*Part I was posted on March 17 with same photo
Proverbs 3:13 (KVJ) “Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gets understanding.”
Philippians 4:7 (KJV) “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.”
My savvy 90+-year-old friends at assisted living, who are very wise, want to “get understanding” as Proverbs suggests. Lydia brought up her concerns about the source that her granddaughter uses for all her news. She encouraged her loved one to check with other sources for balance with Facebook, but doesn’t detect much interest.
Joy Reid (New York Times), a political news reporter, talks about similar concerns; she fears that if consumers believe only what agrees with their point of view, what makes them feel good, it leaves the consumer with a narrow version of what is truly happening.
We now hear the term “fake news”—information put out that is not backed up by facts. Often this is political or financial in nature to win one over to a certain agenda. It may just distort or alter something that is factual. Although the term and the action is a global phenomenon, it is not new. Think of the snake in the Garden of Eden trying to get Eve to eat the apple, as Pope Francis explains (The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2GcOVaX) or Hitler’s sugar coating of the Holocaust to come, even consider the late night comedians who do fake news shows for laughs and the tabloids at grocery checkout. Bias is a kind of fake news as are stories based on rumor.
A story with only a headline is often suspect as well as reports of science based on poor methods. Putting out fake news is meant to cause confusion or distress. It erodes trust of institutions and leaders on purpose. Social media of the kind Lydia is concerned about seems especially vulnerable to fake news and propaganda.
In fact, the Italian Ministry of Education along with Google and Facebook (The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2kYHplf by Jason Horowitz 10.18.17) started a program last fall in 8,000 Italian high schools to teach students to deal with propaganda, training students to recognize fake news and conspiracy theories online.
We can definitely compare a suspected fake news story to reporting from other sources. Sometimes fact checks are built into stories on line or newspapers. Of course it is hard to be objective if a fake news story happens to make someone or group we don’t agree with look bad. But my wise group members have powerful tools in their own toolboxes of life experience and value systems. When confused by fake news and other deceits, they are grounded in their own guideposts to sort out what makes sense. They rely on “the peace of God which transcends all understanding and will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I would rely on their judgement about fake news from their experience anytime.
As I talked to a friend (Rosewalk) about this trust challenge about news sources, she remembered a scripture that her mother had often quoted. It contains wonderful fact checking terms to help make sense of the world.
Philippians 4:8-9 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be a virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.”
It seems that fact checking is an old scriptural practice. This scripture grounds us in our beliefs. It gives us confidence to engage with the global world by being informed and sharing our compassion with those in the stories.
-- Elder Turtle GG
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