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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

 

Fake news?

Paul writes, amongst other things, to correct fake news which has reached Thessalonica (2 Thessalonians 2:2).

 

Context

Fake news seems to be all around us today. Almost any major event seems to prompt people to create fake news arguing that the culprit must be an immigrant. The national curriculum is to be changed to cover the identification of fake news and disinformation. Moreover, the way some use social media to disseminate such false narratives seems to be forcing police into giving more information to help dispel these stories.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

This week Roots focuses on Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica. It seems that fake news had reached the Thessalonians that ‘the day of the Lord is already here’ (2 Thessalonians 2.2).

It is hard to be sure who spreads fake news today, especially on social media. But those who leap to blame migrants for everything which goes wrong (like the Southport murders and last weekend’s train stabbings) do not rush to tell us all that the LNER staff member who saved many lives last weekend on that train has a foreign-sounding name! Many of those who spread such stories seem to have a very narrow view of Britishness (or is it Englishness?). Then there are people in the public eye who deliberately spread fake news. This link is several months old now but it seems that Musk still believes that ‘the fundamental weakness of western civilisation is empathy’. And some so-called Christians, at least in North America, seem to support this view. To my mind it is alarming that one of the world’s richest and powerful people takes a view which I think incompatible with Jesus' teaching that we are to love our neighbours. Jesus' teaching is that neighbours include despised foreigners (Luke 10:25-37; The Rift between Jews and Samaritans).

I find it striking that fake news existed even in New Testament times. I wonder who sent the news ‘as though from’ Paul. But perhaps even then it was just as difficult to be sure of the source of fake news as it is in this age of social media. It is easy to imagine that the issue of fake news is a new one, solely driven by social media; but clearly that is not true. How easy do we find it to distinguish fake news from the truth? Are we easily fooled?

To link these thoughts with Remembrance Sunday it may be useful to recall that fake news about war is also common. Many people seem to have forgotten that thousands of Hindu and Muslim troops, mainly from India, fought alongside the Allies in the Second World War (WW2). For some years we lived near a former WW2 airfield and, alongside several British war graves including a Women’s Auxiliary Airforce (WAAF) grave, the parish churchyard contained one Czech and one Polish war grave. Over 2000 Polish war graves are in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Of course the UK also used fake news during the world wars; one example is the use of the ‘Dam Busters’ squadron in Operation Taxable to fool German radar into thinking that the D Day invasion was happening near Calais.

 

Questions for discussion

• Discuss your response to fake news and disinformation - how easy do you find it to distinguish it from the truth?
• Is the dissemination of fake news ever justified? And, if so, when might it be legitimate?

 

Dudley Coates is a local preacher in the Salisbury Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

There is a lot going on at the moment. This week alone has seen fireworks night all over the country and the switching on of Christmas lights (at least where I live!). Halloween happened a few days ago and, as soon as the pumpkins were sold out, the Christmas things started to appear. This weekend, and in the coming week, we will mark Remembrance – in memory of all those soldiers who have died defending our country. Put simply, there is a lot grabbing for our attention at the moment whether they are noble traditions (wearing our poppies) or newer cultural trends (trick or treat!).

Once we have remembered those who have died in war, the next big cultural date will be Christmas. But don’t let the shops and the lights and the excitement detract from our duty as Christians. St Paul in this week’s reading (2 Thessalonians 2.1-5,13-17) reminds us that Jesus has not yet returned after his ascension into heaven. In the same way, we do not mark his birth in November or early December or even until the night of Christmas Eve! First, there is Advent. A time of watching and waiting for the coming Messiah. There are lots of traditions in life – some important, some less so but still incredibly popular. As Christians we are not called to the popular but to the Christian. So, when you see the Christmas lights and start doing your Christmas shopping, do it knowing that Christ is coming, but he is not here yet.

Joe Allen is a PhD Theology candidate at St Mary’s University Twickenham. Holding BA and MA Theology Degrees from Exeter University, he combines study with ecclesiastical finance work for the (CofE) London Diocesan Fund alongside various freelance projects. He has worked across several Anglican dioceses and for a Roman Catholic Cathedral. He reads voraciously and lives in central London.

 

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