Christianity and the Crab Mentality – The Cougar Chronicle

“If we aspire to be different from the broader Christian community, we must break free from this destructive pattern. Allowing groups whose principles do not align with the university’s to influence its operations is akin to pulling BYU back into the crab bucket.”
In discussions within Christian communities online, I’ve observed a pattern of crab mentality, a social phenomenon that causes individuals to pull down others attempting to rise and grow, just like a group of crabs thwarts their collective freedom by pulling down those who try to escape from the bucket. This behavior manifests prominently in social media, particularly when any group of Christians produces media related to Christianity. Rather than provide constructive criticism and uplift each other, many self-proclaimed Christians engage in relentless denigration of those responsible for the created media, hindering genuine efforts to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This “fallacious Christianity” thrives on invalidating and alienating the efforts of fellow believers rather than earnestly seeking to spread the teachings of Christ. This doesn’t mean there is no room for criticism, but criticism ceases to be so when it repeatedly translates to “You should have the same beliefs as I do” or “You should have never done this.” Those partaking in this insatiable criticism resemble the crabs in a bucket, instinctively pulling down anyone attempting to escape, stunting collective progress and growth, and ensuring the death of the whole. 
A recent example of this behavior unfolded after the airing of the Super Bowl commercial “He Gets Us,” which sparked plenty of pointless criticism. The commercial itself portrayed the act of washing another’s feet typically with two people that would seem to disagree with one another. One image showed this act of service in front of an abortion clinic while another showed the action taking place between two opposing groups of protesters. Despite the commercial’s message of selfless service, albeit in a weird tone and fashion, many Christians hastily condemned and criticized the commercial.  Some called the commercial “blasphemous” while others simply said it did “more harm than good.” That last statement is a self-fulfilling prophecy Christians constantly realize, their reflexive condemnation drowning out any opportunity to teach their beliefs to others. Similarly, the acclaimed Christian production “The Chosen,” which offers an artistic portrayal of Christ’s life, has faced relentless criticism from Christians. Despite its success in reaching a wide audience with its Christian message, detractors levy baseless accusations against it, such as “it teaches a Mormon Jesus” or “it teaches a Catholic Jesus.” Rather than using the show as a stepping stone in sharing their faith, they prefer to claim once again that the show does more harm than good, and that the show’s creator Dallas Jenkins isn’t truly a Christian. 
As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and students at BYU, many of us are familiar with this treatment from fellow Christians. A prime example of this treatment came from the Church’s “A Silent Night Surprise in Times Square,” where many praised the video’s message but ensured everyone knew that the organization that made it wasn’t “Christian.” Members of the Church have grown used to this behavior from the “no true Christian” club, and I am glad we are not invited after personally seeing how toxic the club is.  Unfortunately, crab mentality is not solely found among other Christians, but right within our own faith and own universities, with numerous groups distorting the university’s core mission to align with their personal interpretation of Christianity. 
Take the recent story published here in the Cougar Chronicle “BYU Requires Holland’s ‘Second Century’ Talk in Curriculum, LGBTQ Groups Protest,” which detailed how an activist group attempted to retcon the words of an apostle of the Lord’s Church, or in other words tried to pull the BYU crab back into the bucket. The activists used PR jargon to cloak their organization’s dogma and coerce BYU to more closely align with their principles, rather than the Gospel’s.
It remains to be seen whether BYU’s administration will allow themselves to be pulled down in this situation, but it seems likely, as they have already failed to prevent themselves from being pulled down before. The Black Menaces were able to create disgusting and inappropriate videos with random students from BYU while framing the school and church as racist. Rather than ending this behavior, the administration allowed the Black Menaces to break university policy and create videos purposely embarrassing BYU’s students. 
If we aspire to be different from the broader Christian community, we must break free from this destructive pattern. Allowing groups whose principles do not align with the university’s to influence its operations is akin to pulling BYU back into the crab bucket. Rather than having a bit of backbone, the university cowers to groups that slug labels like racism and homophobia at it. We can’t even please Christians when we give them the media they want, so why would we believe it would be any different with these groups? They won’t be satisfied until we are stuck with them at the bottom of the bucket. 
Instead of succumbing to pressure, the university must show resilience and defend its beliefs. When groups overstep boundaries, appropriate measures should be taken to uphold university policies. When groups make outrageous demands such as censoring an apostle, we should laugh at them. Watching the university passively accept slander and subversion is tiresome.  We should make decisions that promote spiritual and educational growth, refusing to be dragged down by the crab mentality that plagues our communities.
Written by Jax Mckinney
Contributor at The Cougar Chronicle
The opinions in this article are those of the author.
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Beautifully written and spot on
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