Lately, it seems Christian blogs have really acquired a sense of humor. Take for example Jon Acuff or Carlos Whittaker or Bianca Juarez. There's also Mark Driscoll and CJ Mahaney defending the use of humor as a tool of the Gospel. I couldn't be happier.

But there's also such thing as too much of a good thing, and there are places where lines ought to be drawn. I'm trying to find this line myself.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with making fun of kitschy art, "youth pastor hair," evangelical Christian's over-use of alliteration in sermon titles or v-neck shirts. And if there is something wrong with that kind of humor, I need to be convicted, because I do those things all the time.

At the same time, I've seen, heard, and cracked jokes that now I think were probably inappropriate. It's not that they were trashy or crude, but the object of the joke is not something to be made fun of: the Bride of Christ.

It's one thing to mock marketing attempts by churches that try too hard to be cool. It's one thing to laugh good-naturedly about the Christian "counter culture" that made side hugs what they are today. Humor can be a tool to expose wrong thinking and helps us not take ourselves too seriously.

It's quite another thing altogether to sneer at the honestly-trying Christian leaders, or at Christian behaviors that are Biblically-rooted. (Like, say, communion crackers and grape juice.) That's where we start to tread on hallow ground, making fun of the honest efforts of those for whom Christ died.

If you laugh at the Bride that way, it makes me wonder. Who are you trying to get to laugh?

At one point does humor stop being salient and just becomes condescending? Where do you draw the line?