No April Fools

Much has been said about the 2018 mid-term and 2019 Presidential elections.  For example, according to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his 2020 book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times:

 “…(begin) there was dark manipulation by social media companies – Facebook in particular – of what should have been private and protected.  In the Cambridge Analytica scandal the personal records of 87 million people, 70 million of then in the United States, were accessed and used for political purposes without their knowledge or agreement.  

We now know that there was also Russian involvement in both the American Presidential election and the Brexit referendum in 2016, seemingly with the intention of destabilizing the politics of the West.  During the American election, the Russian Internet Research Agency, an organization of more than 1,000 people in St. Petersburg [Russia] operating behind undercover identities, reached more than 126 million Facebook users and 20 million on Instagram with polarizing material.  This augurs ill for the future of democracy…

A Brookings survey found that 57% of those questioned had been exposed to fake news during the 2018 mid-term elections.  Nineteen percent thought this had influenced their votes…A majority of Americans now view fake news as a more serious national problem than terrorism, illegal immigration, racism, or sexism. Almost seven in 10 say it undermines confidence in government. (end)

The mid-term elections will be this year.  Therefore, let’s reflect on Matthew 24:36-44. But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In [those] days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be [also] at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. 

Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

We must be awake, vigilant, and prepared; otherwise, the thieves will continue to break into our house and flood us with lies and other fake news designed to weaken our nation and our resolve.  Jesus had it right, and he still does.  Let us listen to him.  This is no April Fools' Day joke.  

Deacon David Pierce