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1/ Let’s talk about conspiracy theories. Not any specific one, but their overall popularity right now particularly among Christians. First, conspiracy theories happen because our minds are hardwired to see patterns & reject randomness. We want to make a narrative out of the world
2/ ...where a series of cause-and-effect events create a pattern of meaning. Our minds do not want to believe in random, chaotic, unrelated occurrences. Therefore, when no obvious cause is evident we will invent one. This is the basis for most superstitions & a lot of religion.
3/ Why did my crops fail? Because I didn’t sacrifice enough to the gods. Why did that team win the game? Because the pitcher wore his lucky socks. We want a simple story to explain complicated events. We want all of the data-points to fit into a discernible pattern & thus...
4/ ...convince ourselves that the cosmos is governed by order, we can know this order, and therefore we can be safe. The alternative—a random, chaotic, unpredictable cosmos in which terrible things happen for no reason—is just too unbearable to accept.
5/ The problem today, thanks to the internet, is that we are overwhelmed with news & information 24/7. There are so many data-points thrown at us that must be assimilated into a simple, coherent narrative in order to maintain our sense of order & control. More than any other...
6/ ...generation, we are exposed to everything going on around the world all the time but lack a metanarrative to explain it all. This is when a conspiracy theory becomes attractive. It’s how we cope w/ information overload while maintaining the illusion of a predictable cosmos.
7/ People of all political & religious identities fall into this trap. For example, some on the Left want to explain every natural disaster with a single, simple narrative—anthropogenic global warming. Likewise, some on the Right want to explain all of Trump’s scandals as the...
8/...work of deep state conspirators. In both cases, there is resistance to the possibility of multiple, complicated explanations. The need for simple explanations eliminates “both/and” thinking in favor of “either/or” conspiracies. Such thinking cannot accept a world...
9/ ...in which Russia aided the Trump campaign AND some FBI agents openly despised Trump. Likewise, it resists that global warming is happening AND a particular wildfire was not the direct result of it. Nuance never makes for a compelling narrative.
10/ So, why are conservative Christians in the US particularly susceptible to conspiracy theories? Perhaps because they’ve been primed to construct crazy narratives from random data points over 50yrs of End Times nuttiness on Christian TV, radio, & publishing.
11/ An entire eschatological industry emerged during the Cold War to teach Christians how to interpret the headlines to find a secret narrative that aligns with biblical prophecies. They’ve been told nothing is random & everything is more than it appears. This refusal to...
12/ ...believe in complicated, sometimes meaningless occurrences means conservative Christians are less likely to accept nuanced, innocent explanations for consequential events. It’s a short move from believing the antichrist did X, to Obama did X, to Obama is the antichrist.
13/ Importantly, Jesus spoke directly against such thinking. He rebuked simple explanations for random events or making direct connections between a person’s sinfulness/righteousness & their circumstances (see Luke 13:1-5; John 9:1-41; Luke 18:18-30).
14/ Instead, Jesus presents a world imbued w/ more mystery & complexity than we can possible comprehend. & rather than calling us to parse every event to deduce its secrets or construct a water tight narrative to explain all thing past, present, & future, he invites us to...
15/...put aside our ridiculous attempts at control which are all rooted in fear, and instead trust the goodness of our Heavenly Father who has proven his love for us. Surely, he who did not spare his own Son but redeemed us from sin & death can be trusted with our future.
16/ If Christians spent as much time contemplating the character of Christ as they do concocting conspiracy theories, both the world and the church would be in a far better place. *END*
