One of the things I find changing due to no more Christian friends in my Facebook feed is the lack of outrage. There’s always some outrage that’s both conveniently far away, and yet vitally important. One  example was the “prosperity gospel”. Suddenly, Joel Osteen became this monumental threat to Christianity, and a mighty prosperity dragon rose out of the sea to challenge Avalon.

Or abortion. I don’t think it’s wrong to oppose it, but Christians worry more about it than evangelizing. Or the latest assault on Christmas. Or more pernicious, being shocked that people would care about Christmas enough to protest. My feed was filled with endless things to worry about and comment on, and sometimes in commenting on they didn’t realize they often attacked their own. Who often attacked back, because no wound is so dear as one given by a friend.

I don’t miss that.

I don’t miss the outrage. Mostly because it’s just a tool to keep people divided. You worry about gays when your entire circle is so married you don’t even have single friends. You worry about being forced to do wedding cakes for them, but you don’t run a bakery. You don’t even get how scary it is to believe God will punish you for something you are forced to do, a lose lose either way. So many big issues, so remote from our lives.

You find things are a lot more peaceful when you stop.

No more pundits saying OMG you guys Pope Francis may do this! No arguments over how correct you are at expressing the one correct position on an issue. Just, well, quiet. 

It’s selfish. But I was turning into someone I disliked, and was becoming unlikable in turn.You had to agree with something fully to like the person, or you argued because you had to show you were a person too. The idea, the outrage, was over all.

So it’s quiet now. I browse the net less, and when I do it’s pure entertainment. I watch old British wrestling (I love Jim Breaks and Les Kellett). I play visual novels on my PS Vita. I read Sherlock Holmes, and watch old black and white movies about him. I’m finally back to writing, and watching anime. No big worries about Christian fiction or the price of tea in China. No more crisis of the moment.

I think maybe, in the most roundabout way, I was led to this. That the outrage culture is something so perfidious that we aren’t aware how much we are affected by it. Even with believers.