Christians Mustn't Share Fake News

 A website I had written for is folding.  I am reposting some of the pieces here to keep them from disappearing forever.  The following is one of those:

I am a member of the media.  As such, I like to begin my day with a cup of coffee and a ZOOM call with other members of the media and George Soros to get my marching orders for the day.

At least that’s what you may have been led to believe.  “Media” has become a boogeyman.  My own family has said phrases like: “the media is all garbage.”  To which I reply, “Hi, I’m media.”

I am a member of the media.  I host a morning radio show five days a week.  I do have coffee every morning but I’ve never met George Soros nor would I recognize him if he popped into the station.  But as a member of the media and as a citizen of my town, my state, my nation and my world, I am concerned about the lack of media literacy and the abundance of misconceptions about news media.

I want to offer a few easy to use tips for greater media literacy but, before I do, I want to weed some of you out of this post.  It’s not that I don’t want you to read what comes after this paragraph, but it is necessary to question yourself before possibly wasting your time with the rest of what is written.

Do you want to know the truth or do you want to win an argument?  Do you want to find facts or do you want to be coddled into further believing what you already choose to believe?

Jesus asked in John 5:6 “Do you want to get well?”  I will ask the same question.  If you do want helps in becoming media literate continue on, if not, then thank you for reading this much and please leave an angry face on the social media account you discovered this post on.  But if you are a professing Christian let me warn you that the Bible is filled with warnings and admonishments to be pursuers and sharers of the truth.  Not bearing false witness made God’s top ten and it should make ours as well.  We follow the God-man named Truth; we should be people of truth as much as humanly possible.

Tip 1) Ask: is this opinion or news?

If the FCC could let me make one change to the vast wasteland that is cable news it would be this: I would place a label on all programs disclaiming whether it is news or opinion.  Our newspapers have Opinion and Letters to the Editor pages.  Our TV’s mix the two until many well-meaning people can’t tell the difference.  

Sean Hannity once famously said, “I’m not a journalist, I’m a talk show host.”  Hannity is right.  He’s an opinion man who talks about the news, he’s not a journalist.  Stephen Colbert occasionally has referred to himself as a clown, not a newsman.  Colbert is right.  This doesn’t mean they never say true things, but it does mean disseminating facts is not their primary job.

There is a MASSIVE difference in the standards for the news departments of these companies and the opinion departments.  My station uses FOX News radio updates and they are strictly factual, but others in the same corporation aren’t.  If you’re watching CNN and there are 12 people on a panel, they aren’t all there to read you the news; they are there to bicker for your entertainment.  It’s no different than in sports media when you see one guy reporting on a leg injury and then you see Stephen A. Smith shouting about the Cowboys.

I’m a radio host and as such, I admire the skill of someone like Rush Limbaugh.  Every weekday for 3 hours he gets people riled up about something.  For decades the man has had a massive following of people who either love him or hate him. It’s ratings gold and he’s great at it.  Don’t get me wrong, Rush may say true things, but his job is to entertain you so much that you listen to the commercials between segments while wondering what he’ll say next. 

There’s nothing wrong with listening to, reading or watching news opinion, but you must recognize it for what it is and what it is not.

Tip 2) Read the Darn Article 

A recent study from Columbia University and the French National Institute discovered that 59% of links shared on social media have never been clicked.  Meaning, millions of news articles are shared daily without ever having been read.  Couple this with the fact that clicks=dollars and you have a big problem.  Clickbaiting is good business, but it’s bad media literacy.  I post news stories on our station’s website daily.  I know for a fact that I could get more traffic simply by writing more bombastic headlines, but I know for a fact that people would have a wrong understanding many times if all they read was the headline.  DO NOT share news items you have not read, watched or listened to.  This doesn’t mean you have to consume every headline you see, but it does mean you don’t have to pass along every headline you see.

Tip 3) Google It

If you come upon a news item that interests you then use a search engine to see who, if anyone else, is also reporting on it.  MSNBC and Newsmax have very different points of view, but they should both agree that the event had indeed happened.  Some very intelligent friends of mine have passed along fake news, satire or old news.  Sometimes the news is so big you want to share it immediately, but take five extra seconds to Google it first.

Tip 4) Memes Aren’t News

This doesn’t mean that a meme can’t be true, but meme creators range from pure of heart to pure evil.  The woman in the picture isn’t necessarily the one who said the words.  The stats may not be accurate or up to date.  Once again, Google is your friend.  Plus, if a story in the news is important enough to share then it’s important enough to read more than fifteen words about.  Not many of us base our points of view on bumper stickers; memes are the bumper stickers of the internet.

Tip 5) Avoid Confirmation Bias

We all want to be right.  We all want our side to win.  We all think our shade of the political spectrum is best and there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a dog in the fight.  But seeking news only to confirm our previously held biases isn’t helping our towns, states, nation, and world.  Be most wary of the news that tells you what your itching ears like to hear.  Always remember that much of the news media sees you as a customer not as someone to be served honestly and this has only gotten worse, especially on the national level, in my lifetime.  

Don’t flee to newspapers, TV stations, radio programs and online sources that coddle your bias.  This doesn’t mean you can’t have trusted voices in your tribe that you go to, but it does mean that simply seeking out the site that agrees with you and ignoring the rest is a fool’s decision.  

I see this too much.  People Googling and then scrolling four pages down until the “AHA” is shouted.  People who once loved a network until it said their guy didn’t win Arizona in the election.  People running to the boundaries of acceptable journalism to feel the comfort of confirmation.  Stop this.  

Adfontesmedia.com has a great media bias chart if you need help navigating these messy waters.  I recommend it.

Media literacy is an important skill to have.  People have literally died this month for lack of it.  Families and friends become divided for lack of it.  Fools are made intentionally and unintendedly because of it.  For our society, truth matters.  For our witness, truth matters.  Seek the truth with wisdom: be media literate. 

Godly Sorrow

 A website I wrote for is folding and I don't want to lose some of the pieces I've written, so I am posting them here.  The following is one:

I went to the wrong entrance.

We had received a call about a little girl and had agreed to take our first placement.  I had thirty minutes to get to a place thirty minutes away and pick up this sweet, little girl.  I was nervous and excited at the same time.

In my nerves and excitement I went to the wrong entrance of this building.  This error caused me to be a couple minutes late.  I was eventually led into a room where the little girl was and where her mother was.  I was terrified.  I was in the room with the woman whose child I was taking.  I imagined the hatred she must have for me at that moment.

Shockingly, this potentially horrible and awkward situation allowed me to ask questions about bed time and routines instead of being a standoff.  I talked with this mother as tears streamed down her face.

Not many days later I received the case file on this child.  This mother had lost rights to multiple other children.  I was told by a social worker that when her most recent children were removed from her custody forever, she said, “I’ll just keep having kids until you let me keep one.”  My wife and I realized this little girl was very likely going to be our little girl forever.  We were sure this foster care placement would lead to adoption.  The mom had the deck stacked against her in the form of addiction and her track record wasn’t hopeful.

But something completely different happened.  The system broke her.  She broke down and gave up her ways of doing things.  She followed the prescriptions of the judge.  She jumped through every hoop.  She became a model for how foster care is supposed to work.  

Six months after our first foster care placement began the little girl was back with her mother.  Her mom is now a mentor for other parents whose kids have been placed into foster care.

Through immense sorrow she changed the trajectory of her life and of her daughter’s life.

Now another story.

A teen in the youth group had expressed her confusion about her sexuality and gender.  She was pretty sure what she was and it wasn’t a straight girl.  She had same sex attraction and felt as though she might want to express herself as a boy.  Everything in society told her that this was awesome.

One night she told me that as she read the Bible it seemed to her that she can’t have Jesus as Lord and keep acting on urges in a way the Bible clearly doesn’t endorse.  I applauded her for her honest reading of Scripture and said she was right.  I assured her she was exactly where Jesus liked her to be.  That Jesus loved when people were honest about their situation and honest about His Words.  Her dilemma was exactly as she described it.  I told her the parable of the hidden treasure and said, “The question is: Is Jesus worth it to you?”

She thought deeply about that question.  I hated to see her dour, but I was excited that she was inches away from salvation, in my view.

That night she posted about her dilemma on Facebook in a very honest, open and accurate way.  What ensued was tragic.

Post after post after post after post of professing Christians trying to ease her of the tension of her dilemma.  Post after post after post of those proposing an unbiblical third way around her fork in the road.

I cried that night.

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation…” 2 Corinthians 7:10a

Therapeutic Christians, and there are hordes of them (us), avoid sorrow at all costs.  We just can’t stand feeling badly and we can’t stand others feeling badly.  Our radio stations must be “positive and uplifting”.  Our coffee cups and signs must bring a smile to our faces.  Our tolerance for sorrow is so low.

Are we denying people the gift of repentance by denying them the pain of sorrow? 

“Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.  Though I did regret it…I see my letter hurt you, but only for a little while… yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.  For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.  Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.  At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.  So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are.  By all this we are encouraged.” 2 Corinthians 7:8-13a

The Apostle Paul did not set out to cause sorrow but he was delighted that sorrow had occurred.  He was delighted because of the fruit of repentance which brought the fruit of salvation which brought all these other delightful results.

Likewise, we don’t intend to cause sorrow, but we can rejoice when godly sorrow comes because godly sorrow is fruitful.  We must resist the urge to avoid sorrow for ourselves and others.

God must lead those He loves to repentance and He will do that by any means necessary.  Through sorrow God labors to turn us from destruction and toward life itself.  

But why sorrow?  

C.S. Lewis wrote this in The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”  Sorrow gets our attention. It screams, “This isn’t working!” and demands that we make a U-turn.

All sorrow serves the purpose of redeeming and sanctifying the elect.

Jesus promised that when He left, He would send the Holy Spirit.  One of the chief tasks of the Holy Spirit is to convict and one of the key tools of conviction is godly sorrow.  

“When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement…” John `6:8

When we don’t allow godly sorrow to work in the lives of others and ourselves, we run the risk of quenching the Holy Spirit is His work (1 Thessalonians 5:19).  Therapeutic Christians may believe their intent is good while actually running counter to the workings God has ordained.  We must ditch the idea that all sorrow is bad.  We must instead pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:18) so we can make sure we work in step with the Spirit and not against Him.

Sorrow is uncomfortable.  Sorrow, in and of itself, is not good.  When Christ brings us into His Kingdom fully “He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4). But until then we must trust that the Sovereign Lord is sovereign over all sorrow and is harnessing it to redeem and sanctify those He chose before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4).

Not all sorrow is godly sorrow, but more sorrow is godly sorrow than Therapeutic Christians allow themselves to believe.  When godly sorrow enters your life or the lives of those around us, we must heed the words of the angels: Fear not.  Fear not, because God’s providential love often uses sorrow to lead those He died for to salvation in repentance.

Foster Care is Evangelism

 The following is an older post from a site I wrote for that is folding.  I'm reposting some of the posts here so they are not lost. The following is one of those:

My wife and I are foster parents. As I write this we have a little boy named Joshua that my wife gave birth to and a little girl named Anna that was just born on Groundhog’s Day. And we have the sweetest little girl that my wife didn’t birthe.

We’ve fallen madly in love with all three of our kids. We’ve also fallen in love with the mother of the little girl that we get to help raise for now. We love her mother deeply and are cheering for her to succeed and to break our hearts when the sweet young girl leaves our home and goes back to hers.

Many have asked us why we do foster care. There are many reasons. For one, the Holy Spirit lives in us and He causes us to love mercy and to act justly (Micah 6:8). We desire to honor God by practicing the true religion that cares for widows and orphans and those temporarily, legally orphan-like (James 1:27). We want to serve Jesus by serving the least of these (Matthew 25:40).

Recently when being asked why we chose to do foster care the question was phrased like this: “Why are you doing foster care? Is it a calling?”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you.”

—Matthew 28:19-20a

We are called to foster care because it is evangelism. This doesn’t mean that anyone who isn’t doing foster care and/or adoption isn’t a regenerate soul, but it does mean that foster care and/or adoption is a powerful way to do one of our greatest callings.

On January 28th Phil Newton while speaking at the Bethlehem Pastor’s Conference in Minneapolis used the term “withness”. Our most powerful witness is often withness. He said, and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the transcription of his sermon, “The Twelve began to absorb what they heard from Jesus after they observed what they saw of Jesus.” This means that our words are absolutely essential, but discipleship is fueled with rocket fuel by our modeling of the Christian life.

Foster care is evangelism because it displays the glory of God.

Those who believe in Jesus are those that have seen His glory. We are drawn to Jesus when we recognize His immense worth, when we see Him like a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). God can show His glory in any way He chooses and one of the chief ways He’s chosen to do that is through the good works of the saints. All good works are to reveal His glory. Our good works are like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Triune God.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden… In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.”

—Matthew 5:14 & 16

When we take children into our homes we reflect the glory of our Great Father who has freely adopted us (Ephesians 1:5). When we work hard to help mothers and fathers get their children back we display the glory of Yahweh who has made us ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21).

Evangelism is often seen as how we help people get into Heaven. It’s the telling of Good News, a.k.a. Gospel. Well, receiving the Gospel is something that happens all at once and every single day. We are justified in the moment we believe and we will be glorified upon the moment of our death or Christ’s return, but the process of our sanctification is one that lasts all during the time in between.

Foster care is self-evangelism.

I say it is self-evangelism because it sanctifies us. It is sanctifying my wife and me in so many ways. For one, we get the joys and sorrows of participating in God’s reconciliatory work. We join in Him in having His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). It also causes us to rely heavily on His amazing daily grace. Every morning we need a fresh supply of His mercy (Lamentations 3:22-23) and this exercise in trust is most certainly sanctifying us.

So, why are we foster parents? In part, because foster care is evangelism. Every day we pray, and pray hard, for the salvation of this sweet little girl and her mother. Every day we have to strive to have a walk worth imitating. And every morning we need to cling to our Father’s hand for support.

Foster care is evangelism.

If your heart is stirred to make disciples in this way I encourage you to look into it. Foster parents aren’t super-parents, my wife and I certainly aren’t. We, like so many other Christians (and thank God that through His common grace there are non-Christians who care deeply for thousands of children in foster care) are simply people that believe that our God is big enough to help us follow Him. And we know that there is no such thing as a sacrifice for Jesus; He will outdo us mightily and will do the same for you perhaps in the here and now and definitely in eternity to come.

Stewarding the Gift of Sex

 A website I wrote for is folding.  There will be a few posts from that which will be reposted here to keep it from disappearing. The following is one of them:

This is about sex.  This is about a Christian understanding of sex.  Continue reading only if this is a topic with which you’re interested.

First thing you’re likely thinking is, “Okay, what can’t we do now?”

For some reason the subject of sex amongst Christians is merely about what one can do and what one can’t do.  Now, that is a fine and good topic of discussion. Human sexuality and sexual activity is strictly confined to the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman and that runs contrary to the world’s desires and always has.  We must discuss who should have sex and with whom and under what circumstances.

However, isn’t there more to talk about when it comes to sex?

I am a youth leader at my church and have had the honor of talking with students about the subject of sex and much of the discussion is about waiting for marriage and why that glorifies God (certainly not all of our discussion is about this, but this is what is on their minds at that stage of life).  Over the years and even over the last few weeks I’ve gone to weddings of former youth group “kids”. Have we forgone the discussion about what Christian sexuality looks like after the stop sign is gone? Should the dialog about sex end on the wedding day?

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  1 Corinthians 10:31

Sex can glorify God.  Sex must glorify God.

But how?

Celibacy isn’t the only way to glorify God.  Sex is a good gift given to mankind by God Himself and as with all His gifts we are to honor God with it.  I do not and will not pretend to have figured out all the ways that sex glorifies God, but I do want to look at a few.  If you want a more in depth look at this subject the book Sex, Romance and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know by C. J. Mahaney is a good resource.

1. Make Love Humbly

Husbands and wives, do you view sex as something that makes you happy or as a way of pleasing your spouse?  C. S. Lewis famously said, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” When you make love is your mind on them or on yourself?  Now, it is impossible to always think of your spouse and not yourself, but humility in bed should be a goal. In fact, there is great joy, great happiness to be found in focusing on her/him.  And don’t worry, by focusing on them and studying what makes them tick you won’t get left behind.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3-4

2. Outdo One Another

How would your sex life improve if you and your spouse were constantly outdoing one another is showing preference?  How would your marriage improve in all arenas if you both made honoring the other your goal? What does honoring or showing preference in bed look like?  Well, it’s humility mixed with knowledge. It’s not being focused on one’s self but it’s studying and knowing what the other prefers and likes and then going out of your way to do that.  That may be like something you have in your mind right now, or it may be showing them preference by letting them simply sleep because that’s a greater need that night. God is glorified by our marriages when we seek to serve one another zealously.

“… Honor one another above yourself.” Romans 12:10b

3. Just Do It

Celibacy is a fantastic way to glorify God, but not so much in marriage.  Now, there are times in marriage to refrain from sex for a while. Perhaps for medical reasons or for a devoted time of prayer a married couple should refrain from sex, but this is not the norm.  Husbands and wives should make sex a regular part of married life. What is regular? That’s a question the two of you need to answer, but you should have an answer. Sex is meant to be regular in the Christian marriage.  Sex is a semi-frequent activity in a healthy marriage. Lovemaking is a regular reminder of what Christian marriage is. It is a God-given demonstration that the two become one flesh. It is a gift to help married couples stay together and grow together.  It is a reunion, a redoing of an ancient ceremony for the purpose of oneness. It is a tool against the temptation to wreck the oneness God Himself created.

“The husband should fulfill his marital duty (sex) to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.  The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband.  In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.  Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.  Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” 1 Corinthians 7:3-5

“’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’  So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Mark 10:7-9

All of our actions can and should bring glory to God.  Sex is no different. How we don’t do it and how we do it brings glory or dishonor to our Creator.  If you are single then honor Jesus by what you don’t do yet. If you are married then honor God with your bedroom (or wherever).  Don’t believe the lie that sex is from Satan; sex is from our Heavenly Father so let’s honor Him with it.