Preaching Lies

Jeffrey Overstreet shares a quote from Christianity Today Politics:

Last March when polls reported that 10% of the population thought Barack Obama was Muslim, I counseled calm: Obama is a new character on the scene. As people get to know him, that percentage will decline.

Instead, it’s gone up. The newest poll from the Pew Research Center showed that 13% now believe he’s Muslim – and a staggering 19% of McCain supporters believe him to be Muslim. Only 48% of Republicans say Obama is Christian (the balance is unsure).

This is truly frightening – not so much because of the implications for Obama but because of what it says about how we as Americans consume information. With more time, and more information swimming about, the public has become progressively less well informed.

As people begin to gradually reduce their viewing, reading, listening and browsing habits to only that which they tend to agree with, blogs like this one have even more of a duty to clarify the truth, even especially when it may rub your typical readership the wrong way. Christians, of all people have been way too fast and loose with the truth for way too long, especially when it comes to politics. Let’s guard against this sort of thing and refuse to speak unless we know that what we say is true.