BOOK: Untrustworthy

The late pastor James Atwood believed guns to be the biggest problem facing the American church. Author Jemar Tisby argues that racism and white supremacy are. In Untrustworthy, Bonnie Kristian asserts the largest problem facing American churches is epistemic (epistemic -- of or relating to knowledge or knowing).  According to Kristian -- the poisons of cancel culture, conspiracy theories, and skepticism of experts in conjunction with social media algorithms incentivized to make money at all costs are the largest problems facing the American church. Kristian posits that if we can't agree on whom to trust or what is true then everything else is a moot point.

BOOK: Reading the Times

From newspaper fact checkers to evaluation methods such as S.I.F.T. to diversifying one's news feeds, there is a tremendous amount of time and energy devoted to debunking lies and conspiracy theories. Despite the trend to provide more quality information to the public, according to a 2022 PPRI poll, 60% of white evangelical Protestants believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump while QAnon conspiracies ravage large swaths of churches in America. While fact-checking methods and diversifying one's news feed can be helpful, it seems to do little to move people from yelling at each other to holding a respectful conversation. How did the church get here? Is there a theological way of consuming the news? How can we think and act Christianly to the news?

ARTICLE: News as Spiritual Formation

Most of the news on television involves unactionable items - a murder, a natural disaster, etc. - where there is little that we can do about it - especially if it is on another continent. Anglican priest D.J. Marotta argues that Christians need to be "hyper-local" with our news sources. What this means is being in community with our neighbors, friends, and family where you can respond to information (news) with kindness and love within your sphere of influence.