And yet, and yet…

Not sure if you’ve seen it, but on Facebook Marketplace there are often cars that are listed for free. It cracks me up, because they are clearly a scam. And yet the phishers and the scammers keep it up. (Note: the car in above picture is not one of those…it was a very nice car!)

Scams are so plentiful in our world and have been for a long time. The ingenuity and intelligence that go into these processes net scammers millions of dollars, all while depriving some of the weakest in our world of their ability to survive. It is a despicable thing.

This willingness to lie, to deceive, is nothing new. However, what is new with this disease of scamming is that in our metamodern context, the news and communication of world events has been weaponized and monetized. People go to their news apps with the expectation that they’ll learn about what is happening around the globe. In fact they are promised those revelations. But then when the app is opened and the story begun, the facts slide off like a slimy film to reveal the editorial spike beneath.

Again, while the use of subliminal advertising and editorial spin is nothing new, the complete saturation of our mindset is. We cannot receive a message in this world without a corporate or political interest wheedling its way into the conversation.

And here’s the sad reality of our metamodern world: when people are presented with things that have a semblance of truth but are really an ad, the result is often mockery.

Recently the media outlet InfoWars was purchased by The Onion, which has now turned it into a parody site. (No tears here from me for that transition). Beyond that, the Babylon Bee has taken over a portion of the parody space on the internet, mocking the news from a Christian perspective. But at the same time they have created a site called Not the Bee that intends to give straight news about ridiculous and hypocritical world events.

In the world’s madness to persuade and make everything more efficient, we’ve created a mindset that is unable to rise beyond mockery.

I see it in many online forums and in conversation. People of all political stripes look at all news with a disdain and distrust. There is an unwillingness to engage with world events as a result, and conspiracy theories have largely bred in the gaps. Birds Aren’t Real and Flat Earth anyone?

If our metamodern world washes its hands of the issues of our time like Pontius Pilate before Jesus asking the question, “What is truth?” (John 18:28), then what are we to do? If we recognize that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him” (John 14:6), then how do we move forward in our world? What hope do we have against the darkness?

As believers, our call is to tell the truth. Our call is to be people of integrity that step out beyond what would normally be expected to serve the least of these and join with God in redeeming the lost. We’re called to engage in the hard conversations and to put on the full armor of God as we fight the wars in our world against the Father of Lies. We take on the burden to learn, to know, to care, to think. And beyond that, we are called to take compassion on those who have been wounded by the lies of the world and walk with them toward the better paths.

Hard truth here: Cynical and sarcastic Christians don’t uphold the truth. They merely draw people’s attention and affection to their own intelligence and wit. Speaking facetiously and with sarcasm don’t draw glory to God, but only to man. We must be so careful that we do not allow that spirit to become the air we breathe and the language we use.

Jesus wants us to speak life and truth to one another. He wants us to have good humor, but to lean on his joy that he has overcome the world.

Because at the end of the day, if we continue throwing shade at the world should we wonder that its darkness grows?

Signs and wonders y’all.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2