The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Yahoo
Online, biblical references have popped up all over the internet as hyperbolic memes, largely used to decry people and things. Gen Zers are throwing around phrases like “the type of greed they warned us about in the Bible,” “weaponized gluttony,” rebuking evil and lustfulness.
The first recorded instance of the “biblical levels of greed” joke dates back to 2013. But the terms really picked up steam as a meme on TikTok and Twitter in 2021, with people using it to describe their insatiable little pets, their overzealous friends during game night, beautiful celebrities who date other beautiful celebrities, people who order double Big Macs and the way that they themselves could tear up a fast-food order.
Park (Food and lifestyle content creator, who has spoken openly about her Christianity,) said she sees a darker undertone in the rise of biblically inflected language online. “I have definitely seen the rise of a lot of moral and ethical bullying online,” she said. “Some of us have grown too comfortable with constantly publicly commenting on other people’s behavior with morally loaded language. We can get a good reaction from viewers by calling someone out as ‘lustful’ without acknowledging it comes from a place of pride — another deadly sin — and condemnation.”
The inclination to scold others in the most charged language possible can be seen as a byproduct of today’s internet culture, where everyone is both endlessly scrutinized and invited to judge others. Social media turns fleeting moments into morality plays, encouraging hordes of commenters to weigh in harshly on the behavior of complete strangers. Charged biblically inflected language is perfect for this task: Words like “lust,” “greed” and “gluttony” crank up the temperature.
Park said all the shaming and judging don’t feel true to her experience as a religious person. “Maybe I’m nitpicking internet language that’s meant to be casual and silly, but I have to believe that seeing judgment thrown around online affects the way young people move through the world,” she said. “Biblical language used to shame people without any of the redemption, grace or forgiveness that the Bible also talks about feels like the short end of the stick.”