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Faith Works 1-23-21

Faith Works 1-23-21

Jeff Gill

Choices about what to consume can consume us
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Making choices about what to consume. We make those choices even when we don't think about it, and maybe that's the most important time to be making more conscious choices.

I was saying in an earlier column that social media has short circuited much curatorial work, thinking in terms of curators in the museum sense, and curates and pastors and clergy in a churchly sense. Curation, in that sense, is helping to make public choices, whether what goes on display, up into glass cases, versus the vast warehouses worth of collections; or for ministers, helping people understand what information is going to inspire and uplift and renew your life.

The Bible itself is a spirit-led act of, well, curation. You hear this every so often about "lost books" or even better "hidden books of the Bible" that didn't make the canonical cut for becoming Holy Scripture. As for hidden, why does a goober in Ohio like me own paperback copies of most of it, when each Easter some cable program purports to blow the lid off of "what they don't want you to read!" It's not an act of secrecy, it's a compassionate act of spiritual discernment. There are thousands of ancient books, and trust me, they ain't all holy.

Hey, for most Protestants, 66 books still is a whole lot, and people ask me "which Gospel should I read first?" Or "I need a psalm or two to help me with having hope." I could say "honestly, you really need to read the whole thing, Genesis to Revelation," and in my active ministry, I've done what I could to encourage reading the Bible through, but the truth is it's never a majority who do that. Most need an outline of highlights, a selection, and they welcome guidance on what those selections are.

Then you get study Bibles, let alone translations, and supportive materials, or stand-alone studies (you know, Beth Moore, LifeWay, authors and publishers). Most people dive in and are quickly intimidated by how much is out there. Hey, they ask, can you help me navigate which is better, whose material will help me? I've always done the best I can.

But with social media, everything is available to everyone. Which does not always serve our discernment well, nor does it consistently help with dialogue and understanding. A minister recommends a particular book or speaker, and you can end up bombarded with "well, I heard from…" And then you're playing defense. I spent many years in Bible studies trying to defend my interpretations against the stuff "below the line" written by people not in the room, when participants have had trouble distinguishing between the words of the Bible, and the notes of the study Bible's editor. That can be frustrating, when you are aware that words in print have a weight the preacher doesn't always have when it comes to a difference of interpretation, but that author isn't there to interrogate for how and why they came to that conclusion.

Which is where this becomes all the more significant on the consumption of media and material in general. If I am saying something you disagree with, you can ask me questions, interrogate my assumptions if you will. You can request that I defend my terms and world view. But friends, there is so much out there, incoming, that we just don't know where it's coming from, or why, and based on what. I am most secure with information as well as opinion I can know more about in terms of origin and intent. I don't require that I agree with it for me to be able to learn from it. What I need is a certain level of trust, at least a sort of confidence, in why I'm being told something. Even a sales pitch can teach me, if I know what's being sold.

There's a true saying out there about social media: if you don't pay anything, and you can't tell where the source is making money off telling you about it, you are probably the product. That doesn't make it all lies, but it does tell you how to take what they're saying under consideration. 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's consumed a book or two, and wishes he'd known in advance not to bother reading some of them. Tell him how you make choices about what to read and accept as gospel (small-G) at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.