Things We Have Surely Believed

A Christian's Discourse on Memes

Culture is a part of being. Every epoch of time, every civilisation sought to build and transmit their cultures whether consciously or subconsciously. And one of the most consistent ways of transmitting culture through the years has been through memes. Memes are often defined as a cultural media, usually a humorous visual or phrase that spreads rapidly from person to person constantly changing along the way. Memes are loved and preferred since they are often able to communicate complex emotions or human experiences through instant contextual media.

As mentioned, memes, contrary to how some might think, are not novel things. They have been part of humanity’s story for millenia. The Sator Square found in the ruins of Pompeii, is a perfect 2D palindrome (SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS) replicated widely across the roman empire and often considered a good-luck token. Medieval monks from the 12th to 15th centuries cumbered with boredom in their copying of the Holy Scriptures by hand often doodled along the margins of the papers humorous illustrations like the hunt of hares, where huge hares hunted humans or Knights fighting Giant snails and these were replicated and varied across various monasteries. Or even The Three hares from the Sui Dynasty in china which is an ancient optical illusion that shows three hares running in a circle sharing three ears total between them but each appearing to have two, this visual motif became popular across continents via trade routes. We can go on to speak about the popular world war II doodle of a bald man with a prominent nose attached to the phrase “Kilroy was here” or even J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of theRings phrase “Frodo lives” in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The point is memery is a part of human culture.

With the advent of the internet and eventually social media, memes have become even more ingrained into our culture since we can share them even further and with more people than can be imagined, a meme made from the comfort of your bed could travel across continents in a matter of hours And with it you could pass on your ideas, thoughts, intents, emotions and experiences all at once. And this is both the power and peril found in memes. As we have seen memes have the capacity to culture and influence minds much like the rest of media, it is just that memes are faster, easily repeatable, ubiquitous and appealing to many due to its often shared contexts. And with the world now fully digital, with content creation now becoming less costly, I postulate that memes will become paths to penetrate and influence cultures and people.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

2nd Corinthians 10:4-5

In context Paul is defending his apostolic authority against rivals in Corinth who considered his physical presence unimpressive to say the least, they were basing their judgments on status, human rhetoric and worldly standards. And Paul was explaining that the nature of the Christian’s war was not in physical confrontations but in dismantling lofty opinions, ideologies, philosophies and cultures that take captive the minds of men, he refers to them as strongholds.

Similarly in his letter to the Ephesian church, he writes to them in the sixth chapter that, we, the christians wrestle not against flesh and blood but our fight is against spiritual darknesses. Paul in these two portions of scripture is trying to bring to our attention something crucial about spiritual warfare. By telling the Ephesians that our fight is against spiritual wickedness in high places and the Corinthians our war is against ideologies and lofty opinions exalting themselves above Christ in the minds of men, a thread of connection forms. It is without a doubt that he asserts there is an adversarial kingdom and echoing many motifs in scripture we know this adversarial kingdom often called the kingdom of darkness opposes the agenda of God. Not in that they fight God directly as some people believe, they can’t, they are neither his equals nor rivals their relation is that of Creator and Creation, but they do so by seeking the destruction of the souls of men, including the elect.

Why do I say this, because the media and in our context, memes have become a method by which culture is being shaped in our day and time. They have effectively become microphones and the memelords have become evangelists. When we see a trend “CLEAN MONEY WILL KILL US ONE DAY” That statement coupled with various hilarious audio-visual accompaniments that make people burst out with laughter, reshare on their statuses and timelines, show their friends and loved ones and exchange banter over the said trend. And even more disturbing is the Christian who joins in and is carried away by the trends repeating things said by the world. Over time these repeated words settle into the subconsciouses of entire generations forming cultures that are propagated and when asked why they believe or accept it as norm they have no idea.

What many Christians do not understand is, the cultures of men are susceptible to spirits. When Paul says to the Corinthians that we need to combat and engage these cultural beliefs and human rhetorics since they have set camp in the minds of men, He is essentially saying it is of these cultures that men are denied sight of who God is, because they have so deeply believed these, they are so deeply ingrained in them they do not pursue to see God for who He is rather they see Him for who they want Him to be or believe Him to be. And what more effective tool can the enemy have than eyes that cannot see? What better warfare against the Christian than ears that cannot hear? So you find in the things that men tend to do and say are hidden agenda whose effects can only be seen in the longterm, I tend to believe the kingdom of darkness inspires many memelords by whispering into their creativity or fanning their fallen natures to be imbued within the media they generate. They come up with relatable and humorous memes and media that attract great audiences but hidden with the compounding effect of belief in the meme, is a poisonous asp ready to strike when it is too late to react, we will just get to a point and realize it is the norm for an entire generation to cut corners. There are many other things we will tackle but as for the trend “CLEAN MONEY WILL KILL US!” If we as Christians and a society are not careful, we could as well be listening to The Requiem for Integrity in our generation. We need creatives who through God’s wisdom will generate media that will lead to redemption, I end with the words of the Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter,

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:2

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

1 Peter 5:8

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