I saw a post from Chris, a weather nerd friend, writing about the hurricane conspiracy theories that caused tension and disruption of aid in the wake of Helene in particular. Here's an excerpt:
Since much of the disinformation spread via social media these past few weeks was related to weather, I saw a lot of it. When it comes to meteorology and climatology, I know just enough to be able to recognize truth vs. conspiracy. So I spent more time than I should have, tracing back the conspiracy posts to their roots. Guess what? They all led back to bots, mostly foreign, who are succeeding mightily at frightening and dividing us. . .Make no mistake—the intent is exactly what the results show: an even more divided country that weakens our resolve, damages community, and makes us increasingly vulnerable to our enemies. And even though I personally fail at times, I remain convinced that love, truth, and respect ultimately conquer hate and fear.
I believe this topic speaks to community, principles, and even the way we put our faith into practice.
We are all too eager to believe the worst about others, eager to vilify them. Merriam-Webster says the antonyms of "vilify" include "honor, praise, and respect." Can we try more honor, praise, and respect? As Paul writes in Philippians 4:8-9 (NIV):
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
We wonder why we're feeling no peace these days. Paul's formula shows us that peace begins from within. It's our thinking that is messed up. Regardless of external circumstances (which Paul wrote about earlier in the chapter), if we focus on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy, then we will feel God's peace within us, and we will tend to share that peace in our speech and actions.
Regardless of your political viewpoint, I'm guessing you're feeling anxious these days. Uncertain. Fearful. I'm reading online headlines these days that are designed to trigger those feelings, even misleading readers at times, in order to get you to click. Pre-election coverage from all perspectives is built upon fear.
Join me in an attempt to stabilize ourselves by focusing on truth - and by that, I'm largely talking about God's truth - and focusing on excellent, wonderful people and things that we can honor, praise, and respect. Let's be clear: Paul didn't have his head in the sand. He was immersed in the badness of the physical world and the spiritual world and tried to counter it all by representing Christ. But near the end of his life, reflecting while imprisoned, Paul instructed us to focus on the good as a path to peace. We would do well to listen, learn, and implement his advice in our daily faith walk.
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