Conspiracy. Conspiracy theories. Fake news. Fake media. Disinformation. Misinformation. Propaganda.
Such words, and words like them, have entered the mainstream, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the average person to navigate the choppy waters of on and offline truth and lies. How did we get here, sensible people are asking?
And what do we do about it, is their follow-up question.
Enter Jared Stacy, who’s written an immensely helpful and apocalyptic doctoral thesis (which is becoming a book) on conspiracy theories, theological paranoia, and North American evangelicalism.
Now, having just said that, I am aware that you either got very interested or very disinterested in what’s ahead. If you’re in the former category, excellent. Jared’s got some great wisdom to share with us. If you’re in the latter category, please give this conversation a chance before you walk away.
I hope—maybe even promise?—that we don’t get overly judgy or technical.
In fact, as Ellul wrote in his prescient book Propaganda, “I insist that to give [the warnings I do in my work] is an act in the defence of [people], that I am not judging propaganda with Olympian detachment, and that having suffered, felt, and analyzed the impact of the power of propaganda on myself, having been time and again, and still being, the object of propaganda, I want to speak of it as a menace which threatens the total personality."
Jared and I attempt to speak from a similar place of self-awareness. Nobody, not even you, me, or Jared are immune to the causes and effects of propaganda, conspiracy theories, fake news, paranoia, and so on. And the moment we think we are, that is when we are most at risk.
So please, listen, and reflect, with care.
Bio
Jared Stacy (PhD, Uni of Aberdeen) is a theologian and chaplain. He is the author of an upcoming book with Harper Collins on American evangelicalism and conspiracy theory. His research focuses on theological resistance to political extremisms and conspiracism. He lives in Tampa Bay.
Links
"The theological paranoia driving conspiracy theory among Christians" (article)
Additional Resources
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After Ten Years
Howard Thurman, The Fascist Masquerade
Jacques Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
Kristen Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne
Cal Newport, Digitial Minimalism
Jeffrey Bilbro, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News