In sixth grade, I participated in a debate in which I attempted to convince my fellow classmates that we never landed on the moon.
It was the first time I used the Internet to research, and my partner and I found a treasure trove of information. We couldn’t believe it. It was so obvious. The U.S. clearly faked the moon landing in 1969 to trick the Soviet Union that we had superior rocket technology.
On the day of the debate, we exceeded our allotted 30-minute timeslot by more than an hour. After the debate, we held a poll. My partner and I convinced 75% of our classmates that the 1969 moon landing was faked by the government.
I’m sure we made our science teacher proud.
In the words of the Apostle Paul, as I grew older I “did away with childish things.” And that includes my childhood belief that we didn’t land on the moon.
I learned a lot from my sixth-grade debate experience. But I didn’t expect to find the experience of convincing a bunch of sixth graders of a crazy theory so relevant to what we’re experiencing today with full-grown adults.
Especially adults who claim to be followers of Jesus and people of “The Truth.”
During Barack Obama’s presidency, it was fellow Christians claiming online (and sometimes from the pulpit) that Obama was a secret Muslim and the country was headed for mandatory Sharia Law (despite the fact that less than 1% of the U.S. population identifies as Muslim).
After the Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 26 people (most of them children), I was shocked at the number of Christian friends who posted videos claiming the attack was a staged “false flag” operation led by the liberal government.
During the 2016 Presidential Election, my blog’s inbox was flooded with emails from concerned Christians asking me to look into Hillary Clinton’s supposed ties to a pedophile sex ring run out of a Washington D.C. pizzeria. And after DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered, it was my Christian followers sharing links to conspiracy theories – even after Fox News retracted their original story.
And, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 Presidential campaign in full swing, the amount of Christians posting and sharing conspiracy theory videos has attained critical mass.
For many of us, it can be demoralizing to watch beloved friends, family members, and mentors fall deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of convoluted government plots and paranoid speculation.
However, rather than attempt to debunk the plethora of conspiracy theories at play (a nigh-impossible task), it’d probably be more helpful to understand why we’re so enamored with them in the first place.
Why We All Love a Good Conspiracy Theory
Okay, so let’s get this out of the way:
Our government sometimes does shady things and gets caught (like bringing Nazi scientists into the U.S. after World War II and lying about the presence of WMDs in Iraq). Pharmaceutical companies price gouge medications. Powerful people silence victims of sexual assault and abuse. Sex trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors really happens. Foreign governments are attempting to sow discord in the U.S. through social media. Systemic injustices and cultural prejudices hamper some people’s ability to succeed in our society.
These are not the “conspiracy theories” I’m talking about.
I’m also not talking about partisan differences of opinion. Left-leaning people will always watch and read left-leaning news, and right-leaning people will always watch and read right-leaning news. And that’s okay. Our republic is built upon the salient fact that people will (and should) disagree.
And, while most conspiracy theories are driven by partisan agendas, they’re not one and the same. You can have a right- or left-leaning perspective on current events and not be guilty of spreading unfounded conspiracy theories – this is an important distinction to make. (And, it should be noted, while my exposure to conspiracy theories is conditional upon my social environment – conservative and evangelical – liberal democrats have their own pet conspiracy theories).
Plots, scandals, collusions, and cover-ups do occur in business and politics – just rarely on the scale as imagined by conspiracy theorists. For the sake of my argument, by conspiracy theory I mean, the assumption that “a well-organized effort initiated by an elite group of powerful men and women secretly working toward a singular goal or vision that often involves collaboration between government agencies and the media.”
I’m talking about conspiracy theories related to false flag attacks, Deep State, Illuminati, Freemasons, QAnon, Flat Earth, shadow government, or any other belief system that hinges on the assumption that much of our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places by a select few individuals.
Based on my research, there are three primary reasons all people are attracted to these types of conspiracy theories. (I’ll address my fellow Christian brothers and sisters in the final section).
#1: Conspiracy Theories Make Us Feel Special.
In a sense, most conspiracy theories aren’t much different than the “mystery cults” the apostle Paul had to contend with at the city of Ephesus. Mystery cults were very common in Ancient Rome, and they attracted followers by promising to reveal the “mysteries of the universe” to those who joined.
This was a very seductive hook. And it’s one of the reasons conspiracy theories are more likely to spread among people with lower levels of education. But that doesn’t mean people who are higher educated are immune to their allure. Conspiracy theories are just as likely to spread among people with radical political ideologies.
In The Death of Expertise, Tom Nichols writes,
“[Conspiracy] theories also appeal to a strong streak of narcissism: there are people who would choose to believe in complicated nonsense rather than accept that their own circumstances are incomprehensible, the result of issues beyond their intellectual capacity to understand, or even their own fault.”
In other words: “The masses have been fooled by the media and/or government, but I’m special and different, and I know the truth!”
While narcissism isn’t a motivator for all conspiracy theorists, it does explain why some people have such a hard time letting go of a conspiracy theory – even when confronted with incontrovertible proof their beliefs are wrong.
And, this is also why challenging someone’s belief in a conspiracy theory is often interpreted by that person as a personal attack. No one wants to admit they’ve been fooled. And once you sacrificed your reputation and social capital for the sake of a conspiracy (like posting something on Facebook), it becomes harder for your ego to disengage from the illusion.
And, perhaps more damaging, conspiracy theories gradually become self-isolating echo chambers. If you ever argued with someone peddling a conspiracy theory, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
(As The Wall Street Journal‘s Blue Feed, Red Feed visual experiment brilliantly illustrates, many of us already inhabit ideological echo chambers on social media. And when the people we follow on Twitter and Facebook all begin peddling the same conspiracy theory, we’ll often adopt the belief to not feel out of the loop – thus contributing to a feedback loop of misinformation and deception).
When people attach their belief in a conspiracy theory to their ego, it can be nearly impossible to convince them that they’re wrong. Every piece of contrarian evidence you present to a friend or family member simply becomes part of the conspiracy and expands the scope of the deception.
That’s what “They” want you to believe. If you just did some research, you’d find The Truth. All your sources are just part of the Cover-Up. You actually believe those “fact-checking” websites? I wish you’d open your eyes and not be such a sheep.
It’s an insidious bit of circular logic that not only creates a criticism-proof belief system, but it also makes a twisted sort of sense. The lack of hard evidence for a conspiracy theory becomes proof that the conspiracy theory is everywhere, while any “research” conducted by a conspiracy theorist to obtain evidence of a conspiracy theory leads to the exact same conclusion.
Conspiracy theories are self-perpetuating rationalization machines. They eat facts, distort reality, and destroy relationships. And, by the time someone realizes they’re in too deep, it’s often too late to salvage a reality-based worldview (or the relationships of the people they isolated in the process).
#2: Conspiracy Theories Help Us Make Sense of a Chaotic and Complicated World.
The term “Black Swan” was popularized by statistician Nassim Taleb and refers to “high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.”
Historical examples of Black Swan events include the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 1918 Influenza pandemic, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Fukushima nuclear accident, and the fall of the Lehman Brothers in 2008.
Black Swan events are incredibly fertile ground for conspiracy theorists. When the unexpected occurs, there’s always an initial vacuum of precedent and context as we try to make sense of how and why something happened. Black Swans are equalizers; they dumbfound experts and laypersons alike.
And catastrophic events are inherently traumatizing. They interrupt our routine and force us to change the way we view the world.
In an interview with NPR on conspiracy theories, Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said,
“We as human beings do not like unanswered moral questions. We want to know who did it. We want to know how it was done. We’re looking for a pattern. Our intelligence, given to us by God, is a pattern-seeking intelligence.”
Our ability to discern patterns helps us construct internal narratives that give our lives meaning and make sense of the world around us. Conspiracy theories hijack that ability by linking loosely-connected events into a semi-coherent narrative (usually through the assistance of a well-edited YouTube video).
Of course, Black Swan events aren’t really random. Everything that happens in the universe is a result of a cause-and-effect relationship. Nothing really occurs spontaneously. It’s just that sometimes, the real-world explanation of a catastrophic event isn’t very emotionally satisfying. A big effect needs a big cause, right? Shouldn’t dramatic events require dramatic explanations?
No.
Sometimes all it takes to change the world is a single deranged individual with access to a rifle and a decent perch. Or a religious extremist who exploits an overlooked security flaw in airport security. Or a bat that urinates on the wrong animal in an open-air market in China.
In The Death of Expertise, Tom Nichols writes,
“Conspiracy theories are also a way for people to give context and meaning to events that frighten them. Without a coherent explanation for why terrible things happen to innocent people, they would have to accept such occurrences as nothing more than the random cruelty either of an uncaring universe or an incomprehensible deity.”
We don’t like random. We don’t like chaos. We don’t like ambiguity. And we don’t like living under the realization that we’re at the mercy of forces outside of our control that we don’t understand or can’t comprehend.
Or, in the words of Christian writer D.L. Mayfield,
“People believe conspiracy theories because it is psychologically easier to believe a singular and unlikely narrative rather than engage in a hard and complicated reality where your own long-term participation is needed.”
Instead of accepting reality, we construct elaborate fantasy worlds to process our cultural and existential anxieties. The President was killed by the mafia and CIA. The terrorist attack was allowed to happen to help justify a war in the Middle East. The school shooting was faked by the government so they can take our guns away. The virus is a ploy by the Deep State to take away our rights.
In a weird way, the idea of a secret cabal of powerful men and women pulling the strings on international events (like assassinations, pandemics, terrorist attacks, world wars, etc.) is somewhat comforting because at least it implies someone is in control of all this madness.
So, when someone posts a conspiracy theory video on social media with the message, “Don’t give in to fear! Stay informed!“, they’re most likely writing to themselves. You’re watching someone publicly process their anxieties and insecurities in real-time by latching onto an explanation that places themselves “in the know” of a secret plot they want other people to know they also know about.
This is doubly ironic because their conspiracy theory’s far-reaching implications are often far more frightening than the event the conspiracy theory is attempting to explain.
And this doesn’t even begin to tackle the absolutely lazy nature of most conspiracy theories and videos that go viral on the Internet. In most cases, all you need to do to gain traction on social media is post dubious information, say “The mainstream media won’t report this!” and completely ignore any sort of follow-up to confirm if the information turned out to be true or not.
Note: Nassim Taleb considers the COVID-19 pandemic a “White Swan” – an event that would eventually take place with great certainty given the innumerable warnings of a global pandemic by public health experts and epidemiologists for years. In a twist that should surprise no one, conspiracy theorists have actually rolled those warnings and preparation plans into proof that a conspiracy exists. Like I said, maddening.
#3: Conspiracy Theories Make Our Reality Seem More Exciting.
Everyone loves a good conspiracy thriller. The idea of a lone “agent of truth” against a diabolic enemy makes for great entertainment. But real-life conspiracies are rarely that exciting.
For example, Watergate. Probably the most well-known conspiracy in American history (the word “Watergate” is basically synonymous with “political scandal”), the Watergate scandal led to the resignation of a sitting U.S. President.
But, compared to the pyrotechnic-filled exploits of James Bond or Jason Bourne, the Watergate scandal is a downright snoozefest. I mean right now, without Googling, would you be able to tell me what the Watergate Hotel scandal was actually about?
The U.S. Government isn’t exactly known to be a well-oiled and efficient machine. And, yet, so many conspiracy theories hinge on the unbelievable assumption that hundreds – if not thousands – of people are able to work together in harmony to accomplish a singular goal for decades and keep it a secret.
Think about the bureaucratic inefficiencies, petty drama, and divided loyalties at your own workplace. Do you really think the U.S. Government is any better?
The people most likely to believe the government is too incompetent to be trusted are often the people most likely to believe the government also has the ability to secretly orchestrate massive operations under the noses of most Americans.
Government bureaucracy is boring. Conspiracy theories are ridiculously entertaining. If you don’t believe me, do a deep dive into the beliefs of Flat Earthers, 9/11 Truthers, and QAnon followers. They’re intoxicatingly addictive.
Connecting the dots, decoding secret messages in emails or tweets, and assembling “pieces of the puzzle” into a semi-coherent narrative can take the form of a live-action role-playing game or an internet scavenger hunt for adults.
In a modern world largely devoid of danger and threat, conspiracy theories help bring purpose and urgency to the mundanity of our lives — which may explain why they spread so quickly among lifestyle bloggers, Instagram influencers, and the “wellness” community.
And, because conspiracy theories tend to cross-pollinate, it doesn’t take long for someone to become completely entrenched in a conspiratorial worldview.
In a Relevant Magazine article titled “Why Do So Many Christians Believe Conspiracy Theories?“, Jessica Stephens writes,
“Experts believe our tendency to fall into the trap of confirmation bias can lead some people to slip into a rabbit hole of conspiracies. The problem is especially prominent in the internet era, where people can find information that confirms whatever value they hold—and ignore any information that does not.”
Every conspiracy theory is a gateway drug to an even more ludicrous and far-reaching conspiracy theory. Once you believe the government is powerful enough to stage a fake mass shooting with “crisis actors,” it doesn’t take much of a leap to convince yourself they can also manufacture a virus scare to crash the U.S. economy (or vice versa).
In an interview for Vox, psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen said,
“The best predictor of believing in one conspiracy theory is believing in another. Once they firmly start to believe in one specific conspiracy theory, it opens the door to many others. Because then people start thinking, “Hey, there may be a lot more going on behind the scenes that I don’t know. What else is there?”
However, if you were to construct the “perfect” conspiracy theory, you couldn’t do much better than believing there’s a secret department at the Pentagon that’s sole job is to spread conspiracy theories to make people believe the government is competent enough to pull off a conspiracy.
The Christian Problem
Christians, we have to do better.
Christians are repeatedly pandered to by far-right conspiracy theory websites. Liberal “info-tainment” bounces from one Trump-related outrage to the next with reckless abandon. Real-world social ills are capitalized upon and transformed into vapid social justice “slacktivism” campaigns. Russian trolls targeted us during the 2016 Presidential Election with memes and clickbait articles.
In response to the surge of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, Saddleback Church in California and The Humanitarian Disaster Institute had to band together to create a resource for pastors to quell the spread of misinformation in their congregations.
And after renowned pastor Ed Stetzer wrote an article for Christianity Today calling for Christians to avoid posting conspiracy theories about COVID-19, the Christian publication had to amend the original article with a note commenting on the flood of vitriol the article received.
Of the seven things the Lord finds detestable mentioned in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, “a lying tongue,” “a false witness who pours out lies,” and “a person who stirs conflict in the community” are included in the list.
No one is immune from conspiratorial thinking, but Christians have a bit more to lose from falling for conspiracy theories than the average person. And I think there a few additional reasons Christians may be susceptible to unhealthy paranoid skepticism.
Maybe it’s because, from a young age, many of us were taught the “scientific establishment” was out to destroy our belief in the Bible by disregarding Creationism and promoting the “theory” of evolution. We were primed from the beginning to adopt an implausible conspiratorial mindset regarding science, logic, and reason, and now we can’t shake it.
Or maybe so many of us were convinced by the Left Behind books and a manufactured intepretation of Biblical prophecy that a satanic one-world government was on the horizon that we had the ability to “decode” clues in the current events that predict the apocalypse.
Or maybe because we’ve already been conditioned by our own belief system that there exists a hidden spiritual reality that making the leap to a hidden “shadow government” isn’t all that big of a deal.
Of course, not all Christians are conspiracy theorists (and those that are aren’t all to the extent I’ve explored above). But there are enough Christian conspiracy theorists doing enough damage that other Christians shouldn’t feel afraid to call them out. We need to hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard of objective truth.
And it’s important to note that a lot of Christians share conspiracy theories out of good faith. They believe they’re sharing the truth. But most conspiracy theories are rotten at the core. It’s obvious they’re rooted in fear, insecurity, and loneliness. And they’re often designed to give us more reasons to loathe our ideological enemies.
In an article for Christianity Today, Andrew McDonald, Associate Director of the Billy Graham Institute, writes,
“Conspiracy theories play upon our fear by supplying a more powerful emotion: rage. Fear can so quickly morph into anger because it provides an object: they are to blame, they caused this, they deserve retribution.”
Conspiracy theories speak to our desire to be a part of a story bigger than ourselves. And what blows my mind is that Christians should already believe that to be true. Christians shouldn’t need to buy into conspiracy theories to feel special, or to make sense of the world, or to make their lives feel more exciting.
But we’re so enraptured with conspiracy theories, I question if we believe serving the Creator God of the Universe is really enough.
In an article for Christian Today, pastor Ed Stetzer writes,
“If there was ever a group of people that should care about the truth, it should be the people who believe ‘the truth sets you free.’ Integrity should matter for Christians, but too often it does not…Proverbs 28:18 explains, ‘The one who lives with integrity will be helped, but one who distorts right and wrong will suddenly fall.’“
I’m not suggesting Christians should believe everything the government says.
Not by a long shot.
To the contrary, we need to learn to differentiate between government officials and public policy experts. They’re rarely one and the same. Elected officials will often act in opposition to the advice of public policy experts if they believe it’ll hurt their chances of re-election.
I’m also not implying that Christians should believe everything the media says (though, it should be noted, that when people use the term “the media” in a derogatory fashion what they’re really referring to is “media outlets that don’t share my partisan worldview”). I’ve written extensively on media bias and outrage culture.
But it is possible to make smarter media choices.
This is not to say we shouldn’t be skeptical. By all means, we should ask questions. But we also need to be skeptical of whom we seek answers (and our own motives for seeking alternative explanations). There’s a stark difference between “questioning the narrative” and peddling misleading theories as truth just because it’s different than what the “mainstream media” is reporting – especially if the information you’re sharing comes from a Mommy Blog or Instagram influencer’s story.
Be watchful and be vigilant and be responsible. Clicking ‘Share’ or ‘Forward’ may not require much effort on your part, but it could have serious ramifications down the line.
The spread of misinformation is an issue we all need to confront – no matter our political persuasion, religious affiliation, or age demographic. If the online sphere is our new battleground then truthful information should be our weapon of choice.
Because conspiracy theories aren’t harmless.
To this day, conspiracy theorists still harass the families of the first-grade children who died in the Sandy Hook school shooting. In December 2017, a man opened fire in a D.C. pizzeria with an assault rifle because he was convinced it was filled with trafficked children as a result of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. In October 2018, a man mailed pipe bombs to people named in a prominent far-right conspiracy. And downplaying a virus by posting an easily debunked “Plandemic” conspiracy video puts real people at risk. And you’re spitting in the faces of healthcare workers risking their lives and the lives of their families.
But, on a more mundane level, posting and endorsing conspiracy theories makes Christians look like idiots. And it reinforces the public perception that Christians will fall for anything while seriously putting the object of our faith into question by outsiders who want nothing to do with our fear-and-hatred based worldview.
In his first letter to the church in Thessalonica, the apostle Paul wrote, “Don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted by evil” (The Message).
If you don’t have the time nor patience to fact-check an article or video, you have no business sharing it. Because you’re bearing false witness. Even if you think you’re making a difference, you’re deceiving other people. You’re harming your witness and the witness of your community.
Or, in the words of pastor Ed Stetzer,
“If you still insist on spreading such misinformation, would you please consider taking Christian off your bio so the rest of us don’t have to share in the embarrassment?“
Addendum: How to Not Be Fooled by a Conspiracy Theory
- Remember Occam’s Razor: “Entities should not be multiplied without necessity,” which is often paraphrased as “The simplest solution is often the right one.” Don’t try to overcomplicate your perception of reality by falling for irrationally convoluted explanations of unexpected events. Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
- Read boring news. Sometimes all it takes to convince someone of an inane conspiracy theory is a well-edited YouTube video, a pretty website, or aesthetically-curated Instagram profile. And most mainstream news is sensationalized garbage designed to generate ad revenue through clicks. In our home, we don’t watch or read network news (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, etc). While not perfect, outlets like The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and The Economist are stellar because their articles are long, well-researched, and not interested in entertainment. Also, AllSides.com is a great place to get a breakdown of how different political ideologies are reporting on current events. (And check out Mark Manson’s fascinating article, “Why You Should Quit the News.”)
- If you’re seeing the same video pop up over and over again on your social media feed, wait a couple of days before interacting with it. A lot of conspiracy theories spread quickly because they appeal to our vain desire to be “the first” to break the news to our friends and followers. If you stumble across something incredibly alarming and inflammatory online, it’s never a bad idea to wait until more information comes to light (or for the fact-checking websites to catch up to it).
- And, before sharing something, ask yourself: Does this worldview diminish or ignore other people’s real suffering? If the answer is yes, you probably shouldn’t share or post it.
Articles
How to Keep Conspiracy Theories From Ruining Your Time With Your Family
The Women Making Conspiracy Theories Beautiful
How to Spot a Conspiracy Theory When You See One
Conspiracy Theories, Engaging Online, and Wisdom
QAnon is More Important Than You Think
Christians Are Not Immune to Conspiracy Theories
How to Have Hard Conversations (And Maybe Save the World)
Conspiracy Theories Are Dangerous – Here’s How to Crush Them
Get Ready for a Vaccine Information War
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
On Christians Spreading Corona Conspiracies: Gullibility Is Not a Spiritual Gift
The Dark Allure of Conspiracy Theories
Why Do So Many Christians Believe Conspiracy Theories?
The Coronavirus Conspiracy Boom
Why People Cling to Conspiracies Like “Plandemic”
Fact-Checking Sites: Politifact, Snopes, and FactCheck.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
Instrument of Mercy 
a little nitpicking, but the sentence “Pharmaceutical companies price gauge medications” I think should use “gouge” not gauge.
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Great catch! Corrected! Thank you!
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Joe, do you believe Trump colluded with Russia? If you believe in collusion? On what basis did you believe it? If you voted democratic in the last election how do you reconcile your faith with the fact that Hillary Clinton and the entire democratic party push abortion at every turn. That is not conspiracy but fact.
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What is a progressive Christian? I’ve searched scripture and can’t find that term anywhere? Is that a Christian who believes in liberal policies like abortion, lgbtqai+ agendas, etc. If so how do you reconcile that with the words of Jesus. In your opinion would Jesus think abortion is wrong or right?
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What you are talking about is the combined expressions of both the anchoring bias and confirmation bias. If I may be so bold is it fair to say you have lived most if not all of your life in the states. To be true, I tend to agree with you regarding the plethora of such theories in churches today. Do you remember Y2K ? I know of churches that stocked their basements with weapons and food. They where prepared for a siege.
It does cut both ways as the Fergueson events showed us that the left can just as easily fall for a narrative that fits their bias. The DOJ report on Officer Wilson cleared him of any crime and the report itself was reviewed and signed off on by Eric Holder. Yet still today people believe Mr. Brown had his hands up and was yelling “Don’t Shoot” We now know that he was attacking the officer and that Mr. Brown initiated the attack. Still such an idea even 6 years later does not fit the version we want to be true so therefore it must not be true our subconsciousness dictates.
So why would i presume you are mainly raised in the US ? Because overseas particularity in parts of the Middle East and Africa conspiracy theories are more than a cottage industry. They can be seen over there as more truthful than the actual truth as they can here, but the level of them is truly frightening. Aids is believed to have been created by the US to rid the world of colored people, but contact with white women kills the virus because that is how the US designed it. “Therefore, one needs to rape a white person to be cured.” I was stunned the first time I heard this theory mostly because it came from a Doctor educated in England before returning to South Africa. However, I eventually came to accept this was a real belief among many of the Zulu I still know today.
There are those that claim the Queen of England is a descended of the royal family of Israel King David and that the British Royal thrown is supposed to rule the world as an answer to Biblical prophecy. The whole idea that “lost tribes of Israel” lived in the American Southwest and the evidence is there but for the efforts of archaeologists to hide it is a key concept in the Mormon church. The entire church is largely based on this conspiracy theory.
The assumption that black people are shot and or killed at a disproportionate rate by police is gospel truth to most of us. The Harvard study that disproved or at least strongly questioned this assumption was so controversial the African American well regarded liberal Professor re-titled his work to focus more on the abuse of non-lethal force by the police rather than the data that undermined the assumption regarding the use of deadly force. His study actually concluded that whites not black people are more likely to be disproportionately the target of violent police force.
To truly grasp the nature of some overseas regarding conspiracy theories consi der even now that China is telling its people COVID was a US bio weapon that escaped out lab or was released as a test. This is not coming from some dude in his mother’s basement in Beijing. High ranking government officials are openly making these claims.
Francis Shaffer wrote repeatedly about living in a world of many truths. He repeatedly challenged his followers to hold on to the real truth and by that he meant the truth of Christ. He did not want them drinking bleach because some reporter told them a President suggest it would cleanse their soul, and neither did he want us arming ourselves, filling our bathtubs with water, and hiding out on New Years 1999 just because our computers could not figure out what year it might be in 5 minutes. Shaffer wanted us to be like Christ who taught us to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. (Matt. 10:16)
I think you where a little unbalanced and hard on the right wing Christians. I would not say it was overly aggressive, but your criticism of the more progressive Christians was less direct. We all have anchoring and conformation bias. It is how we are wired. We are all equal in our bias.
Click to access w22399.pdf
DOJ report referenced above: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/chinas-covid-19-conspiracy-theories/609772/
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There’s another reason why conspiracy theories are so popular. They let us off the hook. We can say and do or not say and do anything we want because it doesn’t matter because the whole game is rigged by these few powerful individuals and we are helpless and ineffectual to any outcome. These conspiracy theories allow people a whole host of justifications for any number of actions or behaviours or attitudes because of the larger powers playing above our heads.
Don’t vote? You’re excused because the whole system is already determined by the Illuminati. Vote for the guy you know is a total bastard, but you don’t care because it keeps your identity whole? What does it matter? The Freemasons already have thier pick in. Don’t want to wear a mask or stay inside? Then don’t. It doesn’t matter who else I risk for my little “freedom” because the disease is a media engineered hoax so that Bill Gates can gobble up world power.
People can, and do, become the most immature selfish assholes they want to be and they justify it because nothing matters in a world controlled by the evil forces of (your conspiracy theory of the minute here).
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You have some good points however your tone, much like my brother-in-law’s who posted this, is quite condescending. You also contradict yourself quite a bit.
Most alarmingly though, you are perfectly fine with outright censorship and the deletion of videos/opinions you don’t agree with.
You mention the CA doctors (you tube) had something monetary to gain yet fail to see the glaring irony in the fact that Bill Gates has directly stated that the “world” will need at least 14 billion of his vaccines to eradicate the virus. Perhaps something to gain ?
As a Christian, I first seek Christ who is the Truth, the Life and the Way. I have a duty to protect myself and my family by seeking truth always. This means questioning any narrative provided.
However these days even the most basic questions re: any narrative brands one as a so-called conspiracy theorist.
Jesus Christ preached the most basic although profound truths and we all know what happened there. To the Sanhedrin, the oh so wise, he was nothing more than a conspirator. And all he did was question the most basic foundations of the law.
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Bill Gates doesn’t sell vaccines. You are precisely the target of this article.
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Joe, I’m eagerly reading your post to understand my dear friends who fall into this category. It is just what I needed today.
Like Robmille, this is a bit nitpicking, but I think you want “their” in the following sentence. “While narcissism isn’t a motivator for all conspiracy theorists, it does explain why some people have such a hard time letting go of a conspiracy theory – even when confronted with incontrovertible proof that they’re beliefs are wrong.”
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Thank you so much! We’re all (including blogs) a work in progress!
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One minor correction. Richard Nixon was never impeached as a result of the Watergate scandal. He resigned as president after Republican leaders in Congress told Nixon that the votes were there in the House to pass articles of impeachment and that the necessary 2/3 of the members were prepared to vote for his removal from office after a Senate trial. It’s a common misconception. Otherwise, great article.
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Corrected! Thank you!
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The worst thing to happen in recent years is fake news. Most people do not have a news source that can be trusted. Therefore, they are left to try and make sense of what’s out there. Consequently, they travel the path of least resistance and hunker down with the familiar; what makes them feel comfortable and as safe as possible. The second worst development is marketing and selling fear. In regards to fact checking, the assumption is that the fact checkers are unbiased in their fact checking. Of the 30 or so fact checking agencies partnered with Facebook not one made the list of most reliable fact checking sources. Snopes left last year when VP. and founder Vinny Green has reservations with the platform making decisions regarding fact checking. Facebook had an agenda and ideology which leans left. Ed Stetzer acts as if everyone trying to figure it what’s truth is maliciously spreading misinformation. Christians are increasingly being condemned all over the world. Apparently he has a monopoly on what is and what isn’t misinformation. Was I spreading misinformation when I stated emphatically that Lt. General Flynn was innocent; that Adam Scfhiff was spreading lies. According to Ed two days ago I qualified as a purveyor of misinformation. Today, all bets are off. Truth is, neither I nor him know what is or isn’t misinformation. We have our opinions and opinions aren’t necessarily fact. Facts are elusive when journalists have agendas and the truth is watered down to align with the MSM’s ideology. I assume, before I share anything lest I have my faith questioned, I should check in with Ed so I know what’s truth and what’s fiction.
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Robert Chenault…Exactly my thoughts👍👍👍
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You were spreading misinformation about LtGeneral Flynn being innocent. He twice stated in open court that he was guilty. His admissions are part of the legal record.
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You were spreading misinformation about Lt. General Flynn. He twice stated in open court that he was guilty of lying. That is part of the official record.
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I dont know where the idea that Facebook leans left comes in. Mark Zuckerberg spent millions on the Trump inauguration. Facebook was one of the primary sources of misinformation by Russian operatives in the 2016 elections.
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Joe I hate the atmosphere surrounding these conspiracies. There are some crazy conspiracies out there. One thing I would like to mention in your article is a friend of yours in 2016 was talking about Hillary Clinton and a pedophilia ring. It’s kind of weird that here for years later we’ve got Jeffrey Epstein put in jail for the very same reason. Not seeing Hillary was directly tied, but so many upper echelon society members were definitely rubbing elbows. It’s hard to sort out all of the garbage and what theories actually hold water.
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Interesting article. Would you consider Trump’s election a Black Swan event then? That was what I thought as I was reading that definition.
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Determining what constitutes a Black Swan event is ridiculously complicated, and I’m not sure I fully understand the criteria. However, in 2016, Nassim Taleb (the man who coined the term) said he would not consider Trump’s election a Black Swan. Here’s a link to an interview where he explains why: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nassim-taleb-donald-trumps-election-win-was-no-black-swan-191857463.html
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I think it’s important to note that someone can claim to be a Christian and show rather convincingly by their life/lifestyle that they are anything but. Paul admonished the Corinthians to “examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith,” and though we can’t necessarily discern from the outside whether or not a person is truly saved, whenever a person is – or at least seems to be – much more interested in the American political scene than they are about the Great Commission, I find myself wondering. I have watched people who purport to be Christians wrap an American flag around the cross of Christ; nothing could be more deplorable, and it raises a whole set of red flags for me. I guess what I’m saying is that maybe the article could take a step back and ask your readers where their treasure lies, in being “clothed in white garments”, or what’s cloaked in the White House?
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Correction: Barack Obama’s first name misspelled without the “c”
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Corrected! Thank you!
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Who cares if he misspelled something. We still understood the points he is making right? There is nothing wrong with questioning the world around us (conspiracy or whatever else you would like to call it) while placing your trust in the One constant. Being too proud to be perceived naive while seeking answers isn’t a healthy place to be either.
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I heard this on a podcast recently. It is spot-on and I believe answers why so many Christians latch onto clearly ridiculous conspiracy theories.
“Evangelicals are Republicans first, and Christians second.”
I’ll add that for far too many, Republicanism IS Christianity. And it’s been very destructive to my faith to watch people cheer a man who is pretty much the complete opposite of everything we were taught to be.
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I am afraid there is more truth in your statements than most evangelicals would admit. I walked down that road a ways myself, and something didn’t feel right. I finally realized that following Jesus is a different path than the ones trampled by the crowds. Following Jesus may intersect, parallel or even follow the paths other paths at some point, but it also will inevitably deviate from every other path. There is only one way, and it doesn’t go by a political affiliation.
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This is an excellent article but I think you should clarify what you mean by “the media.” What does “the media” include? Network news? Print news? All news outlets? Entertainment? Opinion?
The media is not a monolith. There are excellent sources and there are shoddy sources. Instead of lumping everything together, I like to encourage people to look for excellence. Excellence in news reporting includes accuracy, fact checking, attribution to sources, retraction when there are errors, and so on. The news sources with the highest integrity will still have an opinion page with opinions you may agree with and others you may disagree with. It’s important to note whether you are on the news page or the opinion page.
I am afraid that many Christians have become mentally lazy. They don’t want to do the work of figuring out what is accurate so they look for someone they trust to tell them what they ought to think. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians are gullible and trust people based on superficial qualities.
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It was said above that Watergate led to impeachment and resignation of a president. Untrue.. Nixon resigned SO THAT IMPEACHMENT WOULD NOT OCCUR. No impeachment did occur.
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Corrected! Thank you!
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Super helpful article! I shared it on FB (the den of iniquity) and many others have found it helpful as well. Thanks for writing!
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Sorry, but progressive and Christian are an oxymoron. They are not compatible.
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Agreed. Values must stay constant. If truth is defined as Gods word, don’t deviate to fit into the culture.
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That doesn’t necessarily mean that a position taken by a progressive isn’t, by definition, one that a Christian should take. We shouldn’t position ourselves in relation to progressiveness or conservatism, but only relation to Jesus, and him crucified. Any other focus will likely take us from the path of following Jesus.
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Wow. I’m appalled at the level of condescension, sanctimony, self-righteousness, and actual MISINFORMATION in this article! Truly disgusting and despicable. And NO, I am NOT a “conspiracy theorist”! You elite liberal “progressive Christians” are the problem, NOT supposed “conspiracy theorists” which is just one of your favorite insulting names to throw around for true conservative Christians!! SMH
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I felt that as well. Shame on anyone that places judgement on someone trying to investigate and understand the world around them. It should be through the filter of Christ and a personal journey. Social media posting without proper research is dangerous and I do believe it negatively impacts Christian credibility. One should ask themselves what is my motive behind the post before releasing it.
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Thanks so much for the article. It really resonates with what I’m seeing around me. I think a lot of Christians have fallen prey to a sense of victimhood that says “My problems are the result of malicious forces beyond myself; I may not be able to fix the problems but at least I know the secret truth.” This is all the more sad because we have a God who came to earth to be the victim of sin for us and rose in victory for us!
Also, correction: you wrote ” the Watergate scandal led to the impeachment and resignation of a sitting U.S. President.” which isn’t quite accurate. Nixon wasn’t impeached (because he resigned first though proceedings had started).
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The trouble with your analysis is your bias in baked in, as everyone else’s is, including mine. Everything is a conspiracy theory until it is proven one way or another. I am not interested in them because I don’t care who shot JFK at this point etc. The magazines you get your news from are way tilted and hardly unbiased news services. I would like to know who killed Seth Rich, who sent wikileaks Hillary’s emails, and who told the Military to stand down in Benghazi and why and why Comey sent his agents to set up Flynn…which he admitted to and everyone laughed, but the reported didn’t ask why??? The most obvious question….and when we don’t get answers to the most fundamental questions then theories boom. You won’t find anything near the truth is The Atlantic. They won’t even ask the question.
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This is a somewhat condescending article, however, I do agree that we need to be careful what we share if we cannot verify it’s veracity. I was eager to checkout the alternative news sources you listed, then sorely disappointed to find that the very first article I read was from an editorial standpoint and was complete opinion (not arguing whether it was a correct opinion). Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be any news sources that are strictly facts and leaves the reader/viewer to interpret and form their own opinions.
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Good article Joe! I posted this to my Facebook page and I’m already getting flak, but I’ve been trying get people to stop posting all this nonsense about the COVID-19 virus. Might as well try to kayak up a waterfall. 🙂
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We should get flack. Do you believe every word of the article? Do you feel it necessary to defend all of it now that your name is attached to it? There are typical valid points in any articles but that doesn’t mean we have to post it. You wanted to make a statement. You had to assume flack was coming. Now you need to sit in it. It states this in the article too. You now are feeling the ownership of the content of the article just like the conspiracy theory.
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Several thoughts on this.
1- There are WAY too many conspiracy theories perpetuated with confirmation bias. Totally agree.
2- it is not the Left Behind books that make Christians think there is a satanic One World government on the horizon. It’s the Bible that says that. Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation.
3- Having an agenda is the issue on both ‘sides’. EVERYTHING is editorialized. Nothing is just facts. As you stated, left will read and find articles and interviews to confirm their bias and the right will do the same. Most people dont even know that the Google algorithm contributes to this narrow minded mindset. If a conservative googles something (lets say, “Is Trump a Racist?”) the top results given to them will be different than the top results given to a liberal who Googles the same thing. It happened to a friend of mine and I back in 2012. We were both shocked. Because our historical internet searches were different, the algorithm gave us sites/articles etc contributing to confirmation bias. Having potentially antagonistic conversations with people who think differently than us is necessary. As you said, its ok to disagree and even necessary.
4- I realize this is a blog but to address/accuse Christians and not use biblical references for the why or better yet, the HOW to do better I find a little irresponsible. The only thing that has (or should have) complete authority for wisdom and guidance is His Word. Yes, we are to apply that wisdom and nothing wrong with using layman’s terms but the point should always be to drive people to the Word of God and Jesus. That is non-negotiable for anyone to be a professing follower of Christ.
5- and lastly, to not be a hypocrite myself, here is scripture confirming not everyone who claims to be a christian…is. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
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Excellent job at verbal sleight of hand to present a convincing argument about something for which you have absolutely no data. Your approach is fundamentally elitist in its nature whereby you attempt to very slyly shame people into thinking that if they have an opinion/outlook other than yours then they must be stupid, naive, or whatever. Some of your logical inconsistencies are blatantly obvious trying to connect dots that are in no way related – such as attributing to Christians as a group characteristics that show that you are nothing but a biased and prejudiced individual. Hidden underneath your very verbose approach is the attitude of “Why can’t you all just be as smart as me?” Arrogance is a kind word. Hubris is probably closer to reality. I’m going to circular file this where it belongs. But perhaps you should write an article about those who are so easily taken in by you. THAT might be interesting………..
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Whoo, boy. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Get over yourself, Nate. What Forrest says in his article in no way denigrates people, only calls into question how quickly some of us succumb to wacky conspiracy theories because of a lackadaisical relationship with the truth.
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Suck it up buttercup. Get over YOURself.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE TO THE VERY LONG ARTICLE. GOD DOES NOT WANT US TO KEEP OUR HEADS IN THE SAND WHILE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AND CHILDRENS LIVES ARE BEING DESTROYED.
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Well, you are just a big pot of joy!
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Yup. Calling it out for what it is.
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This phenomenon has been bugging me for a long time; rational, reasonable people I love falling for this stuff hook line and sinker. I’d be interested in a similar article that was less US-centric however – because this is an issue for Christians worldwide not just in the USA.
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Theistic belief is, by its very nature, NOT rational or reasonable. That’s why your loved ones are such easy marks for conspiracy theorists. They’ve been raised since birth to unquestioningly accept the biggest conspiracy theory of all- ie, an all-powerful, personal god.
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Reblogged this on Random Musings and Observations.
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Excellent article. With the amount of “information” nowadays out there it is very easy to proof a conspiracy theory or even then to disproof it. I also think a lot of us let our imagination run wild and like to immerse into fantasy stories. If I then “research” conspiracy theories do I “promote” it in a sense.
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Great article!!! I wish I had written it as it expresses my some of my thoughts over the last few days. One quick correction from a historian – Nixon wasn’t actually impeached. He resigned before impeachment processes could follow through.
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Corrected! Thank you!
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Well written and measured. I hadn’t thought of this from the Christian perspective you explore and I thank you for stretching my thoughts. I had already given up on trying to convince my conspiracy loving friends that they were on the right path, but understanding the reasons that people are attracted to them (even well educated people who ought to know better) is helpful. Thank you. One minor correction from someone who can tell you what happened at the Watergate Hotel, Nixon was not impeached. Articles were drawn up but never voted on. I would hate for a minor historical error to lead otherwise intelligent people to discard this whole piece based on that. Thank you for writing this. Unlike most everyone else in my social media feed these days, this is worth sharing.
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And my own correction. This should have said I have stopped trying to convince my friends they were on the WRONG path. Darn word prediction app on my phone did something strange there!
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Corrected! Thank you!
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Theories are assumptions based on data available at the time to form the theory. This applies to all theories regardless of labeling it “conspiracy” or not. How many such conspiracy theories were discussed in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments? There are so many “plots” to kill this person or that person, including Jesus, in the Bible. What is the difference between a “plot” and a “conspiracy theory”? It’s just a plot or a conspiracy theory until it becomes fact. Were the prophets conspiracy theorists? After all, their teachings were considered nonsense to the people of their time. Was Noah a conspiracy theorist? Were the apostles conspiracy theorists? Are current Christians conspiracy theorist because we believe the Bible and believe that Jesus is coming back? Do Christians easily fall for conspiracy theories that support the end time prophecies because we are “uneducated” or because we believe what is written in the Bible about future events? Could conspiracy theories just be a way in which Christians are trying to make sense of our current world in relation to our Biblical beliefs? Jesus clearly said to be aware of false teachers. Was He a conspiracy theorist?? As Christians it is our duty to question everything and everybody that doesn’t align with Biblical teachings….and rest in the fact that we know how the story ends. God wins. The end.
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American mainstream media is “left-leaning”? LOL. good joke.
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I think if you compare all mainstream media outlets side by side (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.), over 50% would most certainly be left-leaning. Not to say the sum of the left-leaning media reaches more viewers than the right-leaning, but that there are more left-leaning MAINSTREAM media outlets in quantity.
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Great article and insight. I don’t understand why the word Christian was used and not Evangelical, especially in the title. It drives me nuts when Evangelicals call themselves “Christians,” as if the non-Evangelical Christians are not Christians. I am a faithful Christian. But I most certainly am not an Evangelical. And yes, Christians can be progressive. Afterall, Jesus was very progressive.
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Great article and insight. I don’t understand why the word Christian was used and not Evangelical, especially in the title. It drives me nuts when Evangelicals call themselves “Christians,” as if the non-Evangelical Christians are not Christians. I am a faithful Christian. But I most certainly am not an Evangelical. And yes, Christians can be progressive. Afterall, Jesus was very progressive.
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Joe,
Great minds think alike. I send out a weekly letter of encouragement. This week the title was — Believe what you read, or read for what you believe?
The idea is some people read just the verses they want to prove their beliefs. Confirmation Bias with a spiritual twist. I used the example of the church group who knew the Lord was coming back in 1914. How did they know? To quote a song from VBS, “The Bible Told Them So.”
Send me your email, and I will forward it on to you. This is a wonderful article.
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Well written. Well researched. Well done.
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Wow it’s amazing how the author can just write this whole entire article without ever arguing for anything, but instead just stating things. Go take intro to philosophy bro.
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Kind of like what you just did, yeah?
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The answer is in the question. Because they ARE christian and have already fallen for the biggest , longest lasting conspiracy to date. It’s call religion. Fools …. that’s all. Just fools.
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Exactly!!
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Why so angry?
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Chip, from your perspective, what’s it like being enlightened in a world with 6 billion+ fools? Must be awful.
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Well written, well informed, and intelligent article. I loved it. Thank you very much for taking the time to write it.
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My only fear is that, in the fear of not being taken in, many Christians who rightly decry conspiracies, will willingly cling to the confirmation biases of their credentialed claims to “education” and thus swim unknowingly in an indoctrinated stream.
C.S.Lewis more fully captured this present day in, The Last Battle. Or, if you like, That Hideous Strength. The first story deals with the last manipulation, and the second story deals with the last of the manipulated: the need to be seen as, “in the know” in the, “inner circle” and, “intellectually advanced” to the point of incoherence and monstrosity. They are both the same story of humanity’s culmination in the flesh, and the inability to see what we don’t wish to see.
I note something else seated in the imagination of many Christians in the place where Christ should have preeminence, where praise and thanksgiving should be: there is a dire need to be seen as righteous by others before being seen and known by God. This signalling need is very strong and troubles me greatly. I don’t see much joy in salvation, nor kindness for Christ’s sake, but a lot of energy expended for rage at injustice, anger at past wrongs, and kind deeds paraded to redound to the doer and not the Heart of compassion.
I pray sincerely that I am mistaken; that I am an old fool clinging to aged-out concepts of Christian community, quiet sacrifices, and good deeds done in secret because we have Hope of an open reward elsewhere. Arriving at Truth is impossible without the personal pain of the Cross and the good news– out loud– of salvation in Christ. Disabuse me of my quaintness and yet I will remember and cling with sentimental ferocity to that one Hope, that one look at His face!
I think many Christians have arrived at this point in history without the necessary, ineffable beauty of His presence to keep us grounded in the True; to transform us with a Love that doesn’t walk away. Nothing else much matters, sounding gongs and all that.
May the Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.
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> The mainstream media has a left-leaning bias and is totally out of touch with the plights of most Americans.
I’m active in ministry, including prison and youth. I’m also a full-time newspaper editor/reporter/photographer on a two county beat.
(My hours have been cut back and a number of coworkers have been either furloughed or laid off during this time. Tell me about plight.)
Based upon its title I had hope for your essay, I really did. But I stopped reading at that line.
You are biased; you have a bias. Your reporting – however well meaning – can not be trusted.
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> The mainstream media has a left-leaning bias and is totally out of touch with the plights of most Americans.
I am active in ministry, including prison and youth ministries, and worship. I am a working editor/reporter/photographer across a two-county beat.
My job has been made more difficult in recent times, due to cut back in hours coupled with friends and colleagues being either laid off or furloughed – speaking of plight.
I stopped reading your essay at the above sentence because – obviously – you are part of the problem, Joe.
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Thank you for this. I feel that what you are saying is somewhat prophetic in this time as many people who call themselves by the name of Christ are tilting at windmills and straying from the greatest commandments: to love God with all of our hearts, MINDS and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I am not in a position to know exactly what the truth is about a lot of things that are happening, and neither are any of us. Even the people most in the know about some things, don’t know everything, and we shouldn’t think that they/we do. One thing we can know, though, and that is Christ and him crucified.
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Hello brother, I very openly read your post. I respect your stance and am encouraged to find someone standing for what they believe in. I do encourage you; however, to not buy into this sense of false peace. We live in a time where people are looking for unity and security. As someone well-versed biblically like yourself, I encourage you to look deeply into the signs of the time. What does Jesus say about the end times? Do not fall into the new category of modern Christianity. Do not be blinded by the god of this age. Good post, I would just argue that the “Putting childish ways behind me” includes being naive in believing that the government would never lie to you and that everything is as it seems.
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Cognitive dissonance is a real thing, and it stops people from wanting to believe the truth because it brings them into a place of fear or shock. With that said, your heart is right in writing this whole story. Yeah we can’t just right off and say because something is labeled a conspiracy that it is false and we should have nothing to do with it. Myself and many others included started to want to come to Jesus because of all of the satanic symbolism and influence that we continued to see throughout the media and Hollywood realizing how real satanism is and that we didn’t want to contribute to it but wanted to be on Gods side. Alastair Crowley the biggest satanist maybe ever was on the Sergeant peppers album of the Beatles. It is no conspiracy, people legit sell their souls to the devil. You can even look at Bill Gates as he partnered with a legitimate witch named marina who you can Google yourself, the stuff is very very real. Are there some things out there that are very far-fetched yes, are there some things that are so right in our face truthful that we have to just live in denial to not accept it ? Absolutely ! Is the human and child trafficking business really really big and many elite people who are involved in Satanism involved with it, absolutely yes it’s already been proven. Jeffrey Epstein flight logs confirming many a list wealthy billionaires goes to his pedo island ? The John podesta emails with code for human trafficking, and talking about sacrificing a chicken in the backyard to a false god from the Bible naked molech ? Yeah that was legitimately in the emails. Was the same witch lady named marina in John podestas emails emailing his brother to come over for spirit cooking, yes it’s true. The same woman who is close to lady gaga and jay z as well. Influencing the masses to glorify a sinful lifestyle.
The problem is you can’t preach this stuff from a pulpit and it shouldn’t be the main focus as a Christian which some unfortunately do that. We can’t also be more indulged with knowing this Info then we are with the word of God. Yet we can not just put our heads in the sand and remain ignorant to the devices of the enemy.
Brother to brother I got nothing but love for you and respect that you shared your heart on this topic, we can agree to disagree but I felt led to comment not in opposition and in hate but in contribution to the conversation that can agree to disagree but also show that their can be balance and that with the info above being true we can’t allow it to consume our reality more then the reality of Jesus . Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Eternal life isn’t knowing evil or what the devil is doing, eternal life is knowing God Himself !!!
God bless you bro
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Your comment on the ER physicians use of the erroneous 0.03% suggested there was a link demonstrating their financial incentive but it appears your links may have been mixed up or omitted. Can you share the link to that info?
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Here’s the Politifact link: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/may/07/facebook-posts/facebook-post-cites-doctors-widely-disputed-calcul/?fbclid=IwAR0YQvGPqWxNTvZfYCcm74RMJbqWfCj6U9nw_J6M7iRYtwN6lokEa-wElWo
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May I humbly suggest that Christianity itself has, for centuries, relied on confirmation bias and echo chambers to grow and persist. Just something to think about.
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Exactly!
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Some call it sharing truth.
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Quite literally all you have to do is replace “conspiracy” and “conspiracy theory” with “religion” and BAM! you’re freed from this cult. You’re so close, friend. Best to you.
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Exactly!
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Love to be enlightened Donna.
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Thank you Joe, excellent article.
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Complete liberal bullcrap. This jackass must think cnn reports the truth.
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I truly am sick of the belief that most media is left-leaning is simply is not factual. The left is not represented at all and them medium are right of actual center if we are realistic since the current right was the far far right 20-30 years ago. We now have open nazis in the mainstream republican party. Mainstream dems are what republicans used to be and progressives are what dems used to be and there is no representation for what was once the left of progressive. The whole country and most certainly the media has swung far to the right. The media so far that they will not even open question the president and do their jobs.
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I guess the big question would be is, How can you prove stuff like the film Pandemic is a lie too.
The needs to be data and proof from both sides of the arguments to come to the complete truth.
If it goes against the common narrative, the person is labeled a heretic, tin foiled hat wearing conspiracy theorist, but atleast examine what they are saying with an open mind and do the research to show your own self approval.
You wanna get labeled a heretic and conspiracy theorist, just challenge mainstream Christianity’s core beliefs: Sunday worship, Christmas, Easter, Dietary laws and a few more and you will be called every name in the book.
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“To be honest, I don’t know why evangelical Christians are so easily fooled by conspiracy theories.” ~ Joe Forrest
🙋♂️Let me try to take a crack at this one.
Well, it is probably mainly because when you’re raised your entire life to believe a fantastical ancient legend full of magic and adventure with no more evidence than, “Cuz this book that was written under a pen name says so and lots of other people we know also believe this,” you’re particularly easy to fool with any old bullshit that comes along and has absolutely zero evidence to support it.
Or am I the only one whose parents told them Harry Potter really happened? 😉
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Thank you. Complex subject to tackle. I have been almost drowning watching this nonsense go on while also dealing with a pandemic. And young adults are alienated from “organized religion” and an active faith by what they are seeing. They are not impressed.
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For a definition of a Progressive Christian see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Christianity. I am a conservative Christian. Definitely not the same thing.
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The author makes some good points in that we have to be careful to not automatically believe every theory that shows up. But if we automatically reject every so called conspiracy theory, then when actual events from the book of Revelation do start occurring, then we are likely to call them conspiracy theories also. It could be that the prophesies of the book of Revelation are indeed beginning.
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