When I was in high school, I hung out with a group of friends that did everything together. You know the drill, listening to 45’s and practicing the latest dance moves.  A little “twist” here or some “locomotion” there while sipping from our bottles of soda to wash down the bags of potato chips.  While a “Whole lot of Shakin” went on, we shared story after story of the latest events that happened at school, the sock hop or basketball game and who were the latest heart throbs and on and on.  I’m also sure you had, like me, one or two who enjoyed embellishing   their storytelling.   In fact, when our whole class would get together for a night at someone’s house (all 50 of us), we would gather together sitting crossed legged on the floor in a circle, and play the “Telephone” game.  The first person thought out a short story and secretly passed it to the next, and then on and on around the circle until the last person heard it.  That person would then repeat out loud what they were told.  The laughter went on for quite some time as everyone realized how little it sounded like the original.   It wasn’t done on purpose, but it just happened as the story progressed from one person to another.  This would also happen in our daily lives at school, where someone would create a story (gossip) and then tell it to someone else, who then told someone else and before you knew it, a huge tale had been woven.  Most of us knew the tall tales from the real story, what was fake and what wasn’t.

Today, however, with the advancement of social media and the ability to change pictures with a click of the mouse, the stories have started to take on more reality and now we’re not so sure about the “fake news” that has been perpetrated on us, not always clear what’s true or false.  In fact, the quality of fake news has become so real that we’ve even seen the creation of fact checker websites where you can go to see if the story you’ve heard, watched  or read is actually real or fiction.

Realizing that this is the case, I always delve into the stories I read to be sure I’m reading the true facts and not “fake news”, which were created to support the agenda of the writer and all those who are of like mindset.  In today’s world we have information written and spoken that is created just to change the narrative, destroy someone’s’ character, change people’s opinions, or to help create change that supports a particular agenda.

At present, a large majority of the fake news is spread through videos, as they can be easily altered. Videos are easy to manipulate by changing or deleting a few frames and instantly you’ve created a different narrative.  The individuals or groups responsible for manipulating the video are out to destroy the truth.  Myriads of photos depicting various personalities  in all situations are being collected from the web and then swapped out in pictures to make it appear that the individual is saying or doing something other than what really happened.   This type of manipulation has been called, “Deep Fakes”   

They are used for the purpose of getting an immediate reaction from whoever is viewing them.  We watch a certain video and it supports what we want to believe and we quickly respond with a “share”.   I’ve learned to never share anything immediately, as many times it’s an emotional response on my part. I didn’t take the time to read and review what it was promoting.  Today, I look at the information it’s providing, to check the date, the person who is promoting it and are the facts in it verifiable.   Once I began inspecting some of the videos, it was sometimes easy to spot changes, gaps and etc.  But as the programs have advanced and individuals use the latest computer technology to swap faces, actions, and all sorts of pictures, spotting these fakes becomes more difficult.  The Morning Brew has written a great article concerning how to spot fake news and help us avoid sharing info that may or may not be whole truth, nothing but the truth!

I do long for the old days of the TV series called Dragnet.  The tagline of Sergeant            Joe Friday was “Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts.”

As Catholics and Christians, this continues to be our challenge – finding the truth in the midst of the “Fake News”.    St. Paul wrote about this issue back in his time of ministry when he wrote:  “I am amazed that some are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ.” (Gal. 1:6-7).    Fake news today isn’t just being created within the political world but also into religious beliefs.  It is being used to propagate misinformation about Christ.  Was he really God, did he rise from the dead, is there a God and numerous other untruths, just as in the days of St. Paul.  Within church teaching, there are certain dogmas (“a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding.” )  These are certain “facts”, that are not up for negotiation, yet they continue to be attacked at many levels by many individuals.

Bishop Barron, in one of his news stories provided a quote related to my opening comments, “The Gospels and the Church are not legends passed down via an historical process akin to the parlor game of Telephone, in which each whispered version of the original message distorts it to the point that it’s barely recognizable at the end.”  The Church’s foundation is not based on the idea that the gospels are just stories passed on indiscriminately.

There are several good sources for learning about the churches foundation   and how it proves the facts and just the facts.  One I’d like to recommend is called   “The Case for Jesus”,  written by Brant Pitre.

This is a wonderful book to help provide you with techniques on how to know the gospels are authentic and to determine the authenticity of a particular writing.  Bishop Barron goes on to say:  “This book will prove to be a most effective weapon… against the debunking and skeptical attitudes toward the Gospels that are so prevalent, not only in academe, but also on the street, among young people who, sadly, are leaving the Churches in droves.” – Robert Barron, author of Catholicism

It might not be a popular opinion among our friends when we defend our faith but I don’t think we’ve been called to be popular.  I’ve been called to spread the “Good News” and it’s my calling, just like the Apostles, to be sure my sources are as good as theirs.

How are you doing in this pandemic?  Need a little music inspiration? Here’s a wonderful song I heard recently and hope you enjoy it as much I did, titled,  Holy Mother .    It was written by Eric Clapton,  after The Band’s Richard Manuel passed away in 1986, Clapton penned “Holy Mother” as a tribute to his friend.  It is being sung here by Pavarotti who is joined on stage by Eric Clapton to sing a rendition of ‘O Holy Mother’ for Pavarotti’s 1996 War Child fundraiser.  Hope you take the time to listen to the beautiful words.