Saturday, June 6, 2015

‘Knowledge shall be increased’ but Wisdom is Falling to Information Overload

Have you ever seen a headline, watched a video, or read an article about something really important and wondered why it’s not getting covered by the news? You might ask yourself, “Why is nobody talking about this?”

Today’s world of knowledge and information has positives and negatives. On the positive side, it’s very possible thanks to mass communication in general and the internet in particular to get the word about just about anything. The negatives, and there are many, include tabloid journalism, massive time-sucking distractions everywhere, a focus on “big news” rather than important news, and a general feeling of information overload that keeps people talking about Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner or fussing over the release of Fallout 4 rather than taking any time to see how the world is in need of help.

There are revivals happening everywhere. The spreading of the Gospel has been particularly pronounced in the Middle East, Africa, and east Asia where access to a Bible is challenging. With all of the good that is happening, western society is still turning a blind eye to so many things that truly deserve our attention.

Here are a few important topics that you probably weren’t aware of based upon standard news consumption that deserve attention. Keep in mind that these are stories that have come to light just in the last couple of days. Knowing this, ask yourself what else you’re missing, what other stories deserve attention, support and prayers.

  • Human Traffickers Buying Children in Nepal for $500 Each – Before the earthquakes that affected hundreds of thousands in the region, people were taking 15,000 girls from Nepal. Now, it’s easier to convince villagers with a huge sum of money for them and a promise that they’ll “find work” for these young girls.
  • ISIS is Using Chemical Weapons – There are no rules in the caliphate. That’s the justification for acting outside of any decrees by the world governments for the Islamic State.
  • Dangerous Chemical Used to Line 44% of Food Cans – Despite the ease through which the chemical BPA could be eliminated from our food infrastructure, there has been little effort by the US and most western governments to keep it out of the linings of our food products. It has been linked to digestive problems as well as brain development in children.
  • 18 Christians Sentenced to Prison for their Faith in Iran – The world powers seem bent on doing whatever it takes to make a deal with Iran, yet the country continues to do the very things that the world alleges to be against.

Originally, I intended to list out all 14 articles I had selected as important but receiving very little attention from mainstream media, but it started making me too angry. You get the point. Things are happening around all around us, whether down the block, across the country, or around the world. The reason that we don’t normally hear about them is that they are either too “small” to make national headlines or they are intentionally blocked based upon the repercussions they could have.

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.Daniel 12:4 (KJV)
We’ve written in the past about how conspiracy theories can be misleading for Christians (and everybody for that matter) but there is a fine line between staying on top of alternative news and falling into the trap of believing everything you hear.

It isn’t just the lack of coverage for important issues. There’s a worse trend that has been present for longer than we’d like to admit but that is reaching a tipping point in the last couple of years. The internet is not only the home of distracting information. There are organizations that have the singular goal of spreading disinformation and spinning good information. What has been labeled as trolling doesn’t really do justice to what’s happening. There are instances of spin doctoring that happen so often that it’s hard to know what to believe anymore.

The NY Times wrote an interesting article about “The Agency,” an organization in Russia that goes around the internet posting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, running fake blogs, and engaging on social media to post vitriol about the west while making the Kremlin look good. It’s not the only one. With China and Iran running similar programs, it’s probably not even the biggest with over 400 employees.

The powers that be will do whatever they can to denounce the west, to fight Christianity, and to spread hate. These organizations are designed for multiple purposes. Most are political. Some are religious, particularly those who support the Islamic State. Some are designed for sheer chaos.

Then, there are those who are doing things for allegedly righteous reasons but who tend to do more harm than good. This includes the plethora of blogs and social accounts that spread inaccurate information or misguided beliefs about topics such as the end times, a new world order, or government corruption. This site has been accused of being in this group.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no clear solution. Despite searching for the last couple of years for news sources that can be trusted, the results have been depressing. Nearly all of the sites out there have something wrong with them. They don’t report the right news. They don’t report accurate news. I wish this article had a solution, but it doesn’t. The only thing we can suggest is to stay in constant prayer and do your best to discern.

The one piece of solid advice we can give is to not allow the distractions to get in your way. It’s so easy to lose focus, to go off in the wrong direction, or to be misled down an inappropriate path. If you keep on task and find the information with discernment in your heart and then help to spread the righteous information out there, then perhaps wisdom can increase as fast as information is, at least for a handful of people.

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