Discipleship

January 25, 2021

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.’ Then the Lord replied to me: ‘They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.’

Fake news is an overwhelming force in our society today. As we see from the scripture above, fake news has existed at least since Moses. God assures us God will hold those who participate in spreading fake news accountable. What do we do in the meantime? Fake news comes in many variations. Some of it is just pure fiction from start to finish. If it is repeated enough by various sources, fake news can take on a life of its own. Then we have words taken out of context or only portions of a statement representing the opposite of what the person was intending. How do we find and follow ethical communications? How do we assure we do not believe something we hear because it is what we want rather than what is? How do we communicate with one another when we take in information with markedly different understandings? How do we love all of God’s children when we rest our entire worth and understanding of God on differing worldviews?

First and foremost, we must define our ethics-moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity*. Moses brought the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) to the Israelites; Jesus instructed his followers to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). If we take steps to assess information honestly, much of it falls in the category of fake news when it fails to meet the standards of these two sources of ethical behavior. For example, fake news is often designed to fulfill greed.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in finding your moral center and adapting it to become ours. Amen.

*https://www.google.com/search?q=ethics&rlz=1C1CHZN_enUS922US922&oq=ethics&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i433j46i175i199j0i131i433j0i395i433l2j0i131i395i433j0i395i433.1863j1j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.