(45) Conspiracy Theory

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Conspiracy Theory, originally shared on September 7, 2020. It was the forty-fifth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Today is Labor Day, a day to celebrate the contribution of those who labor to provide the materials for our lives and our economy. We also consider the Christian concept of vocation, or “calling”.

   The word vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare”, to call.  I remember when the only people who were thought to have a particular calling were pastors, those who were called to a ministry of word an sacrament.

   But, gradually, we recovered Martin Luther’s theology of calling, that everyone is called by God to some life’s work. We are all called to lives of service, service in answering our calling from the one true living God. Finding out what that is one of the most important things we do. Knowing what our call is gives life meaning and purpose. It is our ministry.

   This is a weird Labor Day with the pandemic restricting travel and, now, the fires. The fires in Southern California are not near to us, but they are all around us. The weather symbol on our weather app today is “Smoke”.

   The COVID-19 pandemic, though most indicators are on the decline, is still setting records. Deaths passed the 6,200 mark in LA County, and the number of confirmed cases passed the 6 million mark in the United States.

   Our temperatures are also setting records with Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley region, hitting 121 degrees yesterday, a record high for LA County. When our son was in Boy Scouts we went on a 50-mile canoe trip from the Hoover Dam down the Colorado River through the Mojave Desert. It got to be 120 degrees and the shampoo I had packed in a zip-lock bag exploded!

   So do rising coronavirus deaths mean that the virus is real? Or, does ever increasing temperatures and a now year-round fire season mean that global warming is real? Not everyone things so.

   Some people believe they are hoaxes. Falsehoods presented as either theories or facts to raise questions or mislead a gullible public. Some people say the same is true of the Church and of Christianity itself.

*2 Timothy 4:1-5

   There is a place online where you can go to find all kinds of conspiracy theories to explain anything you want. For most people, it’s not a place to find the truth, but to justify one’s fears and prejudices. To explain your lot in life. To tell you it’s not your fault. To tell you that there are powerful, but invisible, forces controlling both you and the world around you. But, you, and a select few, know what is really going on. You have cracked the code. You have learned what only the elite insiders know. Some of their power, their secret knowledge, can rub off on you.  

   It’s called QAnon. It’s on the Dark Web, a place established to hide criminal activity that has expanded to a forum for conspiracy theories. It’s invisible to search engines and requires a browser that makes you anonymous.

   I’ve never been there; I just read that on the internet, because it’s not very secret anymore.

   What does QAnon mean? Q stands for Quelle, which I know from my German studies, and which anyone who is a student of the Bible knows from the theory of the Q Document. Stay with me here.

   Anyone reading the Bible has noticed that the writers of the first three books of the New Testament, the gospels Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have a similar structure and similar and, in some cases almost identical, material. That’s why they are called the synoptic gospels, from the Greek work for “same”. The fourth of the four gospels, John, has a very different structure, style of the original Greek, and use of the material about Jesus.

   Mark is believed to be the first gospel written, then Matthew and Luke. Matthew and Luke include their own original material, as well as material that each uses from Mark.

   In addition, there is material that is used in each that appears to have come from another source or “Quelle” in the German of the original expounders of this theory.

   This material consists mostly of sayings and is referred to in the literature simply as the Q document. It seems to have come from another source, or “quelle” in German.

   This theory of another source, which is called by German theologians “The Q Document”, and possibly called “The Sayings of Jesus” because that’s what most of this material is believed to have been lost almost from the beginning of the Christian movement.

   Anon is short for “anonymous” so QAnon is short for Anonymous Source. It’s a place for publishing conspiracy theories which must be revealed anonymously, because, you know, the conspiracies are powerful and far reaching and someone might be in danger for exposing these theories if their true identity were to become known.

   Anyone can post anything without anyone else able to call them out by name. There is no reputation to protect.

   That’s why reputable news sources require at least two independent, verifiable reports before they will publish anything, and it is very unusual when they do not give the name of at least one source. That’s how they stay reputable. Otherwise, they could say anything, would eventually be found out, and there goes their reputation.

   Conspiracy theories feed on ignorance and powerlessness. When the events shaping our lives spiral out of control, we search for a cause. We are greatly comforted by those who say it’s not our fault, that we are the victims of powerful unseen forces. Everyone else is sheep, easily led and too stupid to see what is really going on.

   Leaders tap into this and promise that they too see this truth and that they and only they, or their political party, or social movement, or righteous cause, stand between you and chaos.

   It doesn’t have to be true, it only has to offer a credible explanation for your misery, and they have you.

*John 18:37-38a

*John 14:6

   What is truth? It is a person.

   How do we determine what is true? Ask yourself who has something to gain? Do I trust this source? What are the alternatives, and how hard is it to be exposed to the other end of the spectrum? Am I being encouraged to be a critical thinker? And, am I practicing critical thinking?

   Ultimately, we know the truth because of the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, streams of living water, opening up our hearts and revealing the presence of Christ within us, the way, the truth, and the life.