Recently, New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho dropped a recruitment video, enticing young men to join their academic ranks. For those who haven’t seen it, I’ll link it here. The video is fairly boilerplate in what you’d expect from Wilson and Friends. There’s the nod to Christian Nationalism (a movement rife with exegetical error), the bolstering of an ideal Christian Renaissance man, and then the not-so-subtle spirit of rebellion. As for the rest of the content, here’s your trigger warning: the ad features Johnny Cash giving the middle finger coupled with the idea that young men must be willing to “hoist” said “middle finger when faced with idolatry.”

Now, we could talk about how vulgarity has no place in the Christian life, but the creators and admirers of said ad would simply scoff at my perceived pearl-clutching. And yet that’s rather the point of this post. The New Saint Andrews ad was merely the jumping off point for a larger discussion I think we need to have in the church. Namely, since when did sincerity become something to sneer at, especially among Christians?

We’ve seen this drift in culture for decades. Gone are the days of Aragorn and his calm, self-controlled masculinity. No longer do we admire the unaffected, self-assured Clark Kent. Instead, our heroes are Deadpool, Thor, and a legion of similarly juvenile cynics. It’s a dynamic we’ve been constantly bombarded with in the online space. Who can clap back with that quippy one-liner? Who’s racking up followers while rankling authorities? We’ve spent so long communicating in memes and threads we don’t even know how to have genuine good faith conversations anymore.

Here’s my question, and I ask it sincerely: Do you believe that snark and scorn are consistent with a disposition of love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ? It’s quite possible I’ll be lumped in with the “cauldron of Karens” for writing this post, and yet the question still stands. In the wake of the New Saint Andrews ad, Doug Wilson (whom I generally like) and a few of the Moscow guys made a defense video of their use of the middle finger. It was nothing short of disheartening to read through some of the comments and replies on that video. Many Christians who had earnest concerns about the inclusion of such a gesture were openly ridiculed for even questioning whether or not it was a godly thing to do.

I have been guilty of erring on the side of snark and hurting fellow believers in the process, and my continual prayer is that God will grant me a greater propensity of love for Him and His people. The irony is that in promoting the giving of the middle finger to idolatry, many have, in their zeal, given the middle finger to those they are called to love. So let’s put an end to trolling and start extolling virtue.

Until next time, salutations & selah.