Discernment

Jeremiah Johnson, after publicly admitting January 7 that he had wrongly prophesied that Trump would win the election: “Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. … I truthfully never realized how absolutely triggered and ballistic thousands and thousands of saints get about Donald Trump. It’s terrifying.

“A new study from Nashville-based Lifeway Research finds 49 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they frequently hear members of their congregation repeating conspiracy theories they have heard about why something is happening in the country.” - BPNews

“As QAnon and other conspiracy theories begin to lose traction, pastors and church leaders face a decision. We can pretend that conspiracy theories were never really a threat to our congregation and simply move on unchanged….

“This brings me to another question of discernment, viz., the question of falsifiability, or, ‘What would it take to change my mind?’” - Snoeberger

“My point here is not to say that we must believe everything that the scientific community says about masks and social distancing and recommended shutdowns and vaccines. It is possible that there are some very terrible mistakes being made. But if so, they are just that: mistakes.

“With Christians split on the issue, some urge vaccination as a form of neighborly love, while others leave it up to conscience.” - CToday

“Piercey used his involvement with Bethel Church in Redding to draw people into investing in his scheme… . experts believe groups like churches are particularly vulnerable to such schemes…refer to the phenomenon of con artists targeting church groups as ‘affinity fraud.’” - CLeaders

“If you put your faith in President Trump’s claim of a presidential election stolen through massive alteration of votes through the use of voting software, and in the legal skills of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, I am sorry to tell you that you have been conned.” - N. Review

“The application is obvious, isn’t it? We have the sober and sobering responsibility to be careful—so very careful—about who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we allow to influence us.” - Challies