{"id":101008,"date":"2017-08-24T00:22:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T07:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=101008"},"modified":"2017-08-23T10:58:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T17:58:02","slug":"virtue-signalling-actually-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/virtue-signalling-actually-means.html","title":{"rendered":"What Virtue Signalling Actually Means"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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Jesus discusses \u201cVirtue Signalling\u201d here:<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\u201cBeware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.<\/div>\n
\n\u201cThus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.\u00a0(Mt 6:1\u20136).<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, \u00b6 that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Mt 6:16\u201318).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
\u201cVirtue Signalling\u201d *really* means \u201cDoing anything in order to win the approval of your peer group and not to please God or (if you are an atheist) out of actual principle\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cVirtue signalling\u201d does *not* mean \u201cYou doing something I don\u2019t like because it threatens my ideological commitments\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
So, for instance, if you are part of a Right Wing subculture and you flaunt your prolife commitments while being hesitant to condemn Trump\u2019s Nazi love, it is your prolife rhetoric that is virtue signalling to please your Right Wing peers.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Conversely, if you are a prolife Democrat who keeps mum about the unborn out of fear of disapproval while loudly condemning Nazis, not because you care about stopping Nazis, but because it\u2019s the Done Thing in your social circle, you are virtue signalling.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
It all depends on what your peer pressure group thinks and whether you are acting in fealty to it or to conscience. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Most of the time, that\u2019s actually impossible for anybody to judge but you. So the shrieks of \u201cvirtue signalling\u201d that come from your enemies are nearly always variations on \u201cShut up!\u201d But sometimes it can be pretty obvious.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Now the thing is, the gospel (as usual) has an opposite pole of tension to the warnings against Virtue Signalling. \u00a0It is summed up by Jesus this way:<\/div>\n
\n
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 5:14\u201316).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Here and elsewhere, Jesus demands that we be very loud and public about our Faith indeed. In fact, he warns:<\/div>\n
\n
So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Mt 10:32\u201333).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
What does \u201cdenying Christ before men\u201d look like? \u00a0Again it depends a great deal on your peer group and what aspect of the gospel they are especially fixated on denying. \u00a0In the first century, the big issue was circumcision and the notion that you could only be saved by keeping the Mosaic law. \u00a0Much of the New Testament is written to deny that proposition, because acceptance of it meant denial that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But later ages have had other issues which came to mean a denial of Christ. \u00a0Arianism denied his deity. Nestorianism denied he was one person with a human and divine nature, thus denying that he could save us. \u00a0Other ages have denied other truths, such as his will to save all human beings, or the truth that all are made in the image and likeness of God. \u00a0It can even be that things which were once virtue signalling (say public prayer) become brave acts of Christian witness and refusal to do them are, in fact, denials of Christ. \u00a0Context is everything.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And in every age, the enemies of the gospel will include in their toolkit the charge that standing for the gospel is virtue signalling. \u00a0After all, they did it to Jesus:<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLet us lie in wait for the righteous man,
\nbecause he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
\nhe reproaches us for sins against the law,
\nand accuses us of sins against our training.
\nHe professes to have knowledge of God,
\nand calls himself a child of the Lord.
\nHe became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
\nthe very sight of him is a burden to us,
\nbecause his manner of life is unlike that of others,
\nand his ways are strange.
\nWe are considered by him as something base,
\nand he avoids our ways as unclean;
\nhe calls the last end of the righteous happy,
\nand boasts that God is his father.
\nLet us see if his words are true,
\nand let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
\nfor if the righteous man is God\u2019s son, he will help him,
\nand will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
\nLet us test him with insult and torture,
\nthat we may find out how gentle he is,
\nand make trial of his forbearance.
\nLet us condemn him to a shameful death,
\nfor, according to what he says, he will be protected.\u201d (Wis 2:12\u201320).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Or as the gospels more succinctly put it:<\/div>\n
\n
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, \u201cYou who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.\u201d So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, \u201cHe saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, \u2018I am the Son of God.\u2019\u00a0\u201d\u00a0(Mt 27:39\u201343).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus discusses \u201cVirtue Signalling\u201d here: \u201cBeware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. \u201cThus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[306],"class_list":["post-101008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-scripture"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Virtue Signalling Actually Means<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jesus discusses "Virtue Signalling" here: \u201cBeware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/virtue-signalling-actually-means.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Virtue Signalling Actually Means\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus discusses "Virtue Signalling" here: \u201cBeware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; 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