FAKE NEWS & THE "REAL" ALGORITHMS USED TO REINFORCE IT

Bias.  We all have them.  According to the dictionary the word “bias” means “a prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” It also means, “cause to feel or show inclination or prejudice for or against someone or something.” Politicians certainly have bias.  The media certainly has bias - left, right and middle.  Christians have bias.  Non-Christians have bias.  Vegetarians have bias. Meat eaters have bias. Gay and transgender people have bias.  Feminism has bias. Men have bias. Racially focused groups have bias.  Liberals, conservatives and moderates have bias. Everyone has them. If I left you out, please forgive me but you too have bias.  As the scripture says, “There is no righteous, no not one.” (See Romans 3:10-12)  To add to our problem we now have technology that uses algorithms that identify our bias and reinforces them.  The unfortunate thing is that we are getting so entrenched into our “bias” that we find it difficult to “listen” to a different position than ours.

The Real Algorithm behind us is our biases. The Bible is filled with this age old problem.  In John 4:20 The Samaritan Woman said to Jesus, “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."  In Acts 10:28, The Apostle Peter said, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.”  In James 2:2-4, The Apostle addressed this problem in the early church, “For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”  Being biased is addressed throughout the New Testament. Here are a few examples:

Romans 2:11

For God shows no partiality.

James 2:4

Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

Colossians 3:11

There is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Romans 12:16

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

I John 2:11

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Rather than telling Christians to ignore the discrimination against Gentiles, Paul addressed it head on: “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” (Romans 10:12)

Being “biased” toward other people is labeled in the New Testament as a sinful practice. "If you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (James 2:9).  God isn’t about separation, but inclusion and unity. Jesus made it possible for anyone to be included in the people and promises of God (Gal. 3:28).  Jesus removes hostility and introduces harmony (Eph. 2:14-18).

Augustine of Hippo once said, "If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself." In other words, your own personal bias is what you believe. II Corinthians 10:5 states clearly, "Cast Down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring every thought captive into the obedience of Christ."

God cares about people regardless of their ethnicity, nationality, politics and social status (Deut. 10:17-19).

God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right (Acts 10:34-35).

“We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor. 12:13).

As Christians, we are called to address our own bias, repent of them and overcome our learned behaviors.  The Holy Spirit had to deal with the apostle Peter of his own “Bias” and he even admitted, "God has shown me that I should no longer call anyone impure or unclean." (Acts 10:28).  However, it was a continue area of life that he continued to struggle with.  He had a hard time overcoming his own personal bias even though he began a conversation with Gentiles” at a table. (See Gal. 2:11-21).  It’s always amazing to me that a generation which was so vocal about “not being labeled by others” has now become “labelers.”  Seems to me that we’re guilty of the same thing The Apostle Paul said about Peter.  Gal. 2:12-14 says, “For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group. The other Jews joined in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?…  Being caught up in our own bias and labeling others is not only unproductive but hypocritical.  It’s time for us to break out of the algorithms that feed us and move from our tablets to the same table where Jesus engaged “the others” in conversation.