Faith and Fake News: Facing The Facts

By Vinnie MacIsaac

 

It is time to face the facts: Fake News targets Christians[1] and their causes, conspiracies, and fears[2]. It is time to face the music! Our constant side-taking in the ongoing culture wars of our time has made us the effortless ground zero and verdure victims of political fake news outlets who seek to twist and twine our precious Good News into scrupulous fake news.

This is a real Russian FAKE NEWS post that was set up to target Christians. Regardless of who you vote for or your political views we should all agree being manipulated is not right.

What do you do when your Good News is used against you? For years Christians have owned the upper hand in American culture, but that day is long over[3]. We all want to share the Good News of Jesus and His salvation but our ever enfeebled world culture is in rebellion to the Word of God, which can often leave certain fractions of the Christian faith feeling uncertain, unheard, or even threatened, thus making them easy prey for misinformation that reaffirms their worst fears. From Google ads to Facebook news stories, to Cambridge Analytica deep mining and Russian Twitter bots Christians are purposely misled, confused, and tricked into thinking doom is at the door. Our faith, our heart, and soul, our deepest convictions about the world and eternity, are being data mined, repackaged, and direct- targeted back to us in the form of Fake News that we just can’t seem to get enough of. We are duped into to hitting share, or retweet, without even thinking because fake news stories are designed to affirm our worst nightmares and vivify us into outrage and action!

It does not matter if you’re a Christian on the right or the left, there is enough fake news for both! I have heard everything from a certain politician talking to the dead in order to make deals with Satan to kill unborn babies, to another having secret meetings in the White House with the KKK to plot a race war to declare martial law and set up a dictatorship. Both sides have fake news and both sides attack each other’s legit news outlets calling them fake. Ironically, it is pluralism at it’s worst. The concept of a lie has become anything that does not fit “our truth” and the cause of Christ, the mission of the church, or just sets off our fears, nightmares, of eschatological doomsday theories.

The word of God and the Ten Commandments demand Christians be above spreading false news. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”[4] Understand, clicking share, or retweet, in outrage, fear, and without due diligence, is actually sin and rebellion against God’s law. Willfully, or by just refusing to check, spreading Fake News, even for what you think are Godly reasons is blatant unabashed, rebellion against the Kingdom of God, His truth, and the Holiness of His Name. It does not just reflect poorly on you as a credible source, but because you represent Him in this world, your spreading of Fake News makes Jesus Christ a laughing stock of your newsfeed.

Here are some tools to help prevent you from being the victim of Fake News:

Avoid The Sensational

If a headline is crazy sensational, it is suspect and needs to be investigated before you hit share, no matter how much it fits your worldview. No, Hilary Clinton did not hire a hit man on the FBI agent investigating her emails. No, the Pope did not endorse Donald Trump for President. And no, Pizzagate was not real. There was no such thing as a Democrat pedophile sex-ring being run out of various D.C. public restaurants. Sandy Hook was not staged, and the Parkland students are not actors playing a part hired by liberals to take down the NRA. The very sensational and absurd nature of these stories, you’d think would stop reasonable Christians from sharing but sadly these were all widely shared, believed, and viciously defended; making us look like total fools.

Avoid News Outlets That Are Not Real

If you have never heard of a media outlet, and can’t easily “Google” them and find out who they are, or notice their name or URL is slightly misspelled or added to, then they likely are fake outlets peddling fake news. For example, ABCnews.com.co[5] may look like ABCNews.com; but it is not. It is a crazy fake news site that I use to see folks on social Media duped by all the time. Likewise, American News[6] is a fake conservative news site with massive racial click bait, claiming Democrats are secret white- power insiders, and that Denzel Washington endorsed Donald Trump. The Boston Tribune is a complete fake newspaper that sounded so real it sent hundreds of fake political news stories flying around the internet and millions believed were from a reputable print news source but were really from a newspaper that does not even exist. There is no end to legit sounding outlets that are completely fake (ie, cnn-trending.com, CountyNewsroom.info, Globalresearch.ca, Liberty Writers News, Liberal Society, Now8News.com, NewsWatch33, UndergroundNewsReport.com, usatoday.com.co, etc)[7].

Avoid Disregarding The Merit Of A Story Based On Normal Bias

Mrs. Wray, my 10^th grade English teacher, drilled into our minds that, “everyone has a bias; those who claim no bias, are liars. The job of the reader is to find the bias and weigh it out.”

All legit news outlets have biases, but bias does not make them fake. It is the reader’s job to see the bias, filter it, and at the same time not disregard the facts in the reporting. I don’t care if it is CNN, FOX News, The BBC, NPR, or MSNBC all have normal bias and spin the news towards those who are their core audience. Bias does not equal fake. Bias has true facts, colored by ideology; fake new has lies, not facts. Learn to sort bias. Avoid getting all our news from one type of bias to ensure you are balanced and practicing listening for bias.

Avoid Discrediting Fact Checkers

Mrs. Wray was right, everyone has a bias but the Fact Checkers job is to filter out the bias and check the facts. Yes, of course, they may have their own bias but they would not last long in the business if were blatantly biased. They make bread and butter by being the least biased that they can possibly be.

So, if someone busts your Pizzagate story by fact-checking with Snopes.com you can’t just decry, Snopes is liberally biased, ergo Pizzagate stands. No, Pizzagate is fake news of the worst kind, and Snopes is a credible fact-checker with a low bias meter.

The following Fact Checkers are generally considered credible; Politifact, FactCheck.org, Snopes.com, and opensecrets.org.

Avoid Sloganeering News You Don’t Like As Fake

Stop it, just stop it, you’re dumbing down the world, yourself, and being a horrible witness to the truth when you call any old news you don’t like, don’t want, or does not fit your narrative Fake News. News is fake, not because you don’t like it, or you don’t like the outlet or the reporter. News is only fake, when the facts are not real, cannot be supported, and the story is based on a lie. No, Donald Trump, CNN is not fake news and No, Hillary Clinton, people voting for Trump are not all Deplorable. Sloganeering, like, “Sleepy Eyed Chuck Todd,” “Nasty Women,” “Deplorables,” “Snow Flakes,” or “Ideologue” are a sure fire way of knowing the person you are listening to or reading engages in dispensing fake news tendencies.

Don’t Trust Your Eyes

We use to say a picture is worth a thousand words, but, these days a photo-shopped image is worth a thousand likes on Instagram. We put images in articles to re-enforce an idea, concept or reported fact. Images, in this day and age, are no longer proof of anything other than the existence of Photoshop. A condemning picture does not excuse you from making sure the story is true. Also, please beware pictures are strategically placed to keep you reading and processing the story. In a normal story that is not a bad thing, but in a fake story placement is used for emotional manipulation.

What Now?

Think before you click. Think more before you get upset. Think even more before you buy into the emotional hook of a fake story. And think best before you share because it is not your name you embarrass, it is the credibility of those bearing the Gospel that is a stake. Don’t be duped into doing the devil’s deeds. Sharing Fake News is something we all have done in a moment of weakness, or by error, but we all must work to do better. Bearing false witness is a sin against both your brother and your God. Stop passively violating His Holy law and Governance as if it was no big deal. The world is laughing at how duped into rage and distrust Christians are. Let’s work with Jesus, and clean up that image, and be the witness of the light, and good news we were called to be.

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” [8]

Footnotes:

[1] Russia’s Fake Facebook Ads Targeted Christians, Kate Shellnutt

November 03, 2017: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/november/russia-fake-facebook-election-ads-targeted-christian-voters.html

[2] See the fake Facebook ads Russians ran on Clinton, guns, race, Christianity, Mike Snider, USA TODAY Published 5:23 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2017, | Updated 9:51 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2017, https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/11/01/see-fake-facebook-ads-russians-ran-clinton-guns-race-christianity/822406001/

[3] Christianity faces sharp decline as Americans are becoming even less affiliated with religion; By Sarah Pulliam Bailey May 12, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/12/christianity-faces-sharp-decline-as-americans-are-becoming-even-less-affiliated-with-religion/?utm_term=.9d0e34930ab3

[4] Exodus 20:16 NIV

[5] Now defunct since the owner died.

[6] https://americannews.com/

[7] A detailed list can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fake_news_websites#cite_note-mnt-13

[8] 1 John 1:6-7 ESV

The post Faith and Fake News: Facing The Facts appeared first on Simply Vinnie - Unpacking The Complicated.

The LIE Christians Tell

About The Gospel 

By Pastor Vinnie MacIsaac

Taxes, who likes them? Nobody.

The only thing worse than taxes is the “Tax Man.” The Feds. The IRS. Am I right?

Well, it was even worse in Jesus’ day. It is not hyperbole to say that in that day tax collectors were treasonous traitors who were a simple stone’s throw away from terrorists. They were despicable. Israel was under the political dictatorship of a foreign, heathen, superpower called Rome. Rome dominated God’s people; politically oppressing them by the force of Rome’s mighty military power.

Tax Collectors were Jews, who worked for Rome, betraying their own nation, people, and God, to extract cruelly oppressive tax rates that went directly into the Roman coffers to keep the cycle of oppression going. So why did these Jews do it? The fact was, the Romans did not even pay them! They were simply permitted to extract whatever unfair rate they wanted for themselves on top of the official tax rate. If their fellow Jews would not pay up, the Tax Collector sent in the Roman Centurion to take it. So show up on Tax Day at the tax booth with the exhortation money in hand … or else.

Recently, I was doing a group Bible study on the second chapter of Mark. It includes, among other things, the story of Jesus calling Matthew Levi[1] to follow Him and be His Disciple. It was shocking to me, that in my group study with about 10 other people, they were just not able to handle the fact that Jesus calls Matthew while Matthew is actively engaged in open sin against his nation, people, and God as an extortionist. It is not that Matthew was once a Tax Collector; he is actively tax collecting. In the story, Jesus walks up to him and basically says, “Hey, you, Tax Collector, come follow me, join my team, and be my disciple.”[2]

My group offered all kinds of weird excuses that are not, at all, hinted at in the text.

“Well, Jesus knew his heart.” Offered one lady. To which I countered, “Yeah, Jesus did, Jesus knew that in the heart of Matthew was only extortion.”

“Pastor how can you say that,” said another, “he is one of the Twelve!”

Another added, “I am sure Jesus looked deep into his soul and saw the kind of man Matthew really wanted to be,” offered another person in our group. To which I counter with the question, “To be rich?”

And another continued, “There had to be something we don’t know. Jesus couldn’t have a sinner on his team. People who follow Jesus have to be worthy of that call. We all know this, so it has to be true.”

The text of Mark, chapter two is clear, at the point when Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him, Mathew was an active Tax Collector, which is to say, he was a treasonous sinner of the worst kind, engaging in the ungodly oppression of his own people. But what is even worse, Jesus and the other disciples leave with Matthew and go have a dinner party with Matthew and “many” other tax collectors. So I asked my group why is Jesus going to have a party with such sinners? Certainly, he could not have read all their hearts and seen “deep down inside they all felt bad about their lives”. I pointed out Jesus was having a dinner party with the worst sinners of all!

The group was awkwardly quiet. They did not know what to say. But soon the same old justifications came flooding back. “Jesus, knows things we don’t,” and “There had been some level of repentance in Mathew” and “Jesus couldn’t help that the other tax collectors came.” And lastly, the crux of what I call the “lie,” someone said, “Pastor, Jesus would never let someone follow Him unless they were truly repentant.”

I wanted to shout, “Lie!” But I did not have to. A quiet, yet well -studied lady finally spoke up, dispelling the lie with the truth.

“Wow, I get it! I get it! No one can repent before they meet Jesus. If we expect people to be penitent, to have cleaned themselves up, to become worthy, without having spent time with Jesus, we expect the impossible and put impossible conditions upon receiving the power of the Gospel into their lives! The Truth is, Jesus, invites you to the party, not because you’re worthy of his time, or to be his disciple because no one is. He invites you to the party because the party is the only way the unworthy is changed! We are offered the opportunity to be changed by being invited to the table with Jesus.”

The idea that we must do something to be worthy of the attention of Jesus is a powerful lie many Christians peddle, without having thought it out! It is the old, slippery Satanic slope of needing to have cleaned yourself up before you can come to Jesus, the church, or faith. If we could have cleaned ourselves up, then why would we have needed Jesus, anyway? The Gospel is not that Jesus called Matthew because he was worthy. How is that even good news? That is, at best, reasonable news. The Gospel is that Jesus called Matthew because Matthew was not worthy, and would never be worthy without Jesus coming to him. We can’t even repent, without Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, and the witness of his followers bringing the party of Good News to us. Therein lies the real problem: Church members, too often, want sinners to clean themselves up, in order to be worthy of the church’s attention, love, or help. The reason, really, is that church members don’t want to know or spend time with, much less have a party with prostitutes, drug dealers, thugs, and “undesirables.” But if we can put the conditions of having already been changed to our responsibility to love, care for, or try to redeem them; if we can make “repentance” a condition of our attention, time, and face to face interaction, then preaching the gospel not only just got easier, it got a whole lot more palatable, tolerable, and comfy.

The Pharisees say, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”[3] But we do the same, when we see an elder, deacon, pastor, or member, routinely interacting with “suspect characters” we begin to whisper among the elite holy, “Why do they go to that place with sinners? What is their real association? What are they constantly doing over there with those people, they are up to something.”

And understand, the reason we throw such lies and accusations around, most often, has nothing at all to do with any real suspicion. That is it not what it is about. The reason Pharisees make such accusations, is so they can be excused from going and loving sinners, like those they accuse, and still appear Holy.

If Matthew was righteous when Jesus found him, then there would have been no reason to say, “Come follow Me”, for Matthew would not have been collecting taxes at his tax booth, he would have already been following behind Jesus. The assumption that in order to follow Jesus, in order to start attending a church, in order to be loved by the community of God, you have to have cleaned yourself up is a hellish lie that traps people in despair, disadvantage, and destruction. The Gospel is, you are not too far gone, too debased, too deformed, to be loved by God, redeemed by God, and called by God. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, . . . John 6:44 (Emphasis mine)

For those “righteous” who refuse to accept there is nothing they have, or can do, or can prove, that can earn them the merit of the attention of Jesus — Jesus can’t help them. They have all the “righteousness” they will ever get because they refuse the Doctor’s orders.

On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”[4]

Footnotes:

[1] Matthew is also known as Levi, in the same way, Peter is often known as Simon.

[2] I am paraphrasing for emphasis.

[3] Mark 2:16

[4] Mark2:17

The post The LIE Christians Tell About The Gospel appeared first on Simply Vinnie - Unpacking The Complicated.