"A lie is still a lie no matter how many believe it. The truth is still the truth even if no one believes it."
It sure seems as though truth = lies today, and lies have become truth. Everything is haywire as a result. If we truly take our charters of freedom seriously, then we should still recognize that all rights and all freedoms come ultimately from God, and not man. Rather, what we have today is that everyone has become an expert on God, and can effectively (better than God himself) tell us what God would do, or would think, rather than actually appeal to anything we DO know about God. Everyone is creating their own personal god, and these gods are based largely on lies, personal feelings, and often pithy soundbites and memes that themselves are based largely on lies, or at the very least, a gross distortion of truth.
It's easy to spew those out. Then, when it actually comes to doing something constructive or helpful, we end up with this:
It is now a very effective way to create "trends" on the internet, but sadly it requires little to no actual effort on the part of the user. It's a Hashtag: A quick way to promote a cause, and get people to buy into it. It's a means of getting people to agree to something without having to do much else. Case in point: the aforementioned kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian Christian girls by Boko Haram, presumably to be converted for the purpose of wives or to be sold into sex slavery. What did you hear of them after, other than the hashtag campaign? Nothing was done here, other than the hashtag campaign, which lasted a few weeks at most. Yet Nigeria still maintains a website with information, and from their own website: 57 ESCAPED, 4 FOUND, 106 RELEASED, 4 INFANTS WITH OUR GIRLS, 19 PARENTS DEAD, 113 STILL MISSING!
These hashtags are the internet sound bites: quick, pithy little statements that are preceded by a “#” which allows them to be tracked on the internet. So trending topics, such as the #bringbackourgirls” campaign, can be easily identified. It was very popular for a few days. But I wouldn’t even call the brief awareness that it created anything substantive as far as a resolution or result.
Sadly, among theologians and the internet, it seems that today what most are getting is “hashtag theology.” Quick, pithy soundbite styled memes that are posted on social media to make a point, with no supporting documentation or facts to back them. In other words - its stuff based purely on a lie, most often. A recent example: A facebook meme floating around is one which purportedly pushes, as Christian duty, to get residents of Great Britain to welcome Syrian and other refugees into their country, but does so by attempting to create guilt in claiming that Great Britain is at fault for creating the refugees in the first place. It begins with this line: “Over the last 200 years, Britain has systematically invaded, ravaged and destabilized just about every country in the world.” (I can no longer find a link to this meme)
Now when pushing the poster about this claim, and asking for examples of some of the countries that were invaded by Great Britain in the last 200 years, this is what I got: “I do believe the first settlers to America came from Britain? (settlements do not equate to invasion/ravagement/destabilization). I do believe the civil war was between the U.S. And Britain? (Seriously?) I do believe Australia was colonized by Britain sending its prisoners there? (So far we're up to 2, even though some are lies and mistruths) Modern day terrorists are funded by....you guessed it, the USA & Britain!” (of course, because it keeps the war industry going, or some similar nonsense like that...) Like the Michael Brown and Ferguson Missouri situation with “hands up, don’t shoot.” - what might be a great humanitarian thing is based on and being justified by lies (I especially like the Civil War one...).
Seek the truth, because what is good and true in all God’s creation doesn’t change just because it is rejected by the masses. Be faithful to the truth. Live by it. In so doing, preserve it for a future generation that will need to know and learn it once again. America will never be great again until we re-learn to put God first.
