Meme Wars – Everywhere There Are Meme Wars

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Last night’s presidential address was part of the ongoing meme wars.  Democrats and their willing allies in media are trying desperately to make this administration look bad.  They report the bad, ignore the good and spin whatever they can.  Every administration, every one, does good and bad.  What makes an administration good or bad in the end is the balance between the two and, perhaps more importantly, the stories told about that administration. Deep reads into history (if anybody does that anymore?) will reveal administrations thought awful contemporaneously, but proven quite good by history – and vice versa.  But contemporaneous accounts are what move elections and so the battle rages on.

In this media heavy age, it is amazing that reading is in decline.  It is more than just video driving out reading, as my parents feared.  It seems that the denser printed material is, the less likely it is to be read – even short form stuff like this blog.  (Thank you to those that do stick it out here.) Therefore, memes matter more than ever.  The quick impression moves the needle and increasingly lastingly so.

This is direly important in politics, history and news “reporting” (in those rare instances when it is done) – but it is also important in other fields.  Which brings me to this piece, “Evangelical theologian critiques Vatican note on Mary as ‘Co-redemptrix’: ‘No Christ alone theology.’”  I am not even going to bother to break down the theological discussion here other than to say debates about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her role are ancient.  Wars have ostensibly been fought over this remarkably arcane point of theological contention.  I say “ostensibly” because theological differences often provided a lot of cover for simple territorial disputes in the early days of the Reformation.  But in the end I wonder if this very esoteric theological dispute matters all that much.

After all, we are saved by Christ, not our theology.  Our efforts to understand it, and that is all theology is, will always be insufficient.  Isaiah:

Christmas is the time of year that Christianity is closest to the hearts and minds of all Americans, Christian or not.  It is the time of year when, as Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful.”  Mary is intimately a part of the Christmas story, regardless of what your Catholic faith or my Presbyterian one thinks of her actual theological role in the whole thing. Do we really want to pick a fight that no one can win, because it is by definition beyond us, or do we want to tell the story and bring more people to Jesus?  As Paul said to the church in Corinth when it was in great theological dispute, “And when I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come as someone superior in speaking ability or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I also was with you in weakness and fear, and in great trembling,”

The President has to fight the meme wars – there is a Congressional election at stake.  But do we Christians really need to?  Especially this time of year.  I think it far more important to bring people to Jesus Christ and once they are there they can sort through the giant meme pile that Christians often deal with, if they want.  The stakes we as Christians play for are much higher than even the stakes in national elections.  Let’s pick our battles wisely.