“Are you less busy at the moment? I have a request for you to manage confidentially…”
Did you get this message from me last Sunday afternoon? Some of you did. Thanks for reaching out and checking before making the mistake of getting involved. It was a scam! This has happened before, but this particular scammer did some homework, I think. The email address had several components that seemed legitimate, the cause seemed like something a pastor might deem important, and the distribution list was to people that I contact all the time. At least three shreds of truth but the underlying scheme was a lie.
As I responded to your texts, emails, and messages Sunday evening I started thinking about truth. Pundits and pollsters try to convince us that truth is relative. Those who study generational data inform us that fewer and fewer people these days believe there is absolute truth. The result of these trends is, among other things, that “truth” is weaponized to defeat one’s foe and leveraged to carry out one’s agenda. In most every message foisted upon us today through the media there is a shred of truth, but it is nearly always accompanied by a litany of half-truths or outright falsehoods.
My message regarding these broader cultural tactics is similar to the message I sent many of you Sunday evening. “It’s a scam. Don’t respond. Don’t fall for it.”
Pastor, you and your flock are under a constant deluge of information; some of it legitimate and necessary; much of it propaganda and garbage. The most dangerous of these messages contain just enough truth to “push our buttons,” to pique our interest, to appeal to the greater good, and to scare us into action. “It’s a scam. Don’t respond. Don’t fall for it.”
Instead, be informed. Do some research and behave like a conscientious citizen. Immerse yourself in the teachings of Jesus Christ in the gospels. Jesus lived and taught a Kingdom ethic, and it is not mysteriously hidden. It is right there. Start with Matthew 5-7. That should clear up quite a bit of the nonsense. Surround yourself with a church family that is focused on evangelism and discipleship. There’s nothing like the cause of Christ to refocus our thinking and motivate our actions. Finally, pray. Jesus said that his Spirit would guide us into all truth. Yes, there is truth, and it is found in Christ and the way of the cross.
Perhaps Jesus’ words to his followers in Matthew 10: 16 offer the best direction, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
For the record, my email is sam@sconaz.org. If the address isn’t that, it isn’t me. Additionally, I will never ask you to send money or gift cards in this way.
