By Elizabeth Prata

The other day when Sen. Lindsey Graham collapsed and died suddenly upon returning home from engaging in seemingly healthy activity during a trip to Ukraine, Twitter/X came alive with conspiracy theories that he might have been poisoned or otherwise assassinated in some way. An autopsy result today reported that he died from a ruptured aorta due to heart disease.

The basis for conspiracy theories is skepticism and distrust. (sometimes mental unbalance, but that is more an individual than mass problem).

It does get wearisome to see them pop up all the time. But in one way, I think it’s good there is so much skepticism, it’s warranted. It is a natural fallout from government or other powers constantly lying, engaging in fraud, and making coverups the last 2 or so decades. The constant lying is wearisome to the populace. A natural fallout is immediate suspicion, which grows into conspiracies.

President Ronald Reagan used to say in the 1980s when negotiating with the Russians to make treaties, “Trust, but verify.” Those days are long gone, and now it seems that people “Disbelieve, then verify. Maybe.” Government has earned this, especially after the alleged “pandemic” disaster that shut down the world. Sadly, it has become ingrained to default to disbelief first rather than trust first.

Yet, certain segments of the Christian faith do have a well-documented tendency to conspiracy theories. The root oftentimes comes from an undue focus on apocalyptic theology tied to newspaper eisegesis. Newspaper eisegesis is when people look at newspaper headlines and backdate them into the Bible to ‘prove’ the end is nigh. We know the end is nigh because the Bible says so. We are in the end times. (Revelation 1:3, 1 Peter 4:7, James 5:8-9).

Headline exegesis is a pejorative for the practice of trying to determine where the world is in end-times prophecy according to current news stories. GotQuestions

When people get too wrapped up in only one aspect of the Bible instead of balancing the whole counsel of God in their minds, it tends to skew one’s perspective. This is good ground for conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories also are born from a sincere desire to understand, or even absorb rapid changes in our culture. Everything IS sped up these days, and changes occur so fast it makes ones head spin. Global technology spurs this cultural dizziness, we see more things happening in faster time than ever.

In 2003 I remember being stunned when a large earthquake occurred in the southern part of New Zealand, half a world away from me. I went to Youtube and saw videos of the area and the dust was still in the air! We see global events happening in real time now, when we never could before. I grew up in a time when we only learned these things days later in the newspaper or on the news broadcasts, if at all. This rapidity in our current day, in my opinion, has unsettled us.

Sometimes our critical thinking goes away when we distrust as a default or we cannot comprehend massive rapid changes around us. It is sad when people disbelieve and never verify. AI has made this both easier and harder. Artificial Intelligence videos seem real and many people take them as genuine. Others in an ironic twist, use AI to disprove an AI video or photo.

For example, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R), is Kentucky’s longest serving Senator (since 1984). He is 84 years old. The Senator was hospitalized on June 14 after being found unconscious at his home. His constituents nor the general public heard anything about his health progress for weeks. Under growing pressure to relieve the general public, by July 6 his office put out an abrupt non-detailed press release. Pressure increased to learn about his health, even if he was still alive. Still nothing. On July 8, the KY Governor sent a letter asking for information. Rumors rose, pushed along by conservative influencers claiming they had ‘high-level intel’. Even the President said he had heard nothing about how the aged Senator was doing.

This is the gray area between fact, rumor, and conspiracies. It is not helpful to promote rumors or to pass unfounded alleged intel along. Such activity feeds conspiracies.

Naturally, in the absence of information, conspiracies grew like kudzu, spreading everywhere. So on July 12, a photo of Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao was produced, showing the Senator awake, alert, and smiling in a medical bed. He was holding a prominently displayed newspaper of the same date that brings to mind those hostage pictures showing proof-of-life. That photo was followed by a more detailed press release explaining what had happened and why there was a month-long silence regarding his health status. During that month, conspiracies and rumors flew, some suggesting the Senator was brain dead, or even all dead.

Here is the news story about it. Even after explanations were given, many people still said the photo was AI generated and the writing on the paper was AI gibberish. (It wasn’t). When facts emerge and seem to have been verified, to persist in conspiracies is a foolish controversy the Bible warns against.

During the month-long blackout of information, people filled in the hole with their own rumors. People will always seek to fill a gap with information and if verified info isn’t available, people will let loose their own thoughts, usually negative. That is the human condition, filling an information gap negatively with their own assumptions, from their own bias. It’s called “negativity bias”. As depraved humans we tend to grope for the worst case scenario, and with the government’s behavior over these last decades, almost a generation, we have trained ourselves with good cause to deepen that bias.

We live in an information-rich environment, as I mentioned. We seek out missing details. We even think we deserve those details, even if they are none of our business. We are so used to seeing and knowing everything about everything, and instantly, too. If journalism does not provide the complete picture, our curiosity often manifests as anxiety or anger or suspicion, which causes people to latch onto rumors to resolve their angst.

It’s the lack of transparency that gives rise to conspiracies. This is the fault of the government, other public entities, and the media. I was told in my journalism days by media veterans to write as tightly as possible with few gaps so that people will be satisfied with the information, or at least cannot widen the gaps too far to fill with their own rumors.

The fault of the people is that critical thinking has seemingly gone by the wayside, and people operate on their feelings more than facts. Just as it is incumbent on the government et al to be transparent and forthcoming with information it is incumbent upon us Christians to withstand the curiosity and avoid foolish controversies and conspiracies.

The Bible says to avoid foolish controversies, arguments, quarrels. (Titus 3:9).

2 Timothy 2:23 says But reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for you know that it breeds quarreling.

1 Timothy 6:4 warns that some have a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,

Our generation and generations moving forward have to generate a discipline like previous generations have not had to- restraining ourselves from information overload, from unwarranted curiosity, and to resist promoting conspiracies.