Do we care about truth anymore?
I have my doubts when I look at my social media feeds. I am especially saddened when I see brothers and sisters in Christ share unverified memes, conspiracy theories, and outright fake news.
This problem exists on both the left and the right, but Christians should be different.
We should long to know the truth. We should pray for discernment to distinguish it from lies.
Why? Because we worship a God who IS truth (John 14:6).
When we place our faith in Christ, we are to put away falsehood (Ephesians 4:25). We are to dwell upon what is true (Philippians 4:8).
Far too many Christians, especially in the Trump era, are willing to label news they disagree with as fake news, and, yes, sometimes that label is fair. Sometimes it is not. The skepticism toward mainstream media is well-earned, and unfortunately, they have not done much to rebuild trust.
However, many believers don’t exercise the same skepticism when it comes to news that fits what they believe, the narrative they want to embrace. (The left does this as well, but, again, Christians are the ones who are to put away falsehood. We are the ones who should seek, dwell upon, and speak the truth because Jesus is the truth.)
One example that I’ve seen shared this week is a video from Georgia State Farm Arena in Fulton County that is making the rounds. President Donald Trump shared the video that his lawyers say shows an election supervisor pulling out “suitcases” filled with ballots. This incident happened, they say, after it was announced they were done counting for the night, and poll watchers were told to leave.
The clip below, shared on President Trump’s YouTube channel, is from OANN. I watched the video.
If I put the video on mute, I would have no idea what I was looking at, so it’s far from being smoking-gun evidence of voter fraud.
Let me exercise some critical thinking skills here. It’s not like these cameras were hidden. People who commit illegal acts generally don’t want to be recorded as they do them.
But let’s say they are that brazen, then if the Trump team believes this is rock-solid evidence, it should be part of a lawsuit brought before a judge where it can be cross-examined.
Since Election Day with accusations of voter fraud, my position has been clear. President Trump has every right to bring legal challenges. Voter fraud likely happened, but I’m skeptical about widespread voter fraud to the level where it would swing an election. If President Trump’s campaign has evidence, then bring it to court.
I don’t care about accusations. I don’t care about rhetoric spouted in a press conference. I care about what they can prove in court where evidence can be examined, and witnesses providing testimony do so under oath.
Officials with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office (who is a Republican and Trump supporter) and the State Elections Board dispute the Trump narrative about the video. They both state, on the record, that nothing unusual took place in that video. They also note that observers were not asked to leave, and the only workers that left were those who opened absentee ballot envelopes and verified the ballots for counting. Their job was done. Those left were workers responsible for scanning the ballots because they could not be left overnight without being scanned.
Read the fact check. Yes, sometimes fact checks need to be fact-checked, but in this case, they contacted people who would know. One official is an investigator for the Republican Secretary of State, and the other is a Republican who is Georgia’s voting system implementation manager. Why would they lie?
Anyway, this is just one example from this week. Let’s commit to exercise some healthy skepticism of things we see online (whether they fit what we believe or not) and seek the truth regardless of where it leads.
The truth matters.