Outrage sells. Its plain as day. If eyeballs on articles are the currency of new media, there are few things that attract those eyeballs more effectively than outrage. In the wider cultural context of new media there is always lots to work with: Alec Baldwins homophobia, Steve Martins racism, Patton Oswalts insensitivity. It goes on and on. There is always someone saying something dumb or unwise, and new medias response is immediate, fiery indignation.
We as Christians are also easily outraged. Sometimes we seem to forget that we are sinful people living in a sin-stained world and that sinnerseven saved oneswill behave like sinners. Sometimes we appear to hold the people we admire (or admired) to the impossible standard of perfection. We dont mind if our historical heroes are deeply flawed, but we can barely tolerate the slightest imperfection in our contemporary heroes. When they fail, or even when they falter, we respond with, you guessed it: outrage. For a few days we light the torches and lift the pitchforks in our empty protests. And then we move on.
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