Addled Brains

“Hezbollah hit 19 IDF tanks today. That’s $95M lost in 1 day. The IDF is a paper tiger,” declared Ethan Levins on Twitter with a picture of a burned out tank. He describes himself as an “independent journalist,” “American Christian,” and “truth seeker.” The picture he posted was from 2006. His claim is fiction.

Mario Nawfal tweeted footage with the text of his tweet reading, “Iran releases footage claiming to down a U.S. F-18 fighter jet. If true, this only happened twice before: 1991 Gulf War and 1995 Bosnia War.” Nawfal is a prolific tweeter with over 3.2 million followers. He has been frequently cited by Elon Musk. He lives in the United Arab Emirates. His video claims about the F-18 are not true.

Turgay Evren tweeted, with photographic evidence, “A mass grave containing 300 people has been uncovered in Gaza. It was reported that small children were killed with their hands tied behind their backs.” Mr. Evren is an author and songwriter in Turkey. His picture was of a mass grave from Mongolia dating to 75 BC.

Joe Kent, until recently the counterterrorism director for the United States, is, along with podcaster Candace Owens, openly speculating that conservative activist Charlie Kirk might have been killed by the Jews. They have been joined in their antisemitism by Tucker Carlson and by amateur porn star turned Catholic convert, Carrie Prejean Boller, who recently got kicked off the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty, in the words of a Catholic Bishop, for “browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes.”

Elon Musk took over Twitter, ridiculously changing its name to the single letter of the alphabet most associated with pornography, adjusted the algorithm away from the Left’s preferences, but then opened the door to AI slop, ever increasing misinformation, and raging antisemitism. On a daily basis, accounts drop AI generated videos seeking to mislead people. Tel Aviv has been leveled by Iran two dozen times in the past four weeks and anything that offends the Left is a genocide. Insanity runs rampant. People who want to be informed are, instead, misled. Twitter has been exploited by monetized accounts seeking profit from outrage and by misinformation campaigns seeking to undermine a war effort against the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.

In a hyper-online age, people have lost the ability to discern what is true. They too often rely on influencers on the internet who often have an incentive to keep people whipped into existential terror and lie. They claim some special gnostic insight that you can only determine by following those people. From QAnon to Charlie Kirk conspiracies, they promise you access to special knowledge.

It is troubling in itself, but as we advance to Holy Week, there is something more problematic. Many of the people advancing the nonsense, the antisemitism, the conspiracies, and the lies also chant “Christ is King.” Because they are presumed to be on the “right” side, those who know better stay silent.

But if, as we Christians believe, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died a criminal’s death on a cross, was crucified, rose again from the dead, and ascended to Heaven, we have a sacred obligation to the real truth. Christ said He was “the way, the truth, and the life.” That means the truth is knowable, even if it is hard to get to what it is.

Having influencers hold themselves out as Christians while advancing poisonous antisemitism, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and lies harms the Christian witness. How can someone believe the Gospel shared by someone who believes Candace Owens’ conspiracy theory on Charlie Kirk? How can someone believe “American Christian” Ethan Levins on the Gospel when he spreads disinformation online?

Too many Christians have let their political tribes and the present age twist their faith into something political. The political, particularly online, increasingly embraces half truths, distortions, and lies. If a Christian truly believes Christ has risen, they need to speak up against those who would co-opt the faith for a political enterprise. Twitter is its own special hell and those who pronounce “Christ is King” while spreading conspiracy theories will, eventually, discover the real one.