Things That Keep Me Up At Night

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         There is a unique tie between religion, politics, philosophy, psychology, and I would contend war.  I have been immersed in an anthropological study of the connecting files of all of these to better round out my thought process and provide greater clarity in my curious endeavors of understanding the “why.”  Obviously, if we are truly curious creatures, we have certain issues that continue to plague us because of the obvious dissonance, lack of logic, and fallacious content in our current world.  Remember, I am indeed a nerd, although they referred to me as retarded in school, but I seek a certain eunoia (pronounced “yoo-NOY-uh”) in my life.

         I have a master’s degree with distinction in Information Operations and the impact it can have on a society, and as always, I apply this to the church and religion as I always want to be grounded as a pastor and teacher to a mass of congregants.  I studied the Russian and former USSR form of information warfare strategy called “firehosing.”  This firehosing operates on exactly the same principles that we see in common debate tactics used by the progressive political left, mass media, and progressive churches. 

         This ties directly into what is called the “Gish Gallop.”  Perhaps it is on purpose or happenstance—it happens nonetheless.  This Gish Gallop exists everywhere throughout all forms of media, politics, and even the church.  This concept was derived in 1994 by Duane Gish who would bombard opponents in a debate with falsehoods, non-sequiturs, and tiny factoids that were cherry-picked to support the lie, always delivered with speed and confidence.  When Gish used this tactic, everyone he debated was unable to refute the initial contention within the allotted time of debate.  This tactic was deemed successful because it took so little time and effort to make the initial point, but to refute such blather requires a great deal of time and effort. 

         For example, someone blanketly says, “You’re racist.”  Most white Americans take a great deal of time and anguish explaining how they are indeed NOT racist.  Same with any other manufactured phobia from the progressives.  Yet, the ad hominem attack seems to always win the day and sticks.  The Gish argument puts the onus on the person to argue against the premise or cede and simply embrace the guilt of it as absorbing it takes less energy.  Automatic buy-in.  One point Gish, you—zero. 

         I see how this same tactic has been used on our country and even our churches.  It arrives in the form of “tolerance” propaganda via speeches, the mass media, and yes, sadly, perpetuated from the pulpit.  There was a researcher (Christopher Paul) who contends that Russia was using a modern propaganda model during the 2014 Crimea Peninsula attack and subsequent annexation. 

         As the Russians used in the Crimean Campaign, this Gish model requires technology and is referred to as “firehosing.”  This incorporates a high volume of continuous falsehoods with zero commitment to consistency or verifiable truth.  As in an insurgency of any nation, this is used to sow confusion, distrust, division and discontent.  I saw this in action at a recent national denominational conference in Florida.  I am simplifying, but it was all about degrees of tolerance—no different than what we see from every Papal edict.  What does this denomination tolerate.  My answer is simply, the Scripture, so no need to fly me to Florida for a conference and spend the money put in the offering plate for some fake debate, fun, and sun.  The same applies with politics—I go straight to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Pretty simple, correct?  No, the insurgency of the progressives put a turd in the punchbowl and we are supposed to bob for it like kids at a Halloween party.  A simple statement that can sow such division is amazing to me and heightens my awareness of just how stupid America and the church has become.

         Both the Gish Gallop and Firehosing exploit what is known as Brandolini’s Law (or as more snarky references refer to it as the Bull Crap Asymmetry Principle).  Alberto Brandolini is an Italian programmer who compared the considerable effort it takes of debunking misinformation to the relative ease of creating it in the first place.  I spend way too much time from the pulpit debunking all of the false teaching that exists across the width of organized religion—it is tedious.

         Logic and truth are in constant combat with the mass media, the news cycle, high-priced television pulpits that seem more like a TED talk than a Scripturally based sermon.  I often wonder how many priests and pastors out there are having Artificial Intelligence write their sermons?  Essentially, there is no time for the average American or congregant to truly analyze what they received, nor do priests or pastors put in the same type and time of analysis.  Trust me, like so many of my respected peers, we indeed put in the exegetical rigor.

         Rand researchers found that when the masses are in the band width of firehosing, people become cynical, and I have found the same within the church.  Cynicism leads to apathy that in turn leads to more firehosing.  This apathy is perpetuated every Sunday from the pulpit as we don’t speak out against sin and only preach and teach love and tolerance.  The Bible talks to us in AM and the world speaks to us in FM.  Let me explain…I am an Amplitude Modulation pastor.  My range is slower and achieves less distance.  Someone like Joel Olsteen is a Frequency Modulation pastor bombarding the bandwidth with greater  speed and distance.  It is what it is and I am good with that as absolute truth takes greater time to travel.

         Samuel Clemmons, or Mark Twain, is purported to say, and I paraphrase, “A lie can travel around the world in the same time it takes truth to lace up its shoes.”  Now with broad social media and performance art ministry, it truly does take the truth a great deal of time and energy to bring people back to logic and truth as found in the Scripture.  Sadly, the algorithms of politics and the ministry lay out the artificial intelligence to simply firehose the useful idiots for votes, control, and money.

         Herein lies the deeper problem of both politics and organized religion, that power abhors a vacuum and if the most capable and ethical people refuse to do such duties, leadership just doesn’t disappear.  Rather, that void is filled by those who are least trained, competent, qualified, or self-serving.  The most wise must be bold enough to stand up to government and worse, organized, indulgent, suicidally empathetic, and tolerant-based rather than repentance-based religion.

         We live in an “economy of attention” world, where businesses and organized religion want more money, and politicians want votes to gain and retain power.  Our debates and sermons rely more on number of clicks, views, and shares rather than solid, thoroughly investigated  content.  Moral emotional language spreads better than absolute truth and I see it in the ministry all of the time.

         Politicians and pastors rely on the cognitive naïve realism that wants to present politics and faith as the recipient sees it, whereas politicians and pastors who present the base truth are not acknowledged.  The bottom line is that structurally and financially, indifference to this naïve realism means—bankruptcy.

         I can’t fix politics, but I CAN fix the pulpit and hold my peers to task on staying focused on the Scripture as I would hope our political leaders focus on the Constitution. Remember, the enemy is inside the gates of our nation and our church, seeking to devour and destroy.  Woe be to those pastors who teach and preach tolerance to sin and any alternative from Jesus’ words about taking up our cross as they will be held doubly accountable.  It requires fearless leadership!