#3003 (4/19) SUNDAY SPECIAL: [New Journal Personal Update] "The Viral Pandemic of Distrust and Misinformation - Worldview Lessons from the Coronavirus, Part 4"

"THE VIRAL PANDEMIC OF DISTRUST AND MISINFORMATION - WORLDVIEW LESSONS FROM THE CORONAVIRUS, PART 4" - John Stonestreet and Shane Morris, Breakpoint.org, 04/17/20; https://www.breakpoint.org/the-viral-pandemic-of-distrust-and-misinformation/

     The information age is full of both plusses and minuses, especially during a time of national crisis. Among the blessings we should count is the ability of many of us to work from home, and the ability to stay in touch with people we cannot visit. Another, at least in my line of work, is that so many more of the teachers contributing to our virtual Truth, Love, Together event now know how to use Zoom.

   The main minus, though certainly not the only one, is the constant flow of news, headlines, and social media posts, some true and some false, some helpful and some very unhelpful and even misleading. Information comes at us in waves, with conjecture in the place of facts and assertions in the place of arguments. Even before the coronavirus was given the name pandemic, misinformation was passed on by both major media outlets and personal social media accounts. In most of these cases, political ideology masqueraded as certainty about things that were, at the time, unknown, such as how deadly Covid-19 would be, whether or not it was like the flu, and whether scientists and experts were misleading us.

   Misleading voices on both the left and the right confidently asserted the virus really wasn’t that bad. More than one conservative talk show host, motivated to keep the President’s wins front and center, compared Covid-19 to the common cold or seasonal flu. And more than a few liberal voices also downplayed the seriousness of Covid-19, apparently hoping to seize an opportunity to portray Trump’s travel restrictions to China as racist or otherwise misguided.

   Having now mostly pivoted on the seriousness of the virus across the board, many of the same voices continue with speculations, assertions, and analysis that are proclaimed with all the undeserved confidence as before. After Samaritan’s Purse set up a temporary hospital in Central Park to treat coronavirus patients, The Daily Beast ran a hit-piece warning of “sub-standard care and “discrimination,” chiding the Christian ministry and its president, Franklin Graham, for their allegedly “spotty record.”
   Given the actual record of Samaritan’s Purse, the article was pure fear-mongering. Still, it paled in comparison to a horrendous op-ed by Katherine Stewart in the New York Times which blamed evangelicals for “paving the way to coronavirus hell” by “denying science.” She also accused us of looking to faith-healers and miracle cures instead of medical experts. It was vicious, historically ignorant slander, and published in America’s newspaper-of-record.
   The Times’ decision to publish such a ridiculous article was not only poor, it’s ironic, given the paper’s commitment to expose fake news and conspiracy theories about the virus. They keep a full list: Covid-19 is caused by 5G cell phone towers. It’s a foreign attack. It’s a plot by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. All ridiculous claims, of course, but no more ridiculous than the Nero-like claim that evangelicals are to blame for this pandemic.

   Brad Littlejohn made a key point over at Mere Orthodoxy, “This virus has surely come as a judgment on our divided, post-truth society. Judgment does not merely punish,” he points out, “it reveals…what Covid-19 has revealed in America is a society that has reached a point of crippling mutual incomprehension and distrust…that runs so deep that it leaves few if any shared handholds for common knowledge informing common action.”
   At all times, but especially during a pandemic, some degree of common knowledge and common action are essential for a society. How can Christians, people who are to be committed to truth, navigate this (mis)information age? Who is right, who is not, and how do we know? And, how can we be catalysts toward the renewal of a critical national resource: trust?

   An essential part of the answer, and an essential part of a Christian worldview, is discernment. According to Paul’s prayer for the church at Philippi, love “abounds” best when accompanied by truth and discernment. And in an information age, discernment is the only true antidote to deception. Eighteenth century British author Samuel Johnson called discernment “the supreme end of education,” before offering the best definition I know of discernment: “the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.”
   In other words, discernment involves both wisdom and will. The wisdom to evaluate truth claims, and the will to understand the reality of our fallen world, which includes evaluating truth claims beyond whether or not it will make our side look good and their side look bad. Bearing false witness is a sin, and truth must take precedent over wanting something to be so or not wanting it to be so.
   And finally, a necessary ingredient of Christian discernment is confidence in God’s sovereignty. Fear, on the other hand, often spoils discernment.

   Discernment won’t end put an end to misinformation overnight, but it can slow its infection rate. And as with the actual pandemic, that could make a world of difference.

[italics and colored emphasis mine]

RESOURCES:
"We Can Only 'Imagine' a Utopia: Worldview Lessons from the Coronavirus Pt. 1" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint | March 23, 2020; https://breakpoint.org/lessons-from-the-coronavirus/
"Deciding Who Gets Treated and Who Doesn’t: Worldview Lessons from the Coronavirus Pt. 2" - John Stonestreet & Roberto Rivera | BreakPoint | March 25, 2020; https://breakpoint.org/coronavirus-victims-deciding-who-gets-treated-and-who-doesnt/
"Gender Transition Surgeries in a Global Crisis: Worldview Lessons from the Coronavirus Pt. 3"- John Stonestreet & Roberto Rivera | BreakPoint | April 1. 2020; https://breakpoint.org/gender-transition-surgeries-in-a-global-crisis/

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PRAYER MATTERS:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against 
the disorder of the world. -  Karl Barth

"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is  one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan

World-Wide Prayer Requests:

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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/

Campaign against church in Algeria continues- The government continues its campaign against the church in Algeria. Police entered one of the largest churches in Algeria (about 700 members), the Full Gospel Church in Tizi Ouzou, as Pastor Salah was leading a church service. The police ordered the congregation to leave and pushed those who resisted out of the building. Authorities beat Pastor Salah and church members. Pastor Salah shared prayer requests with us: “I ask the worldwide Church to pray that the Lord will be with us during this hardship. I

hope you will pray like the prayer in Acts 4.”

April 19 - Pray the powers blinding the authorities in Algeria would be struck down in the name of Jesus.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.

STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM - OpenDoorsUSA.org

 At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.- 2 Tim. 4:16                                     

SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO SUFFER

The Apostle Paul knew exactly what it was like to be alone, to be deserted by all who called themselves “brothers” and “sisters.” A former colleague who has done considerable travel among the persecuted says, “It is hard to believe that Christians are the largest persecuted group in the world today. But it is even more difficult to believe that this is so seldom mentioned in our gatherings and church services. More Christians know the names of their favorite actors than their fellow believers who are in prison.”

He continues, “With every trip something in my heart breaks as I hear the echoes of suffering:

I remember the echoes of an Egyptian mother as she shared how her young boy was stuck in a haystack because she refused to deny Jesus.

I remember the sounds of weeping as fellow students in Indonesia shared how Sariman, their co-student, was hacked to death.

I remember the cries of anguish as we walked from church to church that was burned to the ground on the island of Lombok.

I remember the tears of Rebecca in Iran as she showed the picture of her father who was stabbed to death for sharing the gospel.

I remember the voice of Pastor Daniel in Vietnam as he shared how he was chained to the ground for six months.

I remember the fear of Grace from Sudan as she shared how her church was attacked and her friend was shot through the head.

Oh, I remember the cries of Caleb in Eritrea as he shared with tears how two dear friends were executed in front of him because of their faith.

And I remember the tears of Joy in the southern Philippines as she shared how her fiancé was shot to death in their church in Mindanao.

But, most all, I remember the deafening sounds of silence every time I return home.

RESPONSE

How can I be silent today? How can I not speak on behalf of those who suffer? How can I desert those that belong to the same body that I belong to and who desperately need the encouragement of my intervention?.