Do you make fun of sin?

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hoss2576

hoss2576

Senior Member
May 10, 2014
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It has really weighed on my heart lately about the possible damage that can come from making fun of/ mocking sin. Take two people who are talking about a third person and during the course of the conversation, one of them starts joking about her being a "lush." Another person overhears the conversation (a person struggling with his own issue with alcohol), and because of how the first two are talking about the woman's issue, now feels more compelled to hide his problem.

I think about times I have heard people make jokes about a woman who will sleep with anyone, gay jokes, drug use comments, etc.

When we joke/ mock sins, are we contributing to people burying their sins even further?
 
I think part of the reason that people (Christians particularly) will joke about sin is because it's so hard to accept the weight of it; watching someone struggle with being an alcoholic or sexual sin, etc...it's easier to make light of what they're doing than to say "Hey, this is serious, there needs to be an intervention here". Nobody wants the responsibility of having to step in and tell someone that what they're doing is sinful or self-destructive. Let someone else carry that burden, I'll just sit over here and make fun of the problem...

But yes, I do feel that mocking sinful behavior causes those who hear it to feel even more like they have to hide it; they don't want to be the next target of the jokes and names, do they? Of course they'll want to bury it further.

This is also a thing that I think alienates non-Christians from ever turning to God and being saved. If Christians are mocking someone for their sin, how is that going to look to an unsaved person? If we're setting that kind of example as supposed followers of Christ, it's no surprise if people get totally turned off about God and salvation. I would imagine it would make people think "I may be a "sinner" according to this so-called "Christian", but at least I have compassion for others like me."

When we, as Christians, mock or joke about people/sinful behavior, it makes us seem self-righteous and cold-hearted- "Oh look at those poor, dumb souls, they're so messed up, hahaha...".

I'm guilty of this, by the way. It's easy to forget my own sins and laugh at the mistakes and sins of others because if I'm over here laughing it up and looking down on people, I'm too busy to sit down with them and say "Hey, I care about you, and I have an amazing story to share with you about a Man who loves us so much He died for us so to set us free from these chains..."


 
I think you answered your question from your own personal experience. It can depend on the person and the situation, but I can see how someone could be driven a little deeper into hiding sin if they get the sense that they will be made fun of or ridiculed by other people. I can see that being especially true for gay jokes too. It's not just those that are misunderstanding or hateful but those who say that things they don't like are "gay" or those who make fun of gay people that tend to cause people who experience same-sex attraction to feel more ashamed of it.

I do think as well that what we laugh at or find funny can majorly reveal where we fail to take sin seriously.
 
Wow conviction. I think I have actually. I know I have joked about drunken karaoke being funny...and I have laughed all the time at stuff like Big Bang Theory that has jokes about being gay, sex jokes, ect. Wow *realization hits* O__________O
 
Mockery of any kind is... peculiar.

If a chimp, gorrilla, oragatang, etc. sees something he does not understand, something threatening or something he does not like, he does one of three things: He ignores it, he flees it or he attacks it. Humans often make fun of it. This seems directly contrary to established, successful survival traits, and may be one of the best arguments against evolution: If the fittest survive, how did we last so long? :rolleyes:

This carries over to things besides sin of course. Political jokes often rub me the wrong way. I don't usually reprimand the person who told the joke, but I don't often laugh at it. Jokes about (insert denomination here) also irk me, and I try to avoid telling them. I may not believe the same doctrine you believe, but who am I to put down a whole branch of churches?

And all this mockery... for what? Amusement?

A good way to gauge whether a joke is really good is to ask "If someone from there were here, would I still tell the joke?" Would I tell a joke about meth users if someone who was (or is) addicted to it were standing here? Would I tell a baptist joke? What about a joke about the president, that's always good for a laugh (even though most of the jokes I've heard about the current president are just retreads of jokes I heard when Bush and Clinton were in office.) But is a cheap laugh really worth it?
 
hoss2576 said:
It has really weighed on my heart lately about the possible damage that can come from making fun of/ mocking sin. Take two people who are talking about a third person and during the course of the conversation, one of them starts joking about her being a "lush." Another person overhears the conversation (a person struggling with his own issue with alcohol), and because of how the first two are talking about the woman's issue, now feels more compelled to hide his problem.

I think about times I have heard people make jokes about a woman who will sleep with anyone, gay jokes, drug use comments, etc.

When we joke/ mock sins, are we contributing to people burying their sins even further?
Click to expand...

Proverbs 20:19
 
hoss2576 said:
It has really weighed on my heart lately about the possible damage that can come from making fun of/ mocking sin. Take two people who are talking about a third person and during the course of the conversation, one of them starts joking about her being a "lush." Another person overhears the conversation (a person struggling with his own issue with alcohol), and because of how the first two are talking about the woman's issue, now feels more compelled to hide his problem.

I think about times I have heard people make jokes about a woman who will sleep with anyone, gay jokes, drug use comments, etc.

When we joke/ mock sins, are we contributing to people burying their sins even further?
Click to expand...

I'm going to add the question on the other side of the coin, "How often do we joke about and make light of our own sin to make it seem like not such a big deal so we don't have to deal with it?"

If we see sin as a big joke and treat it that way, how on earth will people ever believe they can be freed from it and desire to do so?
 
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