Mockery is a sin, except when I mock people who disagree with me. Then it is not sin. This has been the attitude of online pastors of which I will name names. But first, some underlying context. Multiple pastors have been raging against mockery. There have been many bad takes on social media, and so mockery ensues. In Winning Not Winsome, I argue there is a biblical history of trolling.
I would argue that as a Prophet, Elijah understood his words would have this outcome yet considered it desirable anyway. On Mount Carmel, Elijah is dealing with some of the Bible’s NPCs and provokes them into cutting themselves because these NPCs lack impulse control. This is perhaps the first documented instance of effective trolling in the history of mankind.
Coincidentally, Mark Driscoll also argued that Elijah was mocking the prophets of Baal in a viral sermon last year, which sparked much debate. Elijah was correct in mocking the prophets of Baal, even for the purposes of engendering their foolish impulses. Yet several online pastors cannot take a joke, a meme, or rightful scorn towards their folly.
Joe Boot had zero qualms about mocking people he disagreed with while promoting James White’s video on mockery not being a Christian virtue. Meanwhile, Jeff Durbin, James White’s pastor engaged in mockery while White is making his point.
Is this based or totally mid, Kings?
— Jeff Durbin (@PastorNinja) December 13, 2024
Smile, you brave anonymous warriors. It's good for you. (Proverbs 17:22) pic.twitter.com/8wyZrmFsmf
Now I would not presume that Jeff Durbin’s cringey memes, though mocking and without wisdom, are sinful.
Tom Buck had no problem mocking young reformed men, accusing them of hating women, yet Buck’s history of playing with feminism and getting burned makes him a poor messenger to this point. Moreover, Tom Buck could dish it out, but he couldn’t take a meme that poked fun at his endorsement of the liberal feminist Janet Mefferd.
Tom Buck lashed out and attempted to struggle session Ben Zeisloft, Jared Moore, William Wolfe, and others for associating with that account.
These pastors have grown large platforms, but they’ve also grown prideful and unable to take jokes or criticism well. They want to police discourse with rules they freely ignore. Of their flagrant hypocrisy I want no part.
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These guys will not show the right way to reject the Post-war Consensus, because they are still too stuck on their early fundy anabaptist impulses, or they realize that it would be costly to do so, and prevent them from ever getting into the Evangelical mainstream. Not willing to show the right way, they concentrate on attacking everyone who does take on the cultural paradigms. These targets frequently do not have the preparation to go about it very well, but they know they have been lied to by their teachers and leaders, and are putting their confidence in the opposite.
Using mockery as a tactic against the traitors within Christianity is totally fine.
Mockery and humor are very powerful tools in the arsenal of a true, faithful Christian.
The traitor-pastors such as James White know that mockery is an effective tactic that real Christians can use to expose and discredit the lying traitor-pastors.
That is why the traitor-pastors are so desperate to gaslight true Christians into believing that using mockery is a sin.
I mock and taunt traitor-pastors and other traitorous fake “Christian” influencers all the time.
Mocking these traitors is fun, and it’s also a very effective way to discredit and expose them.
Furthermore, these narcissistic bullies such as Doug Wilson HATE IT when their victims mock them, because it takes away their power.
Mocking the traitor-pastors shows them that you aren’t afraid of them, and you won’t be intimidated into submission by their evil manipulative LIES such as “God will send you to hell if you care about the White race” and “God will send you to hell if you tell the truth about all the evil things the jews are doing.”
Mocking and ridiculing the traitor-pastors discredits these lying charlatans in the eyes of the public.
Mocking and ridiculing the traitor-pastors also sets a good example for other Christians, by showing that true Christians will stand up and denounce the traitor-pastors and their evil anti-White lies about Christianity.
Jesus mocked the Pharisees. So James White thinks Jesus sinned.