Two little videos to consider.

In this first one a Valedictorian places the Lord’s Prayer in the middle of his unapproved speech.  The students cheer. What is the emotional statement that the combination of the unapproved placement of the prayer, plus the cheering, plus the video posting are designed to elicit? It is a statement of crowd power that they as a group wish to celebrate their position at the expense of their adversaries.

If I had been asked for council by the young man I would have probably suggested that it would be better to present a winsome and a compelling witness to the love of Christ rather than a protest statement at the decline of Christendom in America.

Here is a second video of a street preacher who gets silenced by a same sex kiss at the applause of the crowd.  What is the message here?

I suggest that these are parallel statement where the crowd by its cheering brings to bear group power, pressure and influence against what in that context is perhaps a silent minority. The goal of the form of protest, accentuated by the video is to leverage the power of the majority to establish their position as a dominant one over their adversaries.

I think the tactic is neither wise nor very Christian but often tends to polarize the debate, threaten the adversary, and fuel conflict rather than encourage both sides to explore their differences in a productive way.

These are opposite examples of the same thing.