‘False reports’: What the Bible says about fake news
When it comes to spreading fake news, are you part of the problem? You shouldn’t be. A word from Exodus.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes” — Jonathan Swift, not Mark Twain
Whenever you read a quote that laments The World, they’re really talking about us. You and me. As fallen and susceptible to wrong as anyone else.
Wrong is one thing. Lies are worse, especially when they’re used to slander a person’s character.
The Ninth Commandment warns us against being the source of the slander. Exodus 20:16 reads: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
Exodus 23:1 takes it a step further. It reads: “Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.”
This attacks false reports — Fake News — at the distribution level.
Exodus 23:1 puts the onus on we, the people, to halt the spread of accusation and malice.
This falls on the sharer of news, not the author. That you didn’t write the falsehood matters not. By sharing it, you become part of the problem. By definition.
There were false reports long before newspapers, or the news business.
And centuries before the telephone was created, or the Telephone Game after it, people were adding their own little spin on stories, to make them more interesting.
Newspapers and phones were created to play on our human need to be in other people’s business, and to connect. The needs were always there, even when the mediums and the technology were not.
Which brings us back to ourselves, Dear Reader.
Yes, people who lie about their neighbors are sinful. Any Sunday School student can see that.
What you might not realize is that in spreading false reports — or those we have reason to believe to be false — we become liars ourselves.
We help wicked men and act as a malicious witness. That’s a lot of sin for a scheme you’re not in on. What do you think you’re accomplishing?
The teller of falsehoods knows what they’re doing, and why, and has apparently decided the ends justify the means. Are you just as committed, Dear Reader? Are you a true believer? Or are you the dupe in someone else’s scheme?
There is no morally upstanding version of this.
You shared the link to make fun of it, did you? You shared it to pwn the writer? OK, but hate clicks count the same as love clicks. Pwners spend even more time reading the news than fans.
Hate makes us work at cross purposes. Rid it from your heart.
You can’t stop fake news at the source. It’s a multibillion dollar industry, which demands you exist in a constant triggered state. Triggered, scared people are the ones who click push alerts, the type to Continue Watching. We pray for them.
But we can’t be like them. The answer is both easy and simple: Stop sharing fake news. Stop sharing stories that slander your neighbors. Period.
The next time you see the media turn a 17-year-old Catholic school kid into Public Enemy No. 1, or hear that a Supreme Court candidate conducted weekly sex parties while in high school, click that little red X in the corner of your screen. That’s enough fake news for today.
It’s not quite a Commandment, but it is an order.