Snippet: Click Bait, Manipulating Facts, and Guarding Our Hearts

snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

This is from Miles Park in a segment from NPR’s “All Things Considered,” covering the phenomenon that is Ben Shapiro and his The Daily Wire company:

“The articles The Daily Wire publishes don't normally include falsehoods (with some exceptions), and the site said it is committed to ‘truthful, accurate and ethical reporting.’ But as Settle explains, by only covering specific stories that bolster the conservative agenda (such as negative reports about socialist countries and polarizing ones about race and sexuality issues) and only including certain facts, readers still come away from The Daily Wire's content with the impression that Republican politicians can do little wrong and cancel culture is among the nation's greatest threats.”

I heard a commentary on this NPR piece that pointed out the irony of NPR running what they called a “hit piece” on Ben Shapiro since they do the same thing but from the left and without as much success. The comment was not from a conservative site.

I think it’s safe to say there are very few news sources today that don’t scream bias and skew issues by covering only certain stories and including only certain facts (or, you might say, conveniently excluding certain facts). Get ready for a whole new rash of these kinds of stories if our state mandates masks again!

The click-bait-outrage-producing-fear-mongering headlines and selective “reporting” coming from all sides is frustrating, mostly because most of us seem completely unaware of what’s happening, especially when we already agree with the writer’s point of view.

One friend recently described the tension at an extended family reunion. “My mom spends the day with Fox News on in the background and my father-in-law does the same thing with CNN, so it makes things really tense when we have family gatherings.” It wasn’t that people were fighting, but it made conversations about almost anything tense or taboo.

We can also see the divide in churches. There are more and more horror stories of church’s teetering on the verge of collapse or where members are flinging lawsuits over these kinds of divides.

And a lot of Gen Z and Millennials report fleeing the church (and sometimes their faith) over things like this. (Frankly, though, it seems to me that the ones fleeing are sometimes just as bad, except they’re listening exclusively to opposing opinions.)

I get this. I had to apologize to one of my extended family members months ago when I found myself repeating talking points from one of my favorite “Christian worldview” podcasts instead of really listening to her concerns.

So what can we do about this?

Some people have to stop listening all day to their favorite news source. I think anyone who does this knows it’s unhealthy. It’s a very emotionally draining and relationally destructive addiction.

Some people stop keeping up on the news. I won’t do that, and I know a lot of others for whom that’s simply not an option.

Read all sides? Doesn’t help, according to some who point out that it only confirms what you thought about the other side. Say you’re politically progressive and you read a Daily Wire article that conveniently leaves out facts. Or you’re a committed conservative listening to NPR’s version of the same thing. It’ll only make you angrier.

Here’s another approach. I’ve not heard it before. But what if you read each side as if they were lawyers in a court of law. A lawyer will never make the case for the opposition. Each side needs good representation and needs to make it’s case. And you are the judge. You’ve heard the biased cases and convenient facts from each side. Now you decide.

One fly in the ointment of that idea is that these “lawyers” completely ignore the arguments from the other side and the questions (many of them legitimate) that the other side raises..

There are a growing number news sources that are trying to be fair to the other side and clear about their own biases. I often mention “The World and Everything In It” and the “Church Politics” podcasts as two such resources I find helpful. There are others.

At the very least, though, let’s be consciously aware of what’s actually happening when we take in the news, even when (or particularly when) we listen to views we agree with. What have they left out? Have they accurately portrayed those with whom they disagree? What facts have they cherry picked to bolster their argument? Have they addressed thoughtful objections to their position? What are the holes in their arguments?

Fail to ask these questions and we’re sucked into a vortex that’s spiritually damaging, emotionally draining, and relationally destructive.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash

"Talk me off the ledge...with the gospel!"

I think this is a phrase we need to use more often, with the right people.

For example, if masks are once again mandated in public places or in schools in our state or community, a lot of us are going to need to be talked off the ledge.

For some, it’ll be anger that so many people (more than ever) will defy the mandate.

For many (if not most in my circles), it’ll be about the mandate itself.

I recently had a meeting in coffee shop in St. Paul. There was a new sign right in the middle of the door so no one can miss it. It wasn’t there a month ago. No words. Just a graphic of a person wearing a mask.

I spent about a minute trying to figure out if this was a new mandate in St. Paul, and if it wasn’t, would I be disrespectful not wearing one.

I decided to wear it out of respect for the owners and staff, but even as I decided to do that, I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing.

I was driving Lois’ car, and I wasn’t sure she had clean masks in her car. I found one that might or might not have been used before by her. I put it on, but now my temperature was rising, and my mind was racing.

When I sat down with the folks I went there to meet (to talk about issues of race and the church among other things), I was tied up in knots emotionally.

My emotions weren’t spiraling down for the usual reasons people get upset about masks but because I was projecting a future where this might once again be an issue for our gatherings as a church.

Some people have asked me whether our staff has talked about potential new mask mandates. I explain that we’ve tried, but then we all start twitching, and we have to put off all discussion until a later time.

But i have to admit, part of my agitation stemmed from that sign on the door. Let’s just say it was a rush of thoughts and frustrations.

Here’s what happened next. The urban pastor I was meeting with addressed my agitation. He helped talk me off the ledge.

Quite frankly, his “in-this-urban-and-poor-cultural-context-with-a-more-collective-mindset-than-suburban-individualism” explanations weren’t working on me. At least not that day. And probably, in part, because we were in a coffee shop on Selby under an apartment building poor people can’t afford.

Then he pulled out the big guns—the gospel. He said two or three things I already know, but I needed to be reminded of. And he said them in a gentle and calm manner, not accusing me, but including himself in the need to remember.

My temperature started to go down. We started talking about something else. And later I thanked him for talking me off the ledge.

Later on I also remembered that I never get a pass from God to set aside the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Next time I get triggered like this, I hope I can remember to ask a trusted Christian brother or sister to talk me off the ledge and do it by getting to the gospel as quickly and as gently as possible.

Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash