Spreading lies in the Church of God.
Is this the face of truth?
Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist
Obviously, there is a big concern out there and people are starting to panic over Ebola because the government has acted so ineptly. And it’s left the border open, let the flights come in, this — this medical doctor was sick and going to bowling alleys and A-trains — and that’s the packed rush hour subways — uh, and to restaurants and cabs — this is really bad. It looks like a fake narrative to me, that everyone who has it is health car workers. That they’re just picking fake people to say they have it so they can put out their PR. That may not be it, but we have medical doctors that we’ve talked to on record and off record listing the hospitals — [sigh] — where openly [pause] they are disappearing people who have Ebola-like symptoms.
~ Alex Jones, “Bio Weapons Expert: Ebola Outbreak Is a Bio Weapon Release, Infowars.com
The longer I do this, the longer I ponder if anyone is truly listening. The fact that there are fools that get their news from the likes of Alex Jones puzzles me. I know of no one who is not mentally unbalanced who gets their news from such sources. Just so there is no mistake, if you get your news from Alex Jones or those who quote him, such as James Malm, then you are mentally unbalanced and need professional help.
In the above interview, Alex Jones interviews Dr Francis Anthony Boyle, upon whom he lauds all sorts of honors and praise. Turns out that he has more bats in his belfry than the people in Africa have eaten, which is probably the real source of Ebola. Among some of his less nuttier rantings was the claim that President George W Bush was ready and willing to nuke the “Muslim and Arab states and peoples” in spite of his ties to oil, and his call for Hawaii to secede from the United States. It gets worse. He has railed against US policy in the Middle East, calling for Iran to take America and the Israeli “Zionist” state to court for “genocide” of the Palestinian people.
And, it still gets worse:
In an article published in Veterans Today, Boyle stated that “God had no right to steal Palestine from the Palestinians and give Palestine to the Jews to begin with. A fortiori the United Nations had no right to steal Palestine from the Palestinians and give Palestine to the Zionists in 1947.”
~ ibid (bolding mine)
So, let’s try this again: Is this where you want to get your news from?
But, that’s not all!
Are you waiting for that piece of salacious gossip to come via email, Facebook or Google Plus? Are you blindingly hitting “Like” or “+1” without any thought and even reposting, retweeting or forwarding it on? I recently related in my tech blog how “Fear, Panic and Fake News Spreading on Facebook Like a Virus“. Have you heard the one about the dead man in a haunted house that was mistaken for a prop for two weeks? Do you think it is true? Should you pass it along? I recommend everyone who calls themselves a Christian go and read it. There are no Bible verses (it is a tech blog, after all), but maybe you will stop and THINK before you TELL that lie next time.
Do you want to be trusted? Do you want to be known as a person of integrity? Then don’t fall for lies, don’t pass along lies and always seek the truth of a matter. It has been said that “truth” and “trust” only have one letter in difference. The poet Santosh Kalwar said, “Trust starts with truth and ends with truth.”
Bottom line: Are we or are we not children of truth?
What is the truth, anyhow? What is our responsibility in representing the truth? Do we downplay it as “no big deal” even though God repetitively in the Bible says how He hates lies?
Now, let me get even more blunt about it: If God hates lies, and you are a habitual liar, then does that make you a friend or an enemy of God?
Only one Bible verse today, but something to chew on, meditate on and really consider:
15 One who doesn’t think believes every word,
but the cautious understands his steps.