Clanging Cymbals

             If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

Virtue Signaling: the public expression of opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one's good character or social conscience or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue.

I’ve told the story of watching Fellowship of the Ring with a friend, but I need to tell it again today. She commented about how noble the characters were. Noble? They were filthy, struggling, often pathetic sorts. Of course, there were Strider and Legolas…but noble? Then I realized that they were noble. My definition was filthy, struggling, and often pathetic because, for me, noble meant detached, clean, and somehow superior.

When it comes to love, I suspect we all have some pieces of our definitions that are filthy, struggling, and pathetic. We can fall into the trap of seeming. We do things we think will show others how loving we are, but doing so isn’t loving. It might be virtue signaling. That’s what Paul was discussing in today’s passage.

When I looked up the definition above, it had an example of the term that mentioned that a great deal of virtue signaling involves standing on the sidelines (or computer screen) and screaming about how much one hates something. That’s supposed to translate into others understanding how much one loves something else, but the key issues are that it’s more about the virtue signaler than it is about what the virtue signaler loves. It’s the clanging cymbal.

The other thing about virtue signaling is that it doesn’t involve our actually doing anything to help anyone. It’s like the “awareness raising” posts that say, “Look at me. I’m raising awareness about ____. It’s important. Like me! Share me! Raise awareness about this critical issue!” How much have you learned about the issue? If you ask someone, they’ll tell you the point is for you to drop everything you’re doing and spend the next as much as fifteen hours researching the subject they couldn’t be bothered to take five minutes to tell you about. Clanging cymbals.

Another example of clanging cymbals is the celebrity raising money to help some charity. The celebrity makes a million dollars a year and calls a press conference to donate $10K. Or, a bunch of celebrities get together and while their combined wealth is ten times (or more) greater than the amount they get others to contribute, we’re supposed to applaud them for their love and compassion.

Love requires reality and connection.