Media Watch 21 July 2025

 

There are many interesting theological questions out there, such as whether objective morality exists or how literally one should interpret scripture. Call me old-fashioned, but whether ZYN is “biblically permissible” seems like it’s low on the list. However, a recent article in Christianity Today has sparked something of a furore that has dragged in some unsavoury characters.

Today’s edition of Media Watch is no ordinary edition. Typically, we look at one news story on pouches that falls below journalistic standards. However, this review explores an article by a Church-going Gen Z pouch “addict”, and a subsequent blowback that falls below the standards of sanity.

Grab your rosary beads, we’re going in.

Christianity Today

The Christianity Today article is by a Gen Z author, which is something they think is interesting in itself, to the point of repeatedly referencing it during the piece. Because they’re Gen Z, you also might guess, it’s a first-person perspective essay dripping with solipsism, hyperbole, and that kind of down-to-earth, just talking to a friend style that seems to stalk me at every turn. In fact, that matey style is so common nowadays that I yearn for someone to talk to me like they’re my mortal enemy.

Anyway, the essay details their “addiction” to vapes and pouches. It’s a frankly boring account of a totally unremarkable dependence on a very mild stimulant that the author overeggs to the point that they state “the biggest obstacle to wholehearted devotion to Jesus isn’t on their phones or at their schools—it’s in their gums.”

Now, this is obviously bullshit. The smartphone has had a far more corrosive impact on youth than nicotine. The rise of depression, self-harm and suicide, the horrible impact of pornography, social deprivation, sleep disruption, reduced physical activity, cyberbullying, online grooming, and more can all be linked to smartphone use. Anyone who thinks pouches are worse cannot be saved, so to speak.

The basic thesis of this farcical essay can be summed up in this quote: “Zyn isn’t a sponge; it’s a soul-sucking leech. You stop bringing your needy self to God because the ache that once drove you to him is gone.”

While the author believes this is a bad thing, his quote might be the most over-the-top advertisement for ZYN I’ve ever heard.

In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus argues that, “The Absurd is about the distance between what we want and what is possible in the world, most notably our desire for meaning and the utter lack of it in the world,” to describe our yearning for God as part of a more profound human longing for order, meaning, and unity. Or you could pop a ZYN and just crack on. I suspect Christianity Today might not be sending us their best and brightest.

Right Response Ministries

The Right Response Ministries is a podcast hosted by Joel Webbon, an American pastor and commentator. Webbon is what they call a Christian nationalist. As such, he’s got some strange views, chief among them that we should use public executions as a way to deter women from making false sexual assault accusations.

Webbon and his co-hosts had a lot to say about the Christianity Today article. Indeed, it seems to have inspired a discussion about whether pouches are “biblically permissible”. His show is sponsored by Tucker Carlson’s ALP pouches. So, it might not come as the greatest surprise to hear that Webbon contorts the scriptures to tell his followers that the product is fine to use. To his credit, he does stop short of saying it’s especially permissible if the cans are purchased through his affiliate link. Small mercies.

The rest of the Right Response Ministries’ criticism of the Christianity Today article is Poe’s Law in action. It hits all the familiar beats, such as suggesting that criticism of pouches is “effeminate,” stating that using pouches can increase testosterone, and some other ramblings about masculinity.

I find all the attempts to turn pouches into a culture war symbol dull and stupid. In Sweden, 15% of women aged between 16 and 29 are current pouch users compared to 11% of men. Here are a few other products that Swedish women in this demographic use more frequently than their male counterparts: cosmetics, skincare, haircare, fragrances, and wellness products. So, do pouches magically become a feminine product if they’re in Northern Europe? Of course not.

The point is that pouches transcended gender and politics, no matter what some revenue-obsessed Christian nationalist pastor or some clown at Buzzfeed tries to tell you. Being able to access the benefits of nicotine without dying isn’t something to gatekeep; it should be for everyone.

Conclusion

The desperation to pull nicotine into divisive, boring, and unenlightened culture war discourse knows no bounds. Now, even Christian nationalist pastors are trying to give them the Lord’s seal of approval to finesse revenue from the all-of-a-sudden Christ is King crowd.

I wouldn’t be so annoyed by this if I didn’t think someone who smokes could be put off pouches by their association with the “people who are so masculine that they feel the desperate, uncontrollable need to remind everyone about how masculine they are” crowd.

Again, you can call me old-fashioned, but I preferred it when masculinity was defined by the strong, silent type, with a particular emphasis on the silent part.