Day 2 - Fake news

Today is the topical strand. Fake news is topical and here is a definition: fake news is false information that is disseminated through various media purporting to be legitimate news for nefarious or political reasons. We all know who currently wears the crown as king of fake news!

Aside from fake news there is a phenomenon of the ‘half-life of facts’ which means that things we hold to be true can be debunked or updated. A fairly big example of this is Pluto; in 1930 this planet was discovered and named. However, in 2006, it was reclassified as a dwarf planet because it is too small to exert its own gravitational pull. (It is quite a bit smaller than our moon.)

Does fake news influence us when we read the Bible? Firstly, I would suggest that we remind ourselves that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour and that we are convinced of that not only by the written word of the Bible but also because we have the Holy Spirit of the Lord living in us.

Spoiler alert: there is what appears to be fake news in the Bible. An old favourite of mine, because it is easy to find, is the contrast in the coverage of creation, as found in Genesis 1:1-2:4a and then Genesis 2:4a-25. The New International Version actually introduces the Genesis 2 account with this editorial heading: Another Account of the Creation. But if the Bible can be trusted, how can we have two vastly different accounts of creation? (If you want to find out about this, sign up for the Congregational Federation GIFT programme!)

A current controversy is over homosexuality in Christians. Fake news, aka ‘ill-informed news’ which in fact most of us were brought up with, is that God hates the sin of homosexuality but loves the sinner who commits the sin.

Let’s look at an example of how this might be fake news. Here is YHWH talking to Abram: He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ (Genesis 15:5 NRSV) Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ (This is more poetic than Genesis 13:16 which uses dust instead of stars.)

The Word of God was all these people had: no science, no encyclopaedias, no BBC verify. So they strived to continue to populate the earth: that is why barren women were scorned and shunned; that is why homosexuals among the Israelites were to be put to death (Leviticus 20:13).

According to Matthew’s gospel (chapter 27), Judas hanged himself and the Potter’s Field was bought by the Chief Priests who could not accept the blood money back. In Acts 1 we learn that Judas bought the field himself and, falling headlong, he burst open and his bowels gushed out. Does it matter how Jesus’ betrayer died? Not to me. However, am I, by explaining why gay Christians are okay in the 21st century, actually peddling fake news?

Elaine Kinchin