Someone, anyone, please, take the high road. Our whole social structure is disintegrating as schism, division, separation, polarization, and enmity become the new normal. “Normal” shares a significant number of letters with “moral”, and we are quickly adopting a morality of hate, hostility, contempt, retribution, aggression, violence, and disdain. It has happened in my own United Methodist denomination on a parallel track with my nation. We have become a mean, insulting, arrogant, and bullying society. And we compound our immaturity by masking much of our bad behavior with humor. But even our humor is hostile. In the face of culture-wide degeneration, we sink to the lowest forms of humor as a weapon of choice. As The United Methodist Church sank into playground tantrums leading to its split, supposed leaders on both sides resorted to mockery, insult comedy, and good old-fashioned making fun of those on the other side. For some reason, people of faith felt justified in humiliation as a path to righteousness.

But humiliation is not humor. There is nothing funny about denigrating and disparaging others for whatever reason. Put down humor does not make one superior to another. Making fun of your opponent is common among poorly raised toddlers, at its worst during adolescence, but completely unacceptable among decent, mature adults. Name calling is evidence of a lack of intelligence. Mockery is evidence of a lack of compassion. Insult is evidence of a lack of kindness. Verbal attack is evidence of limited reasoning capacity. Labeling is evidence of a lack of imagination. Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, right up there with the almighty pun.

What prurient and salacious hunger does humiliation feed in our human hearts? Of course, Christians don’t have anything to worry about. Our commitment is to spread the fruit of God’s Spirit as far and wide as possible. Christian disciples are all about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, (Galatians 5:22-23, NRSV). No Bible-believing Christian would ever resort to humor as a weapon of micro-, macro-, or mass destruction. To do so would be clear indication that our understanding of the faith is deeply flawed and/or false. Isn’t it good to be a Christian?

See what I did there? I used sarcasm as a weapon. My subtext is an assault on any and all Christians participating in the demeaning and belittling use of humor to do harm. But what good does it do? Making fun of people who make fun of people perpetuates the problem. Making things even worse? Much of the humor is actually funny, it makes us laugh and appeals to a sense of absurdity. We laugh, even when we know we shouldn’t.

As with just about everything in life, whether humor is a tool or a weapon is up to us. We get to choose how we will use it. We tend to like to be funny, to make others laugh. There is a real joy in bringing laughter to others. But humor is a means to a greater end than getting a laugh. Humor that lightens, that lifts, that relieves, and that frees, is true good humor. But humor that insults, that attacks, that embarrasses, and that prejudices, is evil pure and simple. Our work here on earth is to make things better, not worse. Through the acknowledgement of our universal brokenness, sin, and need for redemption, we should commit to kindness, healing, compassion, and forgiveness. Our humor may be the very best outward and visible sign of our inward and spiritual health. Healthy Christians will not seek ways to do harm to others, even when those others seek to do harm to them.

Humiliation wearing the mask of humor simply indicates an immaturity and a helplessness to cope with difficult situations and people. Most of us just don’t have options, we haven’t bothered to learn more mature, fair, kind, and just responses to disagreement. Is it really so much easier to call a person a humiliating name than to offer them respect and patience? Is it truly more reasonable to mock someone than to explain why we disagree with them? Does it really make us feel better to resort to insult and put-down than to allow others to disagree with us? Attack humor is a choice, and as followers of the Prince of Peace it is a choice that we should reject at all costs. Humiliation and degradation are not pathways to peace and harmony. Tearing people down is not a good foundation for reconciliation and collaboration. Turning humor into a weapon will never birth unity and respect.

It breaks my heart that our culture is riding a wave of hostile and hateful humor, but it is absolutely devastating when I hear self-proclaimed Christians riding the crest of said wave. I guess my plea is this: stop listening to them. Whether they serve in Congress, lead a multi-national corporation, sing your favorite song, produce your favorite podcast, or host your favorite news program; if they use humor to hurt, to harm, to harass, or humiliate, Turn. Them. Off. Someone has to take a stand, if for no other reason than to shout out, “You’re not funny!”