ELSE IS THINKING BUT IS AFRAID TO SAY"
- Thor Ramsey
Satire bites, cuts, and can convict and even wound. I remember several years ago I wrote a witty piece of called "Forrest Gump Meets Jesus." The satire and irony was the Christian wisdom of Forest Gump in contrast to the intellectual brilliance of not only athiests but even conventional church wisdom. But often satire can fall on deaf ears. It seems like satire can please no one. Some people said I was too hard on atheists in the piece. Others said I was too easy on them. What is often missed in satire is like the punch line-----sometimes people miss it or simply don't get it (especially if they don't laugh or understand how irony and satire are a part of humor that can shred idols and challenge precious preconceived ideas).
Douglas Wilson in his A Serrated Edge speaks about the problem of how Christians try to imitate one part of Jesus lifestyle or words but refuse to imitate another part of it. Here is what he says,
"Why do we say, 'Imitate Christ in his kindness to the tax gatherers, but never imitate Him in His treatment of the religous pompous?' Why not the reverse? 'Always make fun of religous wowsers, but never imitate Christ's kindness to the downtrodden" (p. 91).
He goes on, "Many who object to satire as a godly weapon of war have this prejudice against it because they grew up in a home where sarcasm was consistently used as an ungodly bludgeoning tool. The Bible is our standard, and not our personal histories (pp.94-95).
Satire is a weapon to be employed in the warfare of God's kingdom, not an opportunity for personal venting. It is also good to take counsel from others and only employ when deemed neccesary. "If this is not remembered, the satirist will find himself killing ants with a baseball bat" (p.105).
No comments:
Post a Comment