As one of those people who often have trouble with Christian satire, I think a lot of it comes from two places: context, and that much of it is way too close to the truth.

Context makes a huge difference. For instance, I have many friends who like to joke about all sorts of things. I've spent a lot of time talking to them about theology, Church history, and any manner of other Christian subjects. I know their sense of humor, their views on things, and when they say something for the sake of sarcasm or irony, I usually know it. Similarly, you follow these people, you know that the blog or tweet or news sight being referenced is intended as satire. Those of us with no context, on the other hand, who have never read the blog or tweet (i.e. don't know the person) don't necessarily know that they're joking. This is especially bad on the Internet, because everything is straight-face and without visual and tonal cues (see also, your dislike of the phone) it's hard to tell when they're joking from anything but the difference in the content from what they actually believe. Without the context of knowing what they actually believe and that what's being said is said in jest, it's a lot harder to pick that out.

So you ask, "Can't you just tell from what's being said that they don't actually believe it?" Sadly, no. There are few heresies that one can say are honestly not believed by anyone. It is a sad state of affairs, and one worth mourning. I have read countless real websites by real people who actually believe what they're writing that I sincerely wished were satire. There are real pastors with as much of an ego and as many bad ideas as Brad Towers and they are taking real souls to hell with them. Most theological jokes satire-based jokes are only funny because there are people who are so confused as to believe them. One could ask whether or not we, as Christians, should be making fun of those people, but that's a different topic. The point is that it is difficult to be far enough out there that someone who understands how much garbage is in Church (and I use the term loosely) can't honestly believe that people believe it; and once you have gone that far out, it's usually no longer close enough to home to be funny.

The only thing that saves most of those jokes is their context as stated above. Sadly, when it's reposted or re-tweeted, the context is lost. That being said, one could provide a little context when re-tweeting it so as to help with that.

Jason,

Thanks for responding.

How do you feel about satire in "non-religious" settings?

I would point out that there is a certain amount of contextual knowledge readily available. Many blogs have an "about" page telling either about the blog or the author. If something is retweeted, it is easy enough to go to a Twitter profile.

More importantly, if someone shares something, there is the context of the relationship with the person doing the sharing. For example, if Alice is in the habit of digging up the worst foolishness on the Internet, but Bob isn't, an article shared will have a different context based on whether it was shared by Alice or Bob.

You say, "Most theological jokes satire-based jokes are only funny because there are people who are so confused as to believe them. One could ask whether or not we, as Christians, should be making fun of those people, but that's a different topic." I would say it isn't an entirely different topic. If satire-based jokes are intrinsically mocking, than asking whether or not such mocking is appropriate is relevant to the discussion.

I appreciate your concern for those who hold tragic beliefs and the people they are misleading.

I should add that I agree that context does make a difference. Like I said, I rarely retweet @Xianity, for the reason of context. However, how much burden should there be for providing this context if it is already easily available for those who seek it out?

In real life, is sarcasm said with a straight face more effective than sarcasm that is dripping with verbal and non-verbal cues? (I would say yes.)

Hmmm. I'm not quite sure what I think about this issue, but it's worth noting that Paul used sarcasm or irony is his letter to the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 5:8-13) This figurative writing is used very clearly to make a point, and the context is obvious, but still, the fact that figurative writing of this nature is in the Word of God should play into the discussion.

Personally, I find it helpful to laugh at myself. Some of the funniest skits our campus comedy group does are the ones that poke fun at Christian culture -- cheesy movies, theological views, courtship rituals, Adventures in Odyssey tapes, and all. Are there Christians somewhere that would find them offensive? Most assuredly. Still, one could argue that losing our ability to laugh at ourselves could easily become another form of pride.

There is a tragic flip-side to all this, however, which means these literary forms must be used carefully. I was just reminded of this the other night when my roommate stumbled a website that was so outrageous we thought it must be a sickening parody. Unfortunately, we discovered that the authors were all too serious in their abuse of Scriptural principles.

There are enough people on the Internet spouting extreme beliefs in earnest that make this an area to consider carefully -- while we take our views to the illogical extreme to laugh at them, others are holding those to those extremes in earnest. Perhaps audience is important to consider in these instances, but there may be jokes that are inappropriate anywhere. The danger of well-meaning satire being taken seriously (or, being unwittingly true!!) is undeniably present.

One last thought: should abuse of these forms prevent us from using them well??

We talked about this last night at Theology night, and I (Katie) am charged with sharing our comments. Here's the first batch.

As Erin Joy pointed out, we see the use of sarcasm in the Bible. In addition to Paul, we see prophets speaking sarcastically (think of Elijah and the prophets of Baal) and we see prophets relaying messages from God that definitely have a hint of irony and sarcasm (see Isaiah 40 or Job 38-41). Because of this, it seems evident that sarcasm/irony/satire is not inherently wrong; these literary forms are tools, and any tool has a time and a place to be used appropriately. Of course, any tool can also be misused or abused.

One of the problems with using these literary forms online is that the internet is somewhat devoid of context. Everything gets archived, and we are able to look at things out of their literary context. Additionally, there's little to no accountablilty on the internet.

It was pointed out that Americans in general equate 'respect' to 'be nice to each other'. Someone with this belief, when reading satire, might initially react with “Wow, that was harsh.” It may take awhile for this person to realize that the piece was intended as a joke; when they do realize it, the joke is no longer funny.

Like Erin Joy pointed out, audience is important. If the audience misses the pont, the satire has failed, either because it's poorly executed, or the audience was misinterpreted.

Think about the amount of commentary the typical Christian is exposed to each day. Christians have Study Bibles, complete with notes to explain the text, and listen to their pastors' commentary on the text at church. No sports broadcast is complete without at least one person giving us a running analysys. Even the news is not simply reporting facts, but giving us the broadcast journalist's view on what is happening. Given that the “correct” interpretation is so often spoon-fed to us, is it any wonder that people flounder when asked to interpret independently? It could be argued that many Americans assume that things ought not be difficult to understand, and therefore are not as diligent about thinking critically about what they've read/heard as would be beneficial.

Humans in general believe that words have power. We may say “Sticks and stones...” but people spend hours perfecting résumés, thousands of dollars (at least) on political ads, and learn rhetoric to better persuade audiences. These examples demonstrate that, regardless of what is professed, people believe that words have some sort of power.

Christians ought to understand the power of words at a different level. God tells us that everything that was created was spoken into being. In his gospel, John begins explaining who Jesus is by saying “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1 ESV).

While Jesus is talking about trees being known by their fruit, he tells us that “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36 ESV). Obviously, then, we ought to be careful in how we use words, and use them appropriately. Given previous discussion, we do assume that there is an appropriate time to use sarcasm, irony and satire.

For most things, it doesn't matter if satire is understood. Does it really matter in the long run if someone believes a bogus bill proposed by The Onion is actually being debated by the legislature? What are the long-term consequences of a reader misinterpreting a satirical blog post extolling the non-existent virtues of some new game? Yes, we need to be careful in what we say, but it's not vitally important that our meaning is clear to everyone.

However, when writing about things vital to life (present and eternal), the consequence of someone misunderstanding the literary style is far more important. As writers, then, we need to do our best to know our audience and provide context so our true intent can be discovered.

That said, as readers, it is imperative that anything we read is compared to Scripture. It is not good to get instruction in faith from a blog (or any other source) without examining what was said to the word of God. If we all do this as we ought, when writers make mistakes or use figurative language that we miss, we will see that what was said is not literally true. This helps us protect ourselves while allowing for the humanness of the writer.

Erin Joy, thanks for your response.

I especially appreciated that you pointed out laughing at ourselves. I think the best satire doesn't expose the ridiculous or scorn-worthiness of what is "out there" but about what is in ourselves.

Theo Night Group,

I feel honoured that you discussed this last night. Thank you for adding to the discussion here. :-)

A verse I see Christians taking out of context is "I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me". So that makes me think people like to take things that could be something profound and make it literal. I can see this being a negative side of general public to relate this to Christians because they see that Christians can't read and interpret.

Mrs. Young,

Thanks for joining the conversation. I appreciate that you point out context isn't just an issue online, but is also a factor in interpretation of the Bible.

Christian's don't understand it in the bible, why would one expect they understand it anywhere else