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Discernment, balance and wisdom

There's a lot of nonsense being written, spoken and spread during this season. Of course it has always been this way, but social media and many of us spending time and getting information online seems to have amplified this.

What is needed, especially but not exclusively, for Christians is discernment, balance and wisdom.

There is politicized nonsense: both left and right using the pandemic, economic issues, Brexit etc for point scoring. For example: is being asked to wear a mask really about creeping government control over our lives, or a sensible act of love for neighbours?

Added to this is spiritualized rehtoric. I heard an online sermon recently from a pastor I have some real-world acquaintance with. It was on being ready for Jesus' return (nothing wrong with that!). But she just about stopped short of making anti-vaccine comments, and then trotted out stuff about new world orders, and all kinds of things that I'm personally not sure were helpful (and not just because we clearly have very different eschatology).

Linked to the above (and to my previous post) is the narrative of "persecution" from some quarters (mainly, though not exclusively from the USA) about restrictions on church gatherings and the issues with corporate singing. I wonder why some will always default to an "everyone is out to get us" mindset?

Yes these are strange times, and we need to be those who "discern the times". But let's seek wisdom, balance and be careful what sources we give our attention to.

I appreciated this from Adrian Warnock:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/adrianwarnock/2020/08/christians-must-stop-lying-about-covid19/

And this on conspiracy theories is worth a look

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