No Conspiracy

The scriptures referred to are 1 John 1:1-2:2 and John 20:19-31.

I just finished watching the HBO documentary Q: Into the Storm about the conspiracy theory that seized the imaginations of so many for the last 3 years. And while the preponderance of evidence is that it was started as a LARP, or Live Action Role Playing game on the internet, before being taken over by a pornography website owner and his son, what is most disturbing is how many people accepted the idea that the world is run by a secret cabal of baby-eating Satanists. As Joseph Uscinski, University of Miami Associate Professor of Political Science, points out, people who believe in one conspiracy theory tend to believe in others. And so Q Anons also bought into other preexisting ideas of certain people pulling the strings behind the curtain of global and national affairs, ideas that came from white supremacy, antisemitism, right wing extremists and Christian heresies. And what is dismaying is how widely this melange of far-out ideas spread. Though it started in the US, Q has followers in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and Latin America. It is a worldwide cult.

As someone said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” And with the internet, it can make it all the way around the globe. I like the internet. I use it extensively to check facts and sources, like that quote which I erroneously thought was said by Mark Twain. The website Quote Investigator tracks the original version of the saying to Jonathan Swift in 1710. The internet is a great tool for discovering the truth about something. So it's ironic that Q would drop hints and ambiguities and ask riddles, causing its followers to do the “research” to figure out just what the heck the messages meant. No wonder they pulled in so many disparate and bizarre ideas.

What is upsetting is how many Christians got dragged into it. Many of my colleagues found themselves trying to educate members of their congregations on what the Bible really said, much as medieval bishops had to tell their people that Jews did not eat Christian babies for Passover.

One appeal of conspiracy theories is letting people think they know some big dark secret others don't. Another is they claim to explain what's wrong with society or the world and who's responsible. And it takes contemporary conflicts—between countries or political parties or religious groups or ethnic groups—and turns them into manifestations of a great cosmic war between good and evil. And so those whom the theorists disagree with are cast ultimately as agents of Satan. And that gives those who identify as being on the side of God an excuse to do whatever it takes to root out evildoers.

And unfortunately Christians who see things this way tend to frame events in apocalyptic terms. They see themselves as part of God's army whose job is to fight those on the other side, often literally. Which means they haven't really read the apocalyptic passages in the New Testament very closely. Christians are never shown as or told to be warriors for God. They are commanded only to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus, and, should it come to that, martyrs. God fights his own battles.

Jesus also lived at a very tense time. His people saw the Gentiles, and especially the Romans, as Satan's agents and some were all too ready to revolt against the empire. Which they did a few decades later—disastrously. So at the beginning of all 3 gospel accounts of his apocalyptic talk, Jesus says not to assume that this is the end of the world. “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginnings of birth pains.” (Mark 13:7-8; cf. Matthew 24:6-8 and Luke 21:9) And as any parent knows, birth pains start long before the actual event.

Jesus is also concerned about people falling for false Messiahs. “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them.” (Luke 21:8; cf. Mark 13:5-6 and Matthew 24:4-5) And “Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or “There he is!' do not believe him. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” (Matthew 24:23-24) Jesus, and only Jesus, is the Messiah, as our passage from the gospel of John reminds us. (v. 31)

Written during a time of persecution, the first letter of John seeks to correct problems that churches were having on three essential issues: beliefs, behavior and belonging.

First, John emphasizes that he knows who he is talking about: Jesus. He is speaking as a companion of Christ—“we have heard”...”we have seen with our eyes”...”touched with our hands...” Jesus is not imaginary or an illusion. He calls Jesus “the Word of life.” This harks back to the first few verses of John's gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God....In him was life and the life was the light of mankind...Now the Word became flesh and lived among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (John 1:1,4, 14) Jesus is the Word, the flesh and blood expression of who God is, the God of life. In his words and actions he revealed the nature of God.

John then reveals the reason for writing his letter: “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” In other words, I am writing this so you can share in our fellowship and in the fellowship between Jesus and his Father. And then he goes on to show just how to do this.

First, we have to recognize that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” In other words, God is good and true and holy. Darkness hides what is false and what is evil. God does not ask us to deal in evil or spread falsehoods. And anyone who does is not acting in God's name. One interesting thing in the Q documentary is how its followers would try to explain away or ignore predictions that did not come true. The Wikipedia page has a list of some of the major predictions Q got wrong. Why didn't Q being wrong tip people off that it wasn't true?

It turns out people have an amazing ability to not deal with facts that contradict their beliefs. They dismiss or diminish their significance. In fact, studies show that being confronted with facts that challenge your deepest beliefs won't necessarily weaken them but can actually strengthen the hold of such beliefs. I recently ran into a nurse who believed that the vaccine is really an attempt to put a microchip in us. I said, “Why? We already have things that monitor where we are and what we do and say: our cellphones. And we say 'yes' to all of those service agreements that ask if an app can use our camera and microphone and have access to our location and contacts. Why would anyone go to the trouble of creating a fake virus just to accomplish a less easy way of doing those things?” I don't know that I convinced them.

John is especially interested in the contradiction between our beliefs and our behavior. “If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true...” No Christian should be leading a life in which they are deliberately doing what is evil or anything that must be kept in the dark because it goes against what Jesus told us not to do. Part of the reason that less people are identifying as church members these days is because of the exposure of prominent Christians who abused their positions to cover up sexual and financial sins. You'd think they would have heeded Jesus when he said, “Nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing is secret that will not be made known. So then whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.” (Luke 12:2-3) And in the information age, every misdeed will appear on every device in the world. It's bad enough when a beloved actor, comedian, writer or filmmaker is exposed as an abuser; how much worse it is when a Christian leader is revealed to be a hypocrite who harmed those they were supposed to help!

John says, “...but if we walk in the light as he is himself in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Sins that are not dealt with disrupt our relationship not only with God but with each other. Because the person has put their own personal concerns and desires over the commandments to love. Remember that Jesus linked the commandments to love God and to love others. Why? Because, as John says later in this letter, “For anyone who does not love his brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must love his brother and sister.” (1 John 4:20-21) Or as Sister Claire Joy put it, “...love God above all, and then prove it...by loving your neighbor as yourself.”

Of course, in this life we are not perfect, which is why John goes on to say, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Never trust anyone who claims to have never made a mistake or to have never done anything wrong. Every time I see a meme online about never apologizing, never listening to other people's criticisms, or never letting anyone stand in the way of your dream, I feel there should be a disclaimer: “Does not apply to narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and the arrogant.” The world has suffered too much from people who wouldn't listen to others or take constructive criticism or admit they were wrong. You need to acknowledge your sins. If you don't tell the doctor your symptoms or pretend that nothing is wrong, he can't help you. And if you do not confess your sins to God, he can't help you either. Because it means you either don't trust him enough to admit your sins to him or you don't trust him to forgive them once he hears them.

But next John says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John assures us that he will forgive us our sins and what's more, he will cleanse us from all of them, not just some. Sometimes, when Jesus healed someone, he would say, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:5) He never said, “A few or some of your sins are forgiven.” Jesus wants us to be totally well spiritually as well.

John goes on to say, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Of course, he wants us to avoid spiritually and morally unhealthy thoughts, words and acts, just as a doctor wants you to avoid physically unhealthy habits. But it would be unrealistic to think we will always do that. So he adds, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous...” Jesus is on our side, advocating for our forgiveness and restoration.

And we know he takes our salvation seriously because “...he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins...” Jesus poured his life out on the cross for us. As John says later in the letter, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16) Everything Jesus does demonstrates his love for us. He wants to be in fellowship with us and so we know he is motivated by his love to advocate for us when we fall.

Nor is his love limited. John says, “...he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” Remember that the gospel of John famously says, “God so loved the world...” Which means so should we. And we need to spread the good news of that love at every opportune moment.

Which is the opposite of what a conspiracy theory does. It singles out a group or groups of people that are so evil that we must stop them by whatever means necessary. Including extermination. It's what Hitler did. It's what all would-be demagogues do: designate one or more groups as scapegoats and blame everything that is wrong with society on them. Which implies that the favored group is not at fault, or, in other words, without sin, which John says is a lie.

In the passage from Isaiah we read in Holy Week, he says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; every one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) All have gone astray, every one of us. No group, no individual is innocent. We are all in the same boat and we all need God's grace. Yet we are like people on death row pointing fingers at each other. We all need mercy. We all need a pardon. Jesus provided it at great cost and it is free to those who admit they need it.

Yes, there are conspiracies out there. And the reason we know this is because someone in them blabbed! Someone always does. As Ben Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.” Ironically that's one reason we know that the disciples weren't part of a conspiracy. Chuck Colson, Nixon's hatchet man, who came to Christ and started the ministry Prison Fellowship, said this: “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

As John says, we saw him; we heard him; we touched him. We know what we are talking about. We know who we are talking about and with whom we share fellowship. And we know this: that God is love. Not hate. Not blame. Not condemnation. Love. And those who know God love one another and want to spread that love to others. It's not a deep dark secret. It's the good news and it's for everyone.