All That Glitters

I believe that God wants us to be thoughtful believers, using the minds He has given us to interpret what we see occurring in the world around us.  1st Thessalonians 5 says:

21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1st John chapter 4, the Bible speaks of testing the spirits.  There are many statements that make the rounds on social media, there are stories posted that are not verifiable and can deceive people, you have stories that are years old that get posted as being in the present.  And, if we're not careful, we can be led astray.  But, the Word of God is our anchor in all of the confusion and conflicting messages.  The media can produce fear, as we have certainly seen in this pandemic, but we are called to a walk of faith, rooted in the truth.

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In 1st Corinthians 2, we are exhorted to be spiritually-minded, embracing the Lord's truth and
following His direction. We can read:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

They think you're gullible.

That's the implication of a recent Dallas Morning News editorial headline, which reads: "Too many evangelical Christians fall for conspiracy theories online, and gullibility is not a virtue."

The story rambles through the notion of "conspiracy theories," which it claims has risen during the COVID-19 crisis.  It claims:

For those concerned about the rise of conspiracy theories in the church, it is rather distressing that three-quarters of evangelicals agreed that the mainstream media produces fake news compared to only 54% of non-evangelicals. More than combating this tendency, church attendance at least once a month was one of the factors more likely to correlate to agreeing that the mainstream media produces fake news (77% compared to 68% of those who attend less frequently). We understand mistrust of the media that often struggles to accurately report on matters of religion, but these numbers are stunning.

This paragraph comes after the stunning finding that (gasp!) 77% of evangelicals regularly use Facebook, and 46% use YouTube.  These are all from a study done by the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College; yeah, that's the place that was the site of a secretive meeting about the future of evangelicalism, to which no one named Graham was invited, the one that only invited one so-called "journalist" to cover it.  A true example of evangelical elitism.

Anyway, without specifics, this Dallas News op-ed, without using credible examples, seeks to paint Christians with a singular broad brush. And, it reflects a pet peeve of mine, where you have so-called Christian "leaders" who go to secular media and bash their brothers and sisters in the faith. In this case, one of the writers was the well-known head of the Billy Graham Center, Ed Stetzer.  Stetzer believes that this presumed gullibility hurts our Christian witness.  I would ask two questions: 1) what constitutes a "conspiracy theory?" and 2) what specific conspiracy theories are we talking about here and what evangelicals are believing them?

Within days of this op-ed being released, there was another article in The Atlantic that attempted to tie evangelicals to a a rather mysterious movement called, Q.  Yes, there is actually a person, presumably who goes by the moniker of "Q."  So, here in two articles, released almost simultaneously, evangelicals are being characterized as conspiracy theorists.  That seems to be a new device that has emerged - disagree with someone?  Label him or her a conspiracy theorist.  Someone not demonstrating a devotion to a chosen narrative - conspiracy theory.

Fortunately, the responsible Terry Mattingly at the Get Religion website called The Atlantic out on its piece.  In an excerpt from the Atlantic piece, we can read:

On March 9, Q himself issued a triptych of ominous posts that seemed definitive: The coronavirus is real, but welcome, and followers should not be afraid. The first post shared Trump’s tweet from the night before and repeated, “Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming.” The second said: “The Great Awakening is Worldwide.” The third was simple: “GOD WINS.”

Apparently this shadowy figure and those who demonstrate an embrace of his or her ideology, uses language that some might consider similar to evangelicals.  But, Mattingly raises some important mischaracterizations that attempt to tie evangelical Christians to the language of the "QAnon" movement, writing:

this Atlantic piece comes really close to saying that small-o orthodox people who believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ are on their way to QAnon land.

There’s more. Worried that there are forms of “fake news” that plague the mainstream left as well as the Russian-bot fueled right? You could be QAnon bound.

Worried that The New York Times, NPR, Hollywood, Yale Law School and lots of other powerful institutions tend to speak with one voice on matters of religion, morality and culture? That could be QAnon.

Watch a show or two on Fox News? That could be QAnon.

Sympathetic to many of the worries and fears of angry voters in flyover country? That could be QAnon.

Is your pastor worried about future U.S. Supreme Court cases that could redefine the First Amendment and parental rights? That could be QAnon adjacent.

QAnon = evangelical Christianity - it's all connected in the eyes of some, I fear, and it all represents at worst, an attempt to discredit evangelical Christianity and at best, an attempt to mischaracterize and perhaps remake evangelical Christianity, since, of course, we're all a bunch of gullible sheep who are led astray by the latest conspiracy theory.

I would say, Don't. Be. That. Guy. Or Gal.  The first talking point is:

Don't believe everything that you read.  Be discerning and learn what sources are reliable and what are not.  And, CNN's Brian Stelter or Ed Stetzer are not the people who should determine that for you.

I believe that there has been a particular agenda that has been pursued during the pandemic - and, yes, this has resulted in nearly 100,000 deaths in the U.S., and many are sick and dying. Granted, in many cases, it has been reported that COVID-19 symptoms will be worse than the seasonal flu, but in most, as I understand, it will be rather mild.

Yet, people are losing their businesses, living in isolation, and experiencing fear and anxiety as a result of the virus - does the end justify the means?  And, the mainstream media, which many Christians regard as "fake news," is continuing to whip people into a frenzy, including pointing to areas where COVID-19 cases are increasing and adding a tag line, to the effect of "as the economy reopens," as if to suggest that is not a good idea.

And, the website, JustTheNews.com, reports on some new guidance from the CDC.  The article states that the CDC has released...

...a list of what it called "COVID-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios." That document laid out five different scenarios for public health experts and government officials to consider, one of which the agency called its "current best estimate" of the parameters of the viral pandemic.

That scenario states that the overall fatality rate of infections that show symptoms is around 0.4%. Yet the CDC says it estimates that around 35% of all infectious are asymptomatic, meaning that the total infection fatality rate under the agency's "best estimate" scenario is around 0.26%, or a little more than twice that of the seasonal flu.

Remember this: All that glitters isn't gold - don't chase the shiny object. In other words, just because someone is using Biblical language doesn't mean he or she is governed by a Christian worldview.  And, that includes people who are considered to be evangelical "thought leaders."  We have to be guided by truth - the truth that is consistent with the Scriptures, which tell us to "fear not."

I think of the comments that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made when interviewed by Greg Laurie recently; according to The Christian Post, he "said he reads two books each morning — the Bible and the day's intelligence report about threats to Americans at home and around the world. Juxtaposing the two, he shared, is difficult." The Secretary said, “I manage to synthesize them … knowing that the Lord gives me the capacity to work, to be diligent,” adding, “I hope He’ll give me the wisdom and the perseverance to meet these challenges head-on in a way that protects the American people.”

Remember that Faith Radio desires to be a reliable source of Biblical truth.  We offer strong Bible teaching and music that carries messages such as that God is great, He is good, He loves us, He is near to us, and He will direct us by His Spirit.  His Holy Spirit shows us how to be discerning and how to keep from following the crowd and knowing His voice, not being led astray by the information of the day.