If you have been reading The Babylon Bee since Day 1, you know that its bread and butter has always been satire of evangelical Protestants of all kinds — from bearded Reformed seminarians who study theology in hipster craft-brewing establishments to megachurch musicians who yearn to play Eddie Van Halen solos during the 100th repetition of whatever praise chorus is currently all the rage.
You can see the Summa Theologica of that viewpoint in the book “How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living,” by Bee founder Adam Ford and Kyle Mann, the website’s current editor. Hold that thought, because we will come back to it.
Lots of core early readers clicked on classic headline like “New Prayer App Delivers Electric Shock Every Time User Says 'Just' ") or "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of 'Your Best Life Now.' "
Then along came Donald Trump: Superstar. Legions of people wanted to click a headline like this one: “Trump Announces He Was Born Of A Virgin And Will Bring Balance To The Force.” Eventually, it was obvious that the Bee also needed to harvest the gazillions of clicks that would result from posts mocking blue-zip-code liberals who have been suffering from so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The fact that I needed to add “so-called” in that sentence points to the complexity of the current age for satirists. As another Bee headline noted: “Reality Criticized For Not More Clearly Distinguishing Itself From Satire.”
Now, if Bee readers were going to write a New York Times headline about all of this — the evangelical subculture humor, the jabs at Trump and then the wisecracks about liberals — wouldn’t it look something like this epic double-decker?
What ‘The Babylon Bee’ Thinks Is So Funny About Liberals
The comedy site, a conservative answer to ‘The Onion,’ used to have Trump squarely in its cross hairs. But now it’s less about him and more about the people who can’t stand him.
This is actually a pretty interesting article, if one is willing to ignore the history of the Babylon Bee. Also, it helps to assume that, in order to be legitimate (whatever that means for a satire site) and funny, it needs to focus most of its attention on the sins of Citizen Trump, while ignoring all those freakouts about his existence seen in the highest ranks of the cultural establishment — especially the world of high tech billionaires and America’s entertainment, academic and journalism elites.
All of that brings us to this Times overture that simply writes itself:
Four years ago, in the heat of the Republican primary, a fledgling satire site jabbed at the party’s leading contender: “Psychopathic Megalomaniac Somehow Garnering Evangelical Vote.” The story proceeded to describe Donald Trump as “a man who would seemingly have no qualms obliterating hundreds of thousands of people for purely egotistical reasons.”
This was not standard anti-Trump fare, though. The Babylon Bee, launched in March 2016, is a site made for churchgoing conservatives. It most frequently set its sights on the left: “Liberal Activist Explains Notion Of Tolerance To Man She Just Called A ‘Worthless [Expletive],’” went the typical headline.”
It’s crucial to pause and ask if that “most frequently” reference is accurate. It is true that the Bee team has been aiming more often at anti-Trump targets at Trump. Is the website really doing more anti-liberal humor than satire about evangelicals and their colorful subcultures? That would be interesting to know.
Back to the word from on high at the Times:
… When Mr. Trump was elected, months later, the outrage that his victory sparked quickly became a funnier punchline to the Babylon Bee than the man himself. Shortly after the election, the site’s writers joked that millennial protesters calmed down after they were given participation trophies; they wrote that a survey of the Women’s March participants indicated “100 percent of people marching on Washington were not aborted.”
Today, the Babylon Bee has built a fan base among Republican lawmakers and even in the White House.
Once again, is the website’s BASE of support — readers and paid subscribers — in the halls of GOP power or in the pews, pulpits, schools, nonprofits and ministries at the heart of the evangelical subculture? Or are Times editors simply more interested in the political side of this satire site than it’s many, many shots at topics linked to religious faith and church life?
I think the answer to that one is pretty obvious. Remember the GetReligion saying: For way too many journalists, politics defines what is real. Religion? Not so much.
This feature does acknowledge that the Bee still swings at the tweeter in chief. Thus:
The Babylon Bee hasn’t stopped making jokes at Mr. Trump’s expense — the editors call this “writing in hard mode,” when they are sure to lose clicks and Twitter followers. One recent headline joked: “Trump Agrees To Remove Swimsuit Competition From SCOTUS Nomination Process.” But they’re more apt to jab at the other side: “Trump Adds ‘Black Lives Matter’ Sticker To SUV So Media Can’t Claim He’s Spreading COVID.”
Also, the top many at the website — a student I knew at Palm Beach Atlantic University nearly 20 years ago — admits (#SHOCKING) that the team has a political point of view:
“The things we see as most absurd, the bad ideas most deserving of ridicule tend to be ideas on the left,” said the site’s chief executive, Seth Dillon. “We’re not trying to be a fair, objective site that equally makes fun of everyone.” …
The site’s “About Us” page promises to “focus on just the facts, leaving spin and bias to other news sites.” The Bee’s merchandise reiterates this commitment. Their T-shirts read “Factually Inaccurate, Morally Correct.” Their face masks are branded “Fake News You Can Trust.”The Babylon Bee, which said it draws more than 8 million visitors a month, is somewhat of an anomaly. In the world of partisan media, the left has tended to dominate humor — Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher — while the right has favored radio shows fueled by outrage, giving rise to stars like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity.
One academic expert — Anthony Nadler of Ursinus College — accurately notes that, “Conservatives see liberal culture as the source of power. … They see liberals as setting norms in popular culture, television, and film, and they present themselves as rebels against that.”
Now pause and think about that. Would any skilled observer of American clout deny that the left — especially when “liberalism” is defined in terms of moral and cultural issues — sets the “norms in popular culture, television, and film”?
To wrap this up: I am not suggesting that the Times article needed to be balanced, in terms of its presentation of the Bee team’s work in politics, as opposed to religious life and evangelical culture.
However, I didn’t expect the Times to ignore the website’s steady drumbeat of humor about the weaknesses of media-defined, superstar-driven, commercialized evangelical subculture. After all, that’s the door through which Trump marched to popularity (if not adoration) with some — not all — white evangelicals.
However, Bee stings aimed at the modernized church are important and, I would argue, essential to understanding — among other things — the website’s discomfort with Trump-mania.
To sum that up, here is a long passage from my “On Religion” column about that book mentioned earlier, “How to Be a Perfect Christian.” The book:
… defines "a perfect Christian" as someone "who conforms to the man-made standards of the Christian faith in any given age. … To become perfect, you need to be baptized in the glorious waters of Christian culture." Next question: What is "Christian culture"? Think 1950s America, mixed with 1960s vibes and waves of technology and safe Christian versions of popular culture. …
Ford and Mann offer spiritual shortcuts, such as:
* Biblical warnings against spiritual pride were written before the Internet. Today, Christians with social-media skills "were found to be 428 times holier than those who rarely … posted pictures of themselves next to an open Bible and a hot cup of coffee."
* Concerning prayer: "Ninety percent of any good prayer is comprised of the three words 'just,' 'Father' and 'God.' "
* "Doing life together" is a crucial modern Christian concept. This means doing whatever interest you – but during "fellowship" time with church friends. "If done with non-Christians, you can call it evangelism and get even more spiritual credit! Awesome!"
* The "majority of converts to Christianity came to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior after a Christian friend just went nuclear on them online. … Trust us, it's science."
* "Never let anyone get close enough to your life to see what a mess it is below the surface."
Now, does any of that material seem relevant to the Bee’s view of many evangelicals who were so quick to embrace Trump?
Stay tuned. I doubt that the Bee is going sawy, no matter what happens in a few weeks.