Christians Are Not Immune to Conspiracy Theories

May 8, 2020 | Joe Carter

In the beginning, God planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he
put Adam and Eve. Soon after Satan entered the garden and spread the
first conspiracy theory.
A conspiracy theory explains an event or set of circumstances as the
result of a secret plot, usually by powerful conspirators. Satan convinced
Eve that the most powerful of “conspirators”—the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit—were secretly trying to keep the first humans from having their
eyes opened in a way that would make them “like God, knowing good and
evil.” Eve became the first in a long line, from Gnostics to flat-earthers,
to believe powerful forces were withholding secret information.
Since then, Satan has found no shortage of marks among God’s children.
But our current technological age has made it possible for conspiracy
theories to spread faster than the novel coronavirus. The online realm,
which can promote anti-intellectualism and radical individualism, has
become a breeding ground for such bizarre conspiracies.
A prime example is the idea, first promoted on a French conspiracy
website, that COVID-19 is caused by the millimeter wave spectrum used
by 5G technology. You might assume such a belief to be dumb but
harmless. You’d be wrong. All across Europe, the 5G conspiracy theorists
are setting fires targeting cell towers and attacking telecom workers.
And that’s just one of the dozens of new conspiracy theories related to
the coronavirus. There are others even more outlandish, such as that the
virus is a human-made bioweapon created by Bill Gates. (Not
surprisingly, that one is connected with QAnon, the most ludicrous uber-
conspiracy theory of our age.)
Numerous spurious claims are also being made about Anthony Fauci,
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and
a member of the White House coronavirus task force. A Christian
ministry, American Family Association, is promoting a conspiracy that
Fauci “has known since 2005 that chloroquine is an effective inhibitor of
coronaviruses.” Another Christian group claims Fauci is part of the
“Deep State attempt to destroy the economy and change election rules.”
As Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of the Illuminatus ! trilogy said, “You
simply cannot invent any conspiracy theory so ridiculous and obviously
satirical that some people somewhere don’t already believe it.”

Accepted Sin of Slander

That some people somewhere believe something ridiculous is not
surprising. What is shocking, though, is so many Christians not only
believe in such conspiracies but also promote them in public. You can
hardly open Facebook without seeing a Christian (too often a pastor or
other church leader) has posted claims they cannot possibly know to be
true. Much needs to be said about why so many followers of Christ are
spreading misinformation. But we don’t need a sophisticated sociological
analysis before we can denounce such slander as sinful.
Slander occurs, as Jon Bloom notes, whenever someone says something
untrue about someone else that results, intentionally or unintentionally,
in damaging that someone else’s reputation. The Bible makes it clear God
hates slander (Prov. 6:16, 19). Paul lists it as a behavior of those who
hate God (Rom. 1:30), and James calls it demonic behavior (James 3:15–
16). We must not slander even our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48).

The fact that few in our churches are being confronted—much less
receiving church discipline—for engaging in slander is scandalous.

Conspiracy theorists may contend it is not slander when the claim is true.
For that to be the case, though, they must have knowledge the
conspirators are involved in a specific secret plot—and knowledge is
what they never have.
Many Christian philosophers define propositional knowledge—knowledge
that an entire proposition is true—as a justified true belief. To have
knowledge is to represent reality in thought or experience the way it
really is on the basis of adequate grounds. Because the sole grounds for
conspiracy theories is unreliable hearsay, they do not meet the standard
for knowledge. They are therefore not in possession of the truth, and
thus guilty of slander.

Christians Doing Satan’s Work for Him

But what if they believe it’s true? Can’t we say they are wrong but not
engaging in sin?
In a 1950 book review in the philosophy journal Mind, Sir Peter Medawar
said of the New Age Catholic Teilhard de Chardin, “[He] can be excused
of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has
taken great pains to deceive himself.” While that is a generous sentiment,
it is not one that we can adopt for our fellow Christians. Just as God
doesn’t give Christian politicians an exemption to lie, he doesn’t give
Aunt Karen or Pastor Bob a pass on slander simply because they believe
the falsehoods they are spreading. They have a duty to determine the
veracity of a claim that is potentially slanderous. After all, on the day of
judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak (
Matt. 12:36).
Similarly, God isn’t going to excuse our turning a blind eye to their
slander. Jesus expects us to confront our fellow believers when they are
engaging in sin, and even to bring it to the church if they refuse to listen
(Matt. 18:15-17). The fact that few in our churches are being confronted
—much less receiving church discipline—for engaging in slander is
scandalous. Our choosing to stay silent since they “won’t listen to us
anyway” is neither loving nor godly. We are called to confront those
spreading lies; the Holy Spirit is responsible for changing their heart.
We are also giving the watching world the impression such behavior is
accepted among followers of Jesus. It is not, and Christians should not
tolerate the embrace of the demonic. Many modern conspiracies being
spread by Christians were concocted by alt-right occultists, New Age
pagans, or some other group dedicated to anti-Christian esotericism.
Ultimately, though, all slanderous conspiracy theories originate from
Satan. If we are a people filled with the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), we
won’t spread messages from the father of lies (John 8:44).

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, author of The Life and
Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible, and
the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from
History’s Greatest Communicator. He also serves as an executive pastor
at the McLean Bible Church Arlington campus in Arlington, Virginia. You
can follow him on Twitter.