Whoring After Information Idols

Coronavirus has exposed our idols of information.  We worship these idols with high intensity and defend them with ferocious, relational violence.  We are digging deep trenches between our brothers and sisters in Christ in favor of our false gods: information, pride, and our selfish need to be right.  Sadly, these idols encourage no grace, patience, love, community, unity, or empathy. 

Let's walk thought a thought exercise.  Be honest with yourself.

Imagine you've entered a small room that's packed with 20 people.  One of them is on a respirator.   A couple are sleeping and look uncomfortable; five or six others are and coughing and wheezing.  One is vomiting.  One looks to be dead.  Still, others seem perfectly healthy.  With certainty, all of them have twice tested positive for coronavirus. 

What is your gut reaction? 

Do you wish you were wearing a mask?  Or maybe you would prefer the twenty in the room were wearing masks?  Gloves? What about hand sanitizer?  Are you willing to sit down next to them?  Share a meal?  Sing some songs together?  Or perhaps you would prefer to leave the room altogether?  There are a few people who do nothing and freely get coronavirus with them. "It's inevitable," they say.   Is that your gut reaction?  Is there a possibility this 20-person "herd" is enough that you won't get coronavirus? 

If you wanted masks involved, you believe something about the effectiveness of masks.  If you wanted to leave or you thought you shouldn't have been in the room in the first place, you probably value closing businesses and restricting movement.  If you were okay to let some of them die for herd immunity, you might not find all life valuable.  If you thought, "I won't get coronavirus," you might have been proven wrong if you remained in that room for a little while.  What then?

Your actions in this situation are an indication of what you believe.  And what you think is based on the information you've chosen to accept and what information you've chosen to reject.  That's a natural part of decision making, and it's right for all of us.  But there are multiple problems with the information we’ve received and that which we have discarded. 

First, most of us are not trained in viruses or pandemics.  We're not epidemiologists.  Therefore, we have to get information from others who might be knowledgeable in these areas.  However, because we've turned information into idols, we have forgotten that our certainty level is based on what we've heard from others.  And we’ve forgotten that the information we’ve received from others isn’t not perfect.  Those "others" could be disagreeing-scientists, differing epidemiologists, politicians, or Karen on Facebook.  Too often, we're building the information idols we worship and believe them with 100% certainty because we desire to define or redefine reality. We have a sinful yearning to be the creator of information idols because then we can create a personal reality apart from truth.  But idols are made of sand and shadows.  

Next, people are clashing because we're learning that "what's true for you doesn't have to be true for me" is not true.  Not at all.  We're defending our information idols because we desperately want to be right.  We want our idols to be right.  But this means we have to rip apart the idols of others.  We become priests and apologists of our false idols.  We love our idols so much, and we don't want them to fail us.  But they're failing us.  They'll always fail us. 

Third, our information idols demand that we love them more than we love our neighbors.  No, I'm not talking about wearing a mask or not.  I refer to our love of the failing idols more than our love for people.  We’re destroying relationships with others who are made in God's image.  We're willing to sacrifice relationships on the alters of our false gods.  We shame.  We fight.  We offer no grace, love, or empathy.  There's no room to disagree or reason together because the idols demand our total allegiance.  

Finally, our information idols demand that we love them more than we love God.  We act as if God's Word and instruction is optional while our information idols offer unquestionable truth.  It proves that we value our idols more than we value God.  As the Bible puts it, we're whoring ourselves out to the information idols.  What a travesty!  What a sin!

But what if Christians acted differently? 

What might be the result in this sinful world if Christians were marked not by which false idols we stand with, but that God shines through us into dark places?  What if people knew we were disciples of Christ by how we love others? 

Might we be able to say, "I don't know if mask work or don't work, I'm not an epidemiologist, but I do know Romans 13 is true because I am an ambassador of Christ"?    

Is it not okay to hope that God would use masks as a solution, so we don't have to remain isolated and close small businesses?  Can't we hope while we hold the information loosely?  What other options do we have?  Why fight about masks?  If they don't work, can't we hope for other solutions together without tearing each other apart?  Can we pray together without fighting?  

What should mark us as believers?  Who are we in Christ?  Can we stand on the Truth of God and stop letting all the bombarding outside-information change our world view?  Our information idols shouldn't change our impressions of other people, so why are we allowing them that kind of power?  Why do we have them at all!  God must inform our world view and thoughts of others.  Can we offer grace to our neighbors as they also work to figure this out?  Can we point them to the only source of true hope and transcended Truth?  We can’t, and we won’t if we keep worshiping false idols.   

It's tough to navigate this broken, sinful world.  Our neighbors need someone who stands on the Rock of Christ and isn't all twisted up the world's ball of snakes.  So do our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Might it be possible that God is calling his people to lay down our idols and transcend this mess for our neighbor's souls?  Perhaps God is calling us to rise above this momentary, light, complication of coronavirus for the eternal magnitude of God's Kingdom, for God's glory.  Could it be?  I certainly hope so.