A field day for the Father of Lies

‘Misinformation’ may well become the word of 2022.

The popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, who has 11 million subscribers, was threatened with ‘cancellation’ because of alleged ‘misinformation’ provided in a three hour programme with Dr Robert Malone. The troubling thing is that without knowing what this ‘misinformation’ was, and without listening to the programme, many people just joined in the pile on – on the basis that the accusation must be right because ‘270 scientists/doctors signed a letter saying so’. And yet dig a bit deeper and you find that only 87 of the signatories were doctors. The rest included engineers, psychologists, teachers, social workers, students, several podcasters, a dentist, and even a vet!

The irony is that Malone is a doctor and was involved in the development of mRNA vaccines. This does not mean that his views are right but we should be very careful about shutting people down for misinformation when we ourselves are not informed! This columnist is not defending or attacking Malones’ views – as I don’t know enough about them – which is why I want to be informed. The point is that you don’t deal with misinformation by banning it. You provide the real information.

Listening to BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze I was astonished to hear the Revd Giles Fraser talking about people ‘dying’ because of this alleged ‘misinformation’. The irony of the singer Neil Young complaining that he wanted Rogan off Spotify because it was anti-science was not lost on those of us who remember his ‘Monsanto’ album where he spread the misinformation that genetically modified crops were poisonous!

A claim to absolute truth

Being ‘misinformed’ is the accusation that you make when you consider yourself to be ‘informed’ and want to silence those who disagree with you. It is a claim to absolute truth – to the extent that anyone who disagrees with you is dangerous and causing harm. When Jayne Ozanne argued with Peter Lynas of the Evangelical Alliance that the Biblical view on sexuality was harmful – that was, as far as she was concerned, the end of the discussion. Anything else was ‘misinformation’.

As the church of Christ, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), we can appreciate this emphasis on truth and having the right information. Yet we also need to be aware of how our society’s concept of absolute truth is itself misinformed. It is all about power, image, spin and control.

Caricatures

On one occasion a photographer came from The Times to do a story about yours truly. He insisted on taking lots of photos in the pulpit and then somewhat bizarrely in the graveyard. He asked me not to smile! He then admitted that he had been sent to get a particular image – the London metro elite’s version of a Scottish Presbyterian minister was of a dour, miserable, angry clergyman in a dog collar. I don’t wear one, so standing beside a grave would have to do instead! The photographer told me that he could tell a newspaper’s politics by the photos it used of politicians.

Another time I was asked to appear on a TV programme to discuss alcohol. All the arrangements had been made when the producer asked me what my actual view was. When I mentioned about the ‘wine that makes glad the heart of a man’ (Ps. 104), she told me that she had to cancel me. She wasn’t looking for someone who would offer a reasoned Scriptural perspective – she wanted a caricature clergyman who would send people to Hell for drinking whisky!

We must be discerning

In a society where the absolute truth of God has been replaced with the corrupt relative truth of politics and progressive culture, all of us need to learn to be sceptical about how much ‘misinformation’ we are being fed. This does not mean that we exchange the distortions of the MSM (mainstream media) for the distortions of social media – or whatever the internet’s algorithms send our way. But it does mean that we need to be discerning. When many journalists now see themselves as activists, making the news rather than reporting it, we should all be wary. When the large corporations now see themselves as the primary guardians and censors of public morality, there is a great danger for those of us who hold to the truths of the gospel. Mammon and morality don’t mix well.

Spin, emotional bullying, political threats and cancel culture – combined with the general dumbing down of public discourse, mean that ‘misinformation’ prevails. In our post postmodern culture, the Father of lies is having a field day.

The antidote to misinformation is not to cancel, but to provide the right information. That is why newspapers like en, and other Christian outlets, are essential sources of truth – even when that truth does not suit our ‘tribe’. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been told ‘it’s true, but you can’t say it’! If we are to proclaim Biblical standards of truth – we must practice them. After all we follow the One who said: ‘… know the truth and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32). They can never cancel Christ.