The Appropriate Use of Humor and Ridicule When Defending the Faith

Prolegomena: A few weeks ago, a furry antitheistic friend called “Gray Mouser” left a few comments under our church blog posts titled "Can't We All Just Get Along?" and “Killing Abortionists and Starting Revolutions.” In each case, the Mouse quoted me and then made an attempted refutation. My statements are in italics and the Mouse’s responses to those statements are in bold below.

2-8-07: ”From the pen of ‘Dusman’:

'Gray Mouser' (a.k.a as a possible Piedmont Freethought Association 'member' scared of using his or her real name for fear that all the FUNDIES are gonna come and burn his/her house down, tar and feather him/her, and then beat him/her repeatedly with a calfskin leathern girdle) said,

So, this is the reaction of a church elder, who fulfills the requirements laid out in your web site, is it? "Patient; forbearing; gentle" I recall reading. "Has a good reputation with outsiders" -- sir, I wonder if the members of your "church" (reads more like a cult to be honest) realize what they have in you and your fellow elders.

You are a bully, plain and simple. I would advise you to engage in a little reflection before you proceed any further down this path you're treading.

Farewell.

2-10-07: “Dusman wrote:

"'Malign' comes from the Greek word blasfhmei/n, from which we get the English words, 'blaspheme' and 'blasphemy.' To do this is to slander, curse, and treat someone with contempt, which is something that can never be done with a righteous motive.”

What a hypocrite! When you write about non-believers, you don't even try to hide your contempt. What does the above say about you? Oh yeah... this unbeliever has said that that needs to be said. Hang your head in shame, if you can even remember how to do it.”

Now for whatever reason, “Gray Mouser” has decided to remove both of the above comments from the comboxes of the respective posts on our church blog as listed above, but I reproduce them here as a starting point for this article.[1] In light of his/her statements above, I will provide a rationale as to the humorous and sometimes ridiculing tone of my responses when dealing with some infidels in light of the seemingly contradictory quoted comments from my teaching regarding avoiding contemptuous speech in our general interactions with people.

Introduction: The apostle Paul had warned the Roman Christians not to allow the unbelieving world-system to squeeze them into its mold (Rom. 12:1). Instead, he wanted them to be transformed by the renewing of their minds by having the Scriptures equip them for every good work (Rom. 12:2; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). One of the devices that Satan and his emissaries (2 Cor. 2:11) has effectively used to emasculate the Christian Church is the heresy of “political correctness.”

This heresy teaches that we should never judge the doctrines or the lifestyles of others. Any intelligent Christian who boldly stands in defense of Jesus and gospel in modern America is often condemned by both professing believer and unbeliever as being unkind, unloving, and judgmental. The irony is, of course, that when such a one condemns you for condemning others, they become the very thing they abhor because they are now hypocritically doing the very thing they condemned you for! (Matthew 7:1-5) Thus, if such people really believe it is wrong to judge others, then why are they judging you?

The typical neutering technique used by both the secular and sacred world in an effort to stanch Christianity is the promotion of the idea that it is wrong to ridicule, mock, or scorn false religions, false prophets, apostates, and infidels. Indeed, the only heresy that political correctness allows is the heresy of calling anything whatsoever a heresy. Political correctness in this context intimates that that one commits the supreme evil of offending people simply when they hurt their feelings. Thus, if you say anything that hurts the feelings of a false prophet, his followers, or a hardened infidel, you have committed the unforgivable sin according to the gospel of political correctness. This idea is so methodically ingrained in people today that they assume that the use of humor, scorn, and mockery is a vice. But according to the Christian worldview, this assumption itself is wrong and unbiblical.

If we are to honor God by heeding to the Scriptures, we will find that the use of humor, ridicule, and scorn to mock false religion is a virtue and not a vice. It is one of the works of Yahweh and was practiced by the prophets and apostles. The Church Fathers and Reformers frequently used scorn and ridicule to mock the heresies of their day, especially since they were not neutered by the political correctness of most church leaders today. They commanded the allegiance of brave men and women because they were not wimps who cowered under the squeeze and pressure of the world-system. So, it is high time to take a brief look at the Scriptures to see how Yahweh and His prophets often responded to false prophets and hardened infidels.

Yahweh Himself often mocks, scorns, and ridicules the absurd attempts of the heathen to overthrow His sovereignty.

^NAU Psalm 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.

^NAU Psalm 37:13 The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.

^NAU Psalm 59:8 But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.

If mockery and ridicule are wrong, then Yahweh Himself is guilty of sin. But the Holy One hates false religion and ridicules it as “stupid” in Jeremiah 10:8,

^NAU Jeremiah 10:8 But they are altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion-- their idol is wood!

^NAU Proverbs 1:26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,

But a politically correct religious interlocutor may argue, “Even though God can mock and ridicule, surely it is still sinful for sinful humans to do so.” However, Psalm 52:6 says, “The righteous . . . shall mock him [the wicked one].” And that is exactly what Elijah the prophet did on Mt. Carmel as he opposed the false prophets of Baal, “It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them” (1 Kings 18:27). The popular NET Bible footnote states at verse 27,

Elijah’s sarcastic proposals would have been especially offensive and irritating to Baal’s prophets, for they believed Baal was imprisoned in the underworld as death’s captive during this time of drought. Elijah’s apparent ignorance of their theology is probably designed for dramatic effect; indeed the suggestion that Baal is away on a trip or deep in sleep comes precariously close to the truth as viewed by the prophets.[2]

So, Elijah was playing upon an inherent doctrinal weakness within Baalism and mockingly using it as rough rhetorical sandpaper to rub the already sore wound of an impotent false god. Similarly, when one looks at the Old Testament prophets, they all mocked and ridiculed the wicked to a man. This is why they were often murdered, severely persecuted, and/or generally hated by the unregenerate Israelites. Amos surely “hurt the feelings” of people when he mocked them by saying “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, "Bring now, that we may drink!” (Amos 4:1)

In case some of you may think that Spirit-inspired mockery is an Old Testament phenomenon, when we turn to the New Covenant Scriptures, what do we find therein? The prolegomena of the gospel comes via John the Baptist, a man who no doubt “hurt people’s feelings” when he called them a “brood of snakes” and warned them of the wrath to come (Luke 3:7). Then comes the supposedly mild-mannered, politically correct, and limp-wristed Jesus, who, if the secular world would have their way with Him, would be portrayed as nothing more than a long-haired, limp-wristed Robert-Schulleresque hippie from Southern California. Nevertheless, this “sweet and lovely” Jesus aggressively and frequently mocked the Pharisees and Sadducees to such an extent that they became so infuriated that they tried to murder Him on several occasions. For an example of Christ’s scorching mockery of these religious unbelievers, simply look at the following verses from Matthew 23,

^NAU Matthew 23:15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

^NAU Matthew 23:25-33 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. ²⁶ "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. ²⁷ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. ²⁹ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, 'If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' ³¹ "So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² "Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. ³³ "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?”

The apostles also scorched the enemies of the gospel with coarse words of mockery and ridicule (cf. 2 Peter 3). Paul even used humor in Gal. 5:12 regarding a joke about male emasculation to ridicule the false teaching of the Galatian legalists.

A Necessary Biblical Balance: Such Scriptural truths described above do not mean that Christians have the prerogative to be rude and offensive to people in general. We are warned from the entire panoply of Scripture not to be mockers and scoffers in our everyday course of life (Pro. 12:16; 14:16-17, 29; 15:1, Jam. 1:19-20, etc.). The use of argumentum ad ridiculum is strictly reserved for the refutation of false religions and the defense of the gospel.[3] A mocking attitude is always wrong when directed against God, the things of God, and Christ’s church. Thus, it is not to be used against fellow Christians. As much as lies within us, give no unnecessary offense except the offense of the cross of Christ as contained in the apostolic kergyma.

Conclusion: If Christians are to be consistent with their own worldview by following in the footsteps of the prophets, the apostles, and even of Jesus Himself, then they cannot buy into the heresy of political correctness that dominates the world today and seeks to neuter an otherwise effective Christian apologetic. Obedience to the Lord via the objective, enscripturated Word is essential. Such an essential obedience will not only effectively mute the inane arguments of the politically correct religious ecumenists who consistently cower in the face of the infidel and the false prophet, but it will also empower the faithful apologist to declare that the Triune Sovereign be true even if it means that at the end of the apologetic day, they will have to say that every man is a liar (Rom. 3:4).

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[1] And I can do this in light of the fact that I still have e-copies of them.

[2] http://net.bible.org/bible.php?book=1Ki&chapter=18#n37

[3] For a good discussion regarding 1 Peter 3:15, see here: http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-peter-and-civility.html