Has the country gone mad? A recent Pew Research Center survey indicates that 48%, roughly half of American adults, believe the government should take steps to restrict false information, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content. Even worse, 65% of Democrats surveyed say the government should take steps to restrict false information even if it means limiting freedom of information. This is counterbalanced by 70% of Republicans that say freedom of information should be protected even if some false information is published. Freedom of thought, speech and religion are the very foundation on which the United States is built, and half the US population wants to restrict it.
Trouble is the definition of false information. Who decides? Last week, for example, my story “COVID vaccines, science and common sense” was blocked by Facebook, even though CDC statistics and other scientific studies were central to the story. It was one of those situations where many Daily Jot readers chastised me because they believed I was supporting CDC—I wasn’t, I was just quoting their numbers. Facebook, obviously, thought I was publishing “false” information about people getting COVID despite being vaccinated and possible long-term side effects. All the story was journalistically documented using named sources from reputable organizations. Yet, I got the “treatment” from both sides.
Many people, both Christians and nonbelievers, are seeing “truth” these days from the lens of what they really want to believe. If someone publishes something they don’t want to hear, the purveyor of that information is considered an enemy. And many people are willing to believe the most outrageous claims without so much as a few strokes of the keyboard to verify whether it is accurate. This is occurring on a variety of issues from the false propaganda that a president can legally be reinstated by the military to COVID vaccines being effective and safe to people questioning someone’s salvation if they don’t believe the same things about the rapture. The hate and judgment resulting from these disagreements is extreme.
Common sense is really the imprint of God’s hand on the soundness of our minds. As believers in the one true God, we should be able to discern right from wrong, danger from safety, and behave accordingly. The Apostle Paul forewarns in 2 Timothy 4:3-5, ”For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But you watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry.” We, as Christians indwelled by the Holy Spirit, should have a thirst for the truth, not for making the truth what we want to believe. Let us have a burning desire for freedom in Truth—Christ, who makes us free.
