What a crazy word in which we currently living. Among the weirdest things of our times is our fascination with conspiracy theories – or perhaps our ability to spread such theories with little or no effort, and little or no fact-checking through social media and other internet options.
In 2004, the Boston Globe declared that we were in “the golden age of conspiracy theory.” Some research seems to suggest that the number of conspiracy theories has been constant since the 1960s, but that our fascination with them is greater because of, once again, the ability to disseminate them so easily via internet sites. (www.theconversation.com)
In my lifetime, I can remember conspiracy theories about the 1960 Presidential election, the assassination of President Kennedy, assassination of Dr. King, President Nixon’s trip to China, Watergate, the Vietnam Peace Accord, the Clinton real estate deals and murders, 9/11, the birth place of President Obama, the election of 2016, and of course the current fascination with conspiracy theories – in abundance – about the pandemic. (I know I have left out many, many others!)
I suspect there were “conspiracy theories” in abundance about 2,000 years ago, when people felt a vested interest in saying that Jesus could not actually have been raised from the dead in bodily form. I’ll come back to that in a moment.
Conspiracy theories must have been a bit of an issue in the world of the first-century church, otherwise why would Paul warn Timothy, a young preacher he was molding, to “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come”? (1 Timothy 4:7,8, ESV)
It interests me that the contrast for Paul as he writes to Timothy is “irreverent, silly myths” versus “training yourself for godliness.” Can you imagine what a different world we would be living in if, rather than passing along “irreverent, silly myths,” the people of God were actively engaged in “training ourselves for godliness”? After all, godliness holds promise not only for the life we currently live, but the life we will live eternally with God.
Some of you reading this will remember the name Chuck Colson. He was deeply involved in the Watergate disaster. Somewhere I remember a quote from him saying something like, “I would run over my grandmother if it would help get Nixon re-elected.” But I hope you remember that Colson, convicted and jailed Colson, became a follower of Jesus and developed an impressive prison ministry before he died several years ago.
It seems to be a fair assessment of Colson’s pre-follower-of-Jesus life to say that he knew something about conspiracy theories. He went to jail because it was impossible for a relatively small group of conspirators to keep the lid on what really happened in Watergate.
Years later, when asked about why he believed the essential truth of the Christian gospel – that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead – Colson said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one (sic) was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world – and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”
Perhaps Paul gave us just the right word for this weird time in which we live. In Ephesians 4:15, he said, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” (ESV) What if that sentence became the standard by which we determine what we post on social media, or pass along orally, or otherwise promote in our culture?
I’m not sure why conspiracy theories seem so much more attractive than truth, but I am sure that God, through Christ, has called us to truth, not conspiracy theories.
Wye Huxford 