A Christian opens Facebook to check on a birthday post and ends up mad about a sheninagan in Washington before finishing breakfast.

The doomscroll commences. A school board clip. A war headline. A border video.A pastor’s post, a celebrity scandal, a court ruling, a crime story and an endless streamline of incessant bickering among strangers in the comments section. 

By lunch, the person is not more informed in any useful way. He is irritated, suspicious and ready to argue.

This is what the outrage cycle does. Its loop of cultivated chaos keeps people reactive. Every headline feels urgent, every disagreement feels personal and every public issue feels like another reason to stay angry.

The Christian should care about world happenings. He should participate in elections and pay attention to the ongoing problems within schools, churches, crime, immigration, war, religious liberty and so on, as each domain affects the future of the country. Observing the world is necessary.

However, observation has become a problem when outrage is his regular state of being.

Social media is built for reaction. A 2021 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that posts about political opponents were more likely to be shared than posts about a person’s own political side. The study looked at millions of posts from news media accounts and members of Congress and found that content aimed at the other side traveled farther. 

That should not surprise anyone who has spent time online. A calm and accurate explanation of a worldly affair is not particularly noticeable in a sea of clickbait. Further, a fair correction does not spread like an original furious accusation. The clip that makes people angry gets shared, quoted and reposted until it becomes the only thing people can talk about.

Another study, published in Science Advances, found that social feedback can train people to express more moral outrage online. When outrage gets rewarded with likes and shares, people become more likely to post that way again.

That is not solely a media problem. It becomes a discipleship problem. If a person spends hours a week listening to strangers tell him who to hate, what to fear and why the country is finished, that person is being formed, not informed. This process normally happens slowly and without him noticing. But it is happening.

Pew Research Center reported in 2024 that about one-in-five U.S. adults regularly get news from news influencers on social media. Among adults ages 18 to 29, the number rises to 37%. Many of these influencers work outside traditional newsrooms and blend commentary, personality, entertainment and politics. 

These influencers are really anybody. Some of them are thoughtful, nuanced and truthtelling. Others lie, speak on impulse or exaggerate for attention. Many have learned that outrage builds an audience faster than patience does.

Christians need to step back from emotional responses adn question who is shaping their reactions.

Is it Scripture? Is it prayer? Is it a pastor who knows them? Is it a mature believer who has earned the right to speak into their life?

Or is it someone online who is social-media-monetized or otherwise benefits from posts?

This question is relevant because politics is heavily weighing on people. The American Psychological Association’s 2024 Stress in America report found that the future of the nation, the economy and the presidential election were among the top stressors for adults. 

Christians also absorb that pressure. Parents see school controversies and worry about their child’s school curriculum. Church members watch elections and worry about the kind of country their grandchildren will inherit. People are constantly saturated with news about crime, corruption or open hostility toward Christian beliefs and wonder how much worse it will get.

Those concerns are real.

A Christian does not have to become passive to preserve inner peace. He can and should continue to educate himself, vote, speak up, show up at meetings and care. The Bible never asks believers to confuse silence with faithfulness.

But James gives a warning, “Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20)

Anger is dangerous ground. It can point to something that needs attention, but it is a bad place to live.

Sometimes Christians call their anger “courage” when they are really just enjoying (or otherwise compelled toward) the fight. Discernment is not them being suspicious of everyone, and truth-telling  is not repeating a claim they never checked because it sounded like something their side would say.

These hastily formed opinions and then actions damage Christian witness.

A believer can argue for border security and still remember that undocumented immigrants are also human beings made in the image of God. They can expose lies without becoming careless with the truth.

Paul told the church in Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” That list leaves very little room for the way many Christians talk online. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Now obviously, Christians aren’t a homogenous group, and there is plenty of diversity in personality within believers. Some people are naturally blunt and direct and willing to say the hard thing in a room where everyone else is afraid. That’s a great thing; the kingdom needs courage. 

It also needs self-control.

A person can be right about an issue and still wrong in spirit. A person can defend a biblical position and still dishonor Christ in the way he does it. That is the complexity that many Christians do not want to examine.

Naturally, it’s a lot easier to talk about the other side of the fence. It is harder to notice and be radically honest about what constant anger is doing to us. 

Pew Research Center reported this year that about half of Americans say they are worn out by the amount of news there is these days, while 60% say they have reduced the amount of news they get overall at some point. 

That does not mean Christians should stop paying attention. It may mean many people already know that the current pace of media intake is not healthy.

Paul wrote in Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” That command reaches into the phone, the feed, the podcast queue and the comment section. (Romans 12:2)

The world teaches people to react first and check later. Christians should not be so easy to manipulate.

That may mean reading the full story, taking a moment to digest it and cross verifying facts before reposting. It also may look like blocking or muting a specific commentator who keeps you angry but never helps you become wiser.

It may also mean doing something more useful than arguing.

Call the representative. Attend the school board meeting. Help the pregnancy center. Serve at the church. Outrage often feels productive because it raises the pulse, but much of the time, it only drains your energy.

Philippians 4 tells believers to dwell on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and worthy of praise. That command asks you to stop building an entire inner life around evil. (Philippians 4:8)

The next controversy will come soon enough. Before Christians share it, argue about it or carry it into the rest of the day, they should ask what it is doing to them.

Is it truly making you prayerful, brave and more faithful to Christ? Or is it just making you angry again?

 

Feature photo: Japanexperterna.se, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons