When Affliction Becomes Content: Stop Scrolling, Examine Yourself, and Return to YAHUAH
We are living in a time when another person’s suffering can become entertainment before it becomes a reason to palal.
A beating is recorded. A child is harmed. A family is destroyed. A life is taken. Within minutes, the footage is clipped, captioned, reposted, argued over, and absorbed into an endless stream of content. People watch the same blow repeatedly. They express anger, choose sides, insult strangers, and then scroll to the next video as though they have fulfilled righteousness.
But what if the constant display of affliction is revealing more than the cruelty of the person on the screen? What if it is also revealing the condition of the people watching?
In August 2026, widely circulated footage from an Arkansas State Police pursuit showed Trooper Theodore “Teddy” Henderson pulling passenger Tedrick Washington through a broken rear window by his arm and locs and striking him. The footage has produced anger, grief, arguments, and demands for accountability. Those concerns should not be dismissed. Violence and abuse of authority must not be renamed as righteousness merely because the person committing it wears a uniform.
Yet YAHUAH’s people must go deeper than outrage. We must ask why scenes of humiliation and violence have become so common, why our people continually appear in them, why the public can consume affliction as spectacle, and why each new tragedy produces emotion without lasting tashubah.
This article is not a verdict on every disputed fact of one incident. It is a warning about what we are becoming while watching affliction multiply.
YAHUSHA Did Not Allow Tragedy to Become Gossip
People once brought YAHUSHA Ha’Mashiach news of Galilaeans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. The report concerned state violence, public suffering, and shocking death. YAHUSHA did not turn their pain into entertainment. He did not allow His listeners to stand at a safe distance and discuss only the sins of the afflicted.
He turned the report into a demand for self-examination:
“Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” — Luke 13:2–3
This is the part many people do not want. We want tragedy to confirm that someone else is wicked. We want an offender to condemn, an institution to blame, or a victim to analyze. YAHUSHA forces the watcher to examine the watcher.
His words do not excuse the oppressor. They expose the false safety of spectatorship. The proper response to affliction is not, “They must have deserved it.” Neither is it, “I reposted it, so I have done my part.” The response is: What must change in me, in my house, and among my people before more affliction comes?
Violence Is a Spiritual Alarm
Habakkuk cried out because violence had become normal:
“O YAHUAH, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance?” — Habakkuk 1:2–3
The prophet did not describe a society suffering from only one corrupt person. He described a people surrounded by violence, strife, grievance, and weakened judgment. That is why isolated outrage is insufficient. Removing one offender cannot heal a culture that feeds violence in its homes, music, entertainment, relationships, streets, institutions, and hidden thoughts.
We must be honest: violence does not begin only when a camera records it. It begins when cruelty is admired. It begins when children are trained by humiliation instead of correction. It begins when men confuse uncontrolled rage with strength. It begins when women weaponize shame, manipulation, and public exposure. It begins when families protect abusers to preserve appearances. It begins when revenge is celebrated and mercy is mocked.
It begins when the suffering of another person becomes content.
Outrage Is Not Tashubah
Outrage can be loud while repentance is absent.
A person can condemn brutality online and remain brutal at home. A person can demand accountability from an officer while refusing accountability for adultery, neglect, addiction, hatred, theft, falsehood, or abuse. A person can weep over a stranger’s child while ignoring the wounds of their own children. A person can speak against oppression while oppressing a spouse, employee, sibling, or neighbor.
YAHUAH is not impressed by public anger that leaves private sin untouched.
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” — Yashayahu 1:16–17
The command contains both personal cleansing and public righteousness. We are not permitted to choose one while rejecting the other. Tashubah that never relieves the oppressed is incomplete. Activism that never puts away personal evil is hypocrisy.
True tashubah changes direction. It confesses sin without excuses, stops participating in evil, makes restitution where possible, accepts correction, and produces fruit over time.
Do Not Confuse Accountability With Hatred
Demanding truthful investigation and proportionate accountability is not hatred. Scripture repeatedly condemns partial judgment, bribery, false witnesses, and the abuse of power.
“Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.” — Leviticus 19:15
The victim’s humanity must not be erased. The authority figure’s humanity must not be erased either. Righteous judgment does not require us to invent facts, celebrate destruction, threaten families, or turn hatred into a virtue. We can call an act evil without allowing evil to reproduce inside us.
“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth.” — Proverbs 24:17
Hatred makes us resemble what we claim to oppose. It feeds on repeated viewing, dehumanizing language, fantasy punishment, and collective blame. The Ruach Ha’Qudash produces truth, restraint, courage, and clean judgment—not a digital mob.
The Algorithm Is Training the Heart
Repeated exposure changes what shocks us. The first violent video may produce grief. The tenth may produce curiosity. The hundredth may become background noise.
Some platforms reward the most humiliating moment because outrage keeps people watching. The wounded person is reduced to a clip. Their fear, family, history, and future disappear. Viewers are trained to look at pain without responsibility.
YAHUSHA did not teach His people to consume suffering from a distance. The Samaritan in Luke 10 saw a wounded man and moved toward responsibility. Others saw him and passed by.
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.” — Luke 10:33
Compassion is not the same as emotional stimulation. Compassion asks what can be done: palal, verify truth, support the harmed, protect the vulnerable, teach children, interrupt abuse, offer resources, pursue lawful accountability, or examine personal conduct.
If watching does not lead to righteous action, it may only be feeding the flesh.
Our Children Are Watching How We Respond
Children learn what is normal by observing adults. When they hear constant violent footage playing from phones, watch adults laugh at humiliation, or see every tragedy turned into racial hatred and profanity, they are being discipled by disorder.
Parents and elders must explain that every person shown suffering bears human dignity. Do not repeatedly play violent footage around children. Do not teach them to mock victims or assume guilt from appearance. Do not teach them that every authority is righteous, or that every authority is evil. Teach them to recognize lawful order, abuse of power, self-control, truth, and wise conduct during encounters.
Most importantly, model tashubah. Let children hear adults confess when they have judged falsely, spoken cruelly, or reacted in rage. A household cannot demand justice from the nation while refusing righteousness inside its own walls.
Affliction Among a People Must Produce a Return
Scripture repeatedly shows that persistent rebellion produces consequences. This must never be used to excuse an individual offender or blame a particular victim for what happened to them. YAHUSHA rejected that shallow reasoning in Luke 13.
But a people who continually witness violence, captivity, family collapse, addiction, exploitation, premature death, and public humiliation should not refuse collective self-examination.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and palal, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from the shamaym, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” — 2 Chronicles 7:14
The text does not say that posting will heal the land. It does not say that outrage will heal the land. It says: humble yourselves, palal, seek YAHUAH’s face, and turn from wicked ways.
We cannot demand that oppression cease while asking our own sins to remain undisturbed. We must hate sin enough to leave it—not merely hate the consequences when they arrive.
Extra-Canonical Witnesses: Supporting the Canon
The Canon has already established the teaching. The following extra-canonical witnesses are included as supporting testimony, not as the foundation.
Sirach 28:1–7 warns that the person who pursues vengeance should remember their own need for mercy, put away hatred, and remember the Commandments. This agrees with the Canon’s command to seek righteous judgment without allowing hatred to possess the heart.
The Testament of Gad, an extra-canonical pseudepigraphal writing, gives an extended warning about hatred. It describes hatred as spiritual blindness that distorts perception and produces evil against both the innocent and the guilty. Its value here is not doctrinal independence but moral agreement with 1 Yahuchanun 2:9–11: hatred blinds the one who walks in it.
These witnesses must not be used to create new doctrine. They echo what the Canon already makes plain.
Before You Share the Next Violent Video
Stop and ask:
Is it verified? Am I sharing established facts or a caption designed to provoke me?
Does sharing preserve dignity? Would I want my worst or most painful moment circulated this way?
Will this help anyone? Does it inform, protect, document, or direct people toward useful action?
Am I feeding hatred? Have I begun wishing evil on whole groups of people?
Have I palal? Did I bring the victim, family, witnesses, and all responsible parties before YAHUAH?
What is this exposing in me? Rage, prejudice, indifference, fear, voyeurism, or self-righteousness?
What righteous action follows? If there is no answer, why am I consuming it again?
A Seven-Day Tashubah Response
Day 1 — Stop consuming the spectacle. Do not replay violent footage for stimulation. Gather only the information needed to understand the event.
Day 2 — Examine your violence. Ask YAHUAH to expose rage, intimidation, cruelty, revenge fantasies, verbal abuse, and delight in humiliation.
Day 3 — Clean your speech. Remove threats, slurs, false accusations, collective blame, and dehumanizing language.
Day 4 — Repair your house. Address unresolved harm, apologize without manipulation, protect those at risk, and establish accountability.
Day 5 — Teach the children. Discuss dignity, wise conduct, lawful authority, abuse of power, and the difference between courage and rage.
Day 6 — Serve someone afflicted. Help a victim, grieving family, elder, fatherless child, returning citizen, or household trapped in crisis.
Day 7 — Gather and palal. Confess personal and communal sin. Ask YAHUAH for clean hands, truthful judgment, protection, and the strength to walk in set-apartness.
We Must Hate Sin Enough to Turn
Our heartbreak cannot end with a post. Our anger cannot end with a hashtag. Our grief cannot end when the video disappears from the feed.
Every new display of affliction should break the illusion that we can continue in sin without consequence. It should cause us to seek YAHUAH while He may be found. It should move fathers to govern themselves, mothers to protect and instruct, children to turn from rebellion, leaders to judge honestly, and assemblies to confront sin without partiality.
We must stop asking only, “What is wrong with them?”
The more urgent question is: What must we turn from before YAHUAH?
Do not let suffering become another piece of content. Let it become a trumpet. Let it wake the sleeping. Let it drive us to our knees with open hands. Let it produce truth, mercy, justice, protection, and lasting tashubah.
Closing Palal
YAHUAH, we grieve over the violence, humiliation, abuse, and bloodshed continually placed before our eyes. Forgive us for consuming affliction without compassion, speaking before knowing the truth, feeding hatred, and demanding repentance from others while protecting our own sin.
Search our hearts. Expose every seed of cruelty, prejudice, rage, vengeance, cowardice, and indifference. Teach us to seek righteous judgment without becoming hateful. Give protection and healing to those who have been harmed. Bring hidden works into the light, establish truthful accountability, and restrain those who misuse power.
Turn our people from rebellion. Restore fathers, strengthen mothers, protect children, awaken assemblies, and give our leaders clean judgment. Fill us with the Ruach Ha’Qudash so that we respond to affliction with truth, courage, compassion, and set-apartness.
May we hate our sins enough to abandon them. May every warning drive us nearer to You. We ask this in the name and authority of YAHUSHA Ha’Mashiach, Aman,
