Rage baiting is a practice that has taken social media by storm. To rage bait is to say or do something with the intention of causing a person to react in a negative manner – to cause someone to crash out, if you will. I admit, rage baiting is quite funny, but one thing I don’t like is that rage baiting has found its way into Christian content.
If you are unfamiliar with this practice, people will create posts to denounce beliefs held by the denominations they disagree with. This in turn garners a large amount of views and post interactions that I believe are rarely constructive, and in many cases, destructive.
You may argue that as Christians, it is our job to speak out about false beliefs to lead people closer to Christ, and I wholeheartedly agree. But the execution of this on social media needs to change. Whenever I see this content online, the people making these forms of content claim that they are doing the ‘will of God’, but instead, this content feels like a cheap way to amass thousands of views and interactions at the cost of other Christians. What makes this worse is that almost all of these posts misrepresent what the denomination under fire actually believes.
For example, I see so many posts claiming that Catholics worship Mary. It is so frustrating because it is a clear misrepresentation of what we actually believe, yet I see accounts dedicated to communicating this falsehood! If anything, it causes Catholics to develop a mindset of
'non-Catholics hate us, we need to strike back!'
This is not purely a Catholic thing either! There is a present culture of infighting within Christianity; a culture that the devil loves! The fact that there are 45,000+ Christian denominations and not ONE unified Christianity is already a sad reality, but this additional form of conflict contributes greatly to a deeper experience of disunity within the Church.
One thing that needs to be made clear is that posting about your denomination isn’t wrong. I am a Catholic and I make content that reflects this, and there is nothing wrong with that. And debates are a beautiful way to encounter Christ, but this isn’t what my focus is. The focus of this article is instead on posts that target other denominations, creating an atmosphere of negativity.
Disunity sucks! So where do we go from here? I believe there are two things we need to do moving forward.
First and foremost, we need to pray. We simply need to pray to God for Christian unity, opening our hearts to the role God has for us in His plan toward Christian unity. Part of this is to be discerning of the content we post online, whether that be videos or comments. We create to worship God, not ourselves. If we want to create content that is about another denomination, we need to discern whether this is the will of God. I believe a lot of online conflict could be prevented if we followed God’s will instead of our own will.
Secondly, do your research! I study a Bachelor of Communications, and in one of my journalism classes we were taught that a journalist should never attempt to interpret the holy text of any religion. And while not everyone is a journalist, I believe Christians should employ a similar practice when discussing other denominations. If God is calling you to post about another denomination, make sure you know what you are saying instead of believing hearsay. You should also not assume a position of authority. Instead, be lead with a desire to charitably and sincerely understand the truth. And if followers of a denomination say that you have misinterpreted their beliefs, you likely have misinterpreted their beliefs. So what benefit do any of us have in defending a view point that is proven to be false? After all, if we need to lie and conceal information to defend the truth, are we really defending the truth? Instead, we should freely search for the truth while being comforted by the fact that in all pursuits of truth, we will encounter Jesus Christ for He is the source of all truth. Understanding different denominations is an opportunity to encounter Christ in a deeper way as His truth comforts our hearts and consolidates our understanding of who He is.
A standout person I want to mention is @thelordsgiant, or Benjamin Kessler. As a Protestant, Kessler will at times enquire about Catholicism, but he does so with a desire to understand the truth which allows for wholesome discourse that is geared toward learning and understanding, not provocation. For this, I have an abundance of respect for Kessler. I recommend that you give him a follow on social media.
When we ultimately allow God to lead us, we grow closer to Christian unity. Christ wants His Church to be unified, and this will happen! But in the meantime, we need to be vessels of Him to live out this important mission.
Writings of Callum 
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