#UnmuteYourself Day 10 - Fake News
(I was just too tired after work yesterday to write something. So I'm doing it before work today, because this is important to me.)
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As someone in the journalism field, boy oh boy do I have opinions about “fake news.” The things that are called “fake news” are just stories that the current administration doesn’t like. The things that are actually fake news are the things published on certain parts of Fox, and all of OANN, Breitbart and the like, which don’t present facts, don’t back up their claims with evidence, and bend over backwards to be fawning over the administration.
Some on the left have started using the term “fake news” to refer to such stories, and while I appreciate the sentiment I wish they wouldn’t. It’s conceding the framing the right uses, and controlling the framing of an issue is honestly at least 70% of the battle in swaying opinion.
In today’s Psalms reading, we see highlighted some specific dimensions of “fake news:” it is “against” someone and is “malicious”:
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations. (27:12)
I think those descriptors certainly apply to much of the “fake news,” both real and branded. The premise of the accusation of fake-ness is that it is meant to injure “the other side,” through painting them in a bad light, and that took precedence over the truth.
I am also struck by the phrasing of the second line, “false witnesses rise up against me.” “Do not bear false witness” is one of the Ten Commandments, after all. I’ve always heard it spoken of in the sense of, Don’t lie. Particularly, Don’t speak untruths about your neighbor. But, I am also thinking about how we use similar language in the phrase “Christian witness.” As in, we are to be faithful witnesses to Christ. I wonder if viewing our actions through the lens of a witness to Christ, and to not making that witness a false one, can help clarify things.
If you talk to non-Christians, many of them will describe Christians as: hypocrites, hateful, judgmental, arrogant. And you can see parts of our public witness which support those! I say “our,” because we are all one body of Christ, and more to the point, because often those voices are the loudest. We are preaching about loving our neighbor and respecting authority but are out here violating public health orders to pack into crowded worship spaces, potentially infecting our neighbors. We preach about loving our neighbor and serving the poor and the hungry but we don’t support government programs designed to do just that. We say that God is the only one to judge but we expect all the church members to dress a certain way, act a certain way, love a certain way or be given the cold shoulder. We scream about our celebrations of our holy days being oppressed or “canceled” by the state but say nothing during the Muslim or Jewish holy seasons that have also been affected. We accost people in public spaces asking invasive questions about that most intimate, personal of things: their relationship with God, because we are convinced we and we alone know how that should and must be structured.
What kind of witness are actions like these bearing? What do people learn about the Savior, about the Lord, through those actions? Do the see God as love, as pure deep unfathomable love, or do they see God the same way they see Christians: hypocritical, hateful, judgmental, arrogant?
That’s fake news, y’all. THAT is a false witness, against the very God of the universe. It is painting God in a bad light for those not already fully committed, and even for some who are committed. I’ve thought about leaving the church, and it wasn’t because of God but because of church folk, of Christians. It is injuring God (as much as human actions can do that. I think certainly, God's heart is hurt.)
We need to return to proclaiming the Good News, not this fake news. The Good News that Jesus died for all of us and all of our sins, that God is radical, fierce love for the entirety of creation without us having to do anything to earn it. As we prepare for the arrival of that love in flesh this Advent, I hope we can refocus on the Good News - the best news ever! - that that is, and cut some of the crap.
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As someone in the journalism field, boy oh boy do I have opinions about “fake news.” The things that are called “fake news” are just stories that the current administration doesn’t like. The things that are actually fake news are the things published on certain parts of Fox, and all of OANN, Breitbart and the like, which don’t present facts, don’t back up their claims with evidence, and bend over backwards to be fawning over the administration.
Some on the left have started using the term “fake news” to refer to such stories, and while I appreciate the sentiment I wish they wouldn’t. It’s conceding the framing the right uses, and controlling the framing of an issue is honestly at least 70% of the battle in swaying opinion.
In today’s Psalms reading, we see highlighted some specific dimensions of “fake news:” it is “against” someone and is “malicious”:
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
spouting malicious accusations. (27:12)
I think those descriptors certainly apply to much of the “fake news,” both real and branded. The premise of the accusation of fake-ness is that it is meant to injure “the other side,” through painting them in a bad light, and that took precedence over the truth.
I am also struck by the phrasing of the second line, “false witnesses rise up against me.” “Do not bear false witness” is one of the Ten Commandments, after all. I’ve always heard it spoken of in the sense of, Don’t lie. Particularly, Don’t speak untruths about your neighbor. But, I am also thinking about how we use similar language in the phrase “Christian witness.” As in, we are to be faithful witnesses to Christ. I wonder if viewing our actions through the lens of a witness to Christ, and to not making that witness a false one, can help clarify things.
If you talk to non-Christians, many of them will describe Christians as: hypocrites, hateful, judgmental, arrogant. And you can see parts of our public witness which support those! I say “our,” because we are all one body of Christ, and more to the point, because often those voices are the loudest. We are preaching about loving our neighbor and respecting authority but are out here violating public health orders to pack into crowded worship spaces, potentially infecting our neighbors. We preach about loving our neighbor and serving the poor and the hungry but we don’t support government programs designed to do just that. We say that God is the only one to judge but we expect all the church members to dress a certain way, act a certain way, love a certain way or be given the cold shoulder. We scream about our celebrations of our holy days being oppressed or “canceled” by the state but say nothing during the Muslim or Jewish holy seasons that have also been affected. We accost people in public spaces asking invasive questions about that most intimate, personal of things: their relationship with God, because we are convinced we and we alone know how that should and must be structured.
What kind of witness are actions like these bearing? What do people learn about the Savior, about the Lord, through those actions? Do the see God as love, as pure deep unfathomable love, or do they see God the same way they see Christians: hypocritical, hateful, judgmental, arrogant?
That’s fake news, y’all. THAT is a false witness, against the very God of the universe. It is painting God in a bad light for those not already fully committed, and even for some who are committed. I’ve thought about leaving the church, and it wasn’t because of God but because of church folk, of Christians. It is injuring God (as much as human actions can do that. I think certainly, God's heart is hurt.)
We need to return to proclaiming the Good News, not this fake news. The Good News that Jesus died for all of us and all of our sins, that God is radical, fierce love for the entirety of creation without us having to do anything to earn it. As we prepare for the arrival of that love in flesh this Advent, I hope we can refocus on the Good News - the best news ever! - that that is, and cut some of the crap.