Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli

On May 15, Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed the most comprehensive anti-abortion bill in the United States. Most likely, the bill will make its way to the Supreme Court. It was specifically crafted to challenge the federal government’s protection of abortion under Roe v. Wade.

Abortion advocates immediately reacted. Outrage! A 27-year-old model, once featured in the 2014 and 2015 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, who has walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana and Versace, was so outraged that she posed naked in protest. And she used her social media platform to show her outrage. Something very common today. Internet, Twitter, Instagram, Face­book and other social media platforms have become vehicles for rage, fury and anger that appeal to our impulse to judge without thinking things through.

In a time when the media floods the news cycle with crime, violence, sexual offenses, and political corruption, many people are being swept away in the swift currents of an outrage culture. The Urban Dictionary says that an outrage culture is born “when people play the victim card and bend over backwards to be as offended as possible when they really aren’t.” It is becoming more and more common for people to vent to others their own intense rage at every moral failure, whether real or perceived.

Some people even make it a way of life to raise their voices and shout their complaints when they decide that their values, judgments, political views or ethical values are challenged or disregarded. They can find enough in our time of conflict and moral chaos to offend them. As a result, the culture of outrage is becoming so pervasive, so that even before people have the facts, they are quick to condemn others in self-righteous indignation.

Outrage meets us in almost every sector of society, civil, business and, sadly, in the church. It makes it easier to condemn and punish those with whom we disagree. And, it blurs the rational discrimination that judges a lesser offense differently than a more serious offense. A certain mob mentality binds outraged individuals together. And, the internet becomes their guillotine. The result: discretion, compassion and justice are lost.

Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, argues that many people have had enough with victimhood. “There’s chaos to confront, order to establish and revivify, and evil to constrain.” In strong terms, he told those offended by other’s failure to get to work changing the culture for the better. He said, “Get the hell at it and quit whining.” The never-ending lava of outrage spilling over in society should not paralyze our efforts to re-form our culture with ethical values.

Constant outrage divides and polarizes. Anger at the boiling point does little to calm people down and engage them in meaningful dialogue. What is needed is empathy. Putting oneself in the situation of the other, trying to think their thoughts, feel their pain and experience their emotions: this is what dispels outrage and builds true community.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.” Is this not the Christian way? God is offended by our sins. But, he does not pour out his anger and fury on us. No! He entered our life in Christ. He felt our fallen condition, experienced our pain and took to himself all our suffering. “When the kindness…of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us...” (Ti 3:4-5). Not outrage, but kindness will save our world.