmosphere has the feel of boys vying for attention on a playground. In the outrage game, each outrage has to be more of a bomb than the previous one.
Joel Webbon
Today, social media is the conduit, not the culprit, of outrage. Webbon never would have been noticed if he had not appeared in the digital media, social media, televised age. All forms of media are hospitable to the outrageous proudly brandishing their wacky ideas.
Social media sanctions outrage. The conduit for outrage is lies, hyperbole, incoherent claims, threats, repetition of divisive phrases, harsh words, weaponized rhetoric, excess emotional appeals and violence imagery.
Jonathan Haidt says social media platforms “bring out our most moralistic and least reflective selves.”
Social media amplifies political polarization, foments right-wing populism and is associated with the spread of misinformation. Social media grants more power to extreme views — a boon for outrage prophets.
Research shows posts that trigger emotions — especially anger at out-groups — are the most likely to be shared. As marketing and media savants, this has not been lost on evangelical preachers.
I have a decidedly low view of the outrage prophets. These guys are trolls. They seem obsessed with status and are willing to use aggression to achieve their goals.
Like the hypocrites Jesus spoke of in the synagogues, they’re already receiving their reward in clicks, views and notoriety. Theirs is not the kingdom of heaven.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.