You and I live in a world where other people are constantly working to manipulate us.
Companies constantly try to convince you that you’ll be happier if you buy their product.
Politicians try to convince you that they are a better choice than their opponent.
Clickbait headlines try to get you to click their article.
Unfortunately, some churches take this same approach.
I once attended an event at a church called Elevation in North Carolina. During his “sermon” the lead pastor of Elevation, Steven Furtick, screamed at us for an hour an a half about many things, including how unfair it was for media to criticize him for owning a very expensive house. Most of the attenders of the event gave him repeated standing ovations. The only people in my field of vision who didn’t stand up for these applause breaks were myself and one of the people who attended with me. After he was done speaking, the band of the church came back out for a couple more songs and they had cranked the bass WAY up from their earlier levels, so that your insides vibrated during the music. They wanted people to believe they were having a spiritual experience, so they were willing to manipulate people.
The experience left me disgusted, because I knew many of the participants in this conference would go back home hoping to replicate what they had just been part of.
What they should have done was to critically consider everything they had seen and heard, like the Berean Jews did after hearing the apostle Paul in Acts 17. The scripture calls these believers, who didn’t take Pauls word for anything, but instead double checked him against scripture, “Noble”. It would be hard to imagine this community, full of healthy skepticism, giving Paul round after round of standing ovations as Paul insisted that he should be allowed to own the most expensive horse in town.
Dr. King noticed a trend in 1950s and 60s America where believers simply accepted whatever was shoveled to them (we can only imagine his horror if he could see how uncritically people accept content from social media and 24 hour “news” networks today.) King insisted that Christians needed to be soft hearted and tough minded, but lamented the fact that too often we are the opposite: hard hearted and soft headed.
I’ve taught thousands of college students over my years as a professor, and when the topic of faith and church come up, I often hear students tell me that they are no longer part of a church because growing up, their minister told them that asking questions was disrespectful to God.
That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, but I’m not surprised by it. Many minsters are in the role because they crave power, and the ability to say “You have to listen to be because I’m closer to God than you” is a powerful weapon. The idea that “if you question a minster, God will be angry with you” has been used to manipulate people for centuries. The dark ages are a great example of this, but the approach is still alive and well today.
Regardless of whether you are seeking to be part of a faith community or not, we all need to have our critical thinking abilities honed as best we can to deal with a constant flow of philosophical fallacies, lies and misrepresentations.
A great way to improve your critical thinking is to always ask a least one question when you are presented information.
I saw a tweet the other day asserting that people who got the COVID vaccine were most likely to have a positive view of the US government. The inference was that the vaccine has some mind control properties. Here’s some questions that immediately sprang to mind:
Where did this poll info come from? Is it legit or completely made up?
Does the person presenting this information understand correlation versus causation?
Is it important for me to have an opinion about this?
I do the same for perspectives that come from a liberal viewpoint as opposed to a right wing viewpoint. Recently, the LA Dodgers invited, disinvited, then re-invited a group to participate in an LGBTQ Pride event. The group uses imagery associated with the Catholic church in celebration of the gay and transgender community. Several MLB players were critical of the group on the basis it was disrespectful to the Catholic church. I saw numerous headlines blasting these players as hateful and homophobic. Here were questions which immediately came to mind:
What did these players actually say?
What is the purpose of this group using the imagery?
Is it important for me to have an opinion about this?
You notice that in both cases, I’m skeptical if I need to care and/or engage. Media constantly screams that you have to have an opinion. You must take sides in the culture war! If you don’t like/share/forward this information, you’re letting the “bad guys” get away with it!
I, for one, am not interested in being manipulated into anyone’s cause. I’ll do my own thinking, thank you very much, and I will not outsource it to others. You may have noticed that crowds/mobs are pretty stupid. It’s not unwise to stand a bit away and watch rather than to jump in and start screaming.
Social media plays on your narcissism in multiple ways to make money off you. “Do you want to like this post? Do you want to love it? Do you want to share it? Do you want to reply?” Letting things float on down the river instead of punching the waves is often okay. Remember what Jesus says as part of his sermon on the mount:
But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:34-37)
It’s a pretty big simplification, but to some degree, Jesus seems to be saying. “Chill, homie.”
You can’t change a hair on your head. Do you think yelling at people on the internet is going to change the world? Being honest and honorable is better than being frantic and trying to “win.”
Next time you read or hear something that puts you in fight or flight mode, take a deep breath and ask as least one question.
Who is saying this?
Why are they saying this?
What’s the other side/full story?
Do I need to have an opinion about this?
Further, here are some guardrails I use when making sure I’m thinking critically:
Don’t form an opinion based on a single post or headline. Literally, headline writers are just trying to get an emotional response. They aren’t about accurate information or educating people.
Don’t give blanket support to any person or organization. Other than Jesus, everybody is sus for me. When I see a home sports team furious about a call by the ref, I always think how they would cheer if it was in favor of their team. If Trump/Biden does something that makes you mad, ask yourself if you'd feel differently if it was “your guy,” and be honest about it.
Have a strong reference point to assess information. Like Rene Descartes, I have found foundational truth which I use to assess everything else. For me, that is scripture. I’ve put years into understanding the concepts relayed in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. Everything else gets held up against this standard, and modern concepts which are decades or centuries old may or may not hold up against truths millennia in the making. If your reference point is your own opinion or how you feel about information, God help you.
As a side benefit, the approach of always asking another question can make you a better conversationalist as well. People who constantly talk about themselves are just zero fun. So don’t be that person. Ask people questions, and if you do this often enough with a broad enough scope, you’ll find that you are harder to manipulate by just one source of information.
Ask enough questions and do enough listening, and you may end up with an opinion that has true value; and the wisdom to know what to do with it. And it’ll become easy to recognize those who don’t listen and don’t ask questions, so that you can avoid wasting your time with worthless opinions.