This information is being passed on to help you, our county Republicans to be informed. Posting does not mean we either agree or disagree, we are merely passing information.
“_____ is a RINO.” “All politicians are crooked.” “When I listen to _____ I just know they are lying.” “Why vote, they cheat anyway.” “I don’t trust Republicans either.” “They can’t do anything right, everything they do just makes it worse.” “Up is Down, Red is Blue, White is Black, right is wrong.” “Follow the money and find the corruption.” “I can’t ever vote for ______”
If you have said or heard these things and anything like them, you join with the VAST majority of people in our great land. I’d LIKE to say, “But I’m better than that!” – but I can’t because I also am guilty!
What can we DO to fix this. We all want an easy solution – there is none, but there is a SIMPLE (but not easy) solution that works. This article is about implementing this SIMPLE solution.
All the above statements are what I’ll call “Satan Speak”. These are designed to get us to throw up our hands and quit – which is exactly Satan’s ploy. You might say “But this is politics we are talking about, not religion!” Is there a difference? Yes, but not in the way you think. Right now, in America there are TWO prominent WORLDVIEWS. The one you hopefully hold is that God is the creator of the world (and for this discussion we assume you are a Christian – though the principles holds if you have a different view), and the other is the Humanist worldview which states that Man is God, or that there is no god. Politically this is seen in stark contrast between the platforms of the two political parties. 
The Republican platform is grounded and based in a belief that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights….” The Democratics platform says that those in power get to decide what your rights are – and they can change and be unequally applied. They believe in a “living” Constitution, one that as the times change its application also changes. How do you fight a platform where the definition of EVERY word changes weekly, or monthly as needed to dynamically change the constitution to fit the power that elected officials want to maintain? Sadly, it is NOT just Democrats that do this, but many who CLAIM to hold to Republican values. Continue reading for the SIMPLE but HARD solution.
Once we realize that politics is a tool that we use to alter the trajectory of the culture; then we understand its power. But politics is inadequate to the task! We need to STAND for truth – no matter how much it hurts! Standing for the truth, ain’t easy!
Truth over Narrative
We MUST seek truth and NOT narratives. Narratives, in my view, are between partial truths (at best) and complete lies (at worst). Let’s face it, we all have jobs and a life, we used to depend on our “journalists” to do the work for us. Those same “journalists” only spin narratives now. So many of us started listening to “podcasts”, which isn’t bad, and I’m NOT saying to ignore them, but podcasters are narrative spinners too. “But I like their narratives!”. I understand, but a narrative is NOT the truth. Narratives are opinions using facts to make sense of something. But incomplete facts make incomplete narratives. Narratives are not bad, but they are not TRUTH. The solution starts with identifying narratives. Narratives are NOT the only source of information. Later we will look at how to gather your own facts and ‘news’.
What is the Narrative’s Worldview?
Worldview definition – What Is a Worldview? Key Elements of a Worldview – 2023 – MasterClass
“The term worldview refers to someone’s set of answers to all the big questions of life. This might include assessing whether or not there is a God, what ethical duty human beings have to each other, or how we can know certain things to be true. The concept derives from the German word “Weltanschauung,” meaning “a particular philosophy of life.”
This may seem absurd or even silly, but it is truly the KEY to understanding the facts. EVERYONE has a worldview – the way they see the world in the big picture. Regardless of what or how they say anything, please understand that they are human – and prone to error. I’m sorry that applies to me too!! 😊 People may be nice, and sincere, and may even believe what they are saying, but that doesn’t make them right! I wish personality was the test, and many people do GO BY THAT. My favorite Presidential candidate was Mike Huckabee, what a nice guy and great personality! When he dropped out in 2016, I was devastated, and wondered who would I support? It took me a little bit of time to figure out that Trump’s policies were NOT really much different than Huckabee’s (except in taxes). Then I realized I voted based on personality. Many people won’t vote for Trump because he has a rough personality. Voting on personality is not a good way to judge policy or toughness. I feel going by personality only gets us politicians who would make great Hollywood actors, which explains why not much gets done in Congress!
The obvious thing to look for is the two main narratives of our time. God made it all, or it all evolved. Yes, there are narratives in between those two, but I’m talking of the big picture.
Now, of course there are multiple “religions” that have different views on God, and lumping them altogether isn’t always a good idea; because, there are differences. Most of the people I know will have a “Christian” worldview or a “Secular” worldview, and many subscribe to both. A “Secular” worldview says that there is NO SACRED, in other words set apart from the sacred. Can a “Christian” have a secular philosophy? Yes, but they are inconsistent with their beliefs. To be a Christian and have a “Secular” worldview is basically renouncing your faith in public. Too many are stuck there. For purposes of this essay we will assume a “Traditional Christian” worldview for the “God made it all” point of view, and the “Secular” worldview lines up with the Humanist Worldview.
In the broad world of politics you have the Republican platform which is based on the “God made it” worldview and the Democratics platform of “It all evolved”. This is a huge difference. Too many in America think we are a Democracy. We are NOT; instead, we are a representative Constitutional Republic. To the Democrat the government grants rights, but to the Republican God grant’s us “inalienable rights”, that are spelled out in our founding documents, and given equally to all as a human.
If government “assigns” or “makes up” rights, they do NOT honor who God is, and thus take on His mantle which is why they are Humanists. The “Secular Humanist” worldview is ALIEN to the Constitutional Republic. There is no such things as “Trans Rights” or “Abortion rights”. These are not given by God and not in the Constitution. They do NOT exist. The solution when you hear this is just flat out reject them as rights, they are opinions, that you disagree with.
Ways to discern what worldview a person holds.
Dr. Anthony Fauci famously asserted that “Science changes”. To a believer in God that is NOT TRUE, because science is the study of what God made, that science is TRUTH, but our understanding is ever changing. I saw many people agree with him about science, I was shocked, even good church going people bought that – it shows that we sometimes don’t even KNOW our OWN worldview or we haven’t thought it all the way through. But to a “Secularist” science is the approach we take to discover the world around us, and that DOES change. So this illustrates how what you believe shows HOW you believe.
You can detect a worldview when listening or reading ANYTHING. Just look for some of the following:
- What is the view on God? This can help narrow which religion or belief system is being used.
- What is their perspective on Holy Scriptures? If they see them as the same as Plato or Aristotle, they see it only as ancient writings, and since they believe modern man is more evolved it will have less value, etc
- What is their view of Jesus Christ? Is He God, just a man, a good man or a myth?
- Who determines “rights” God or government (man)?
- Do they believe the “end justifies the means” or “Might makes right!”? Those are NOT from a Christian worldview, but a humanist point of view.
- Do they belief that government or having the right people in power can help us reach a utopia on earth?
- What is their view on mankind? Are we born good or born evil or born neither? Can evil only enter the heart if it is taught, or does it already exist in the heart?
There are MANY more things to look for but by now you should see that their worldview tells you a lot!
You should also filter the person’s actions as you do their words, because often ACTIONS speak louder than WORDS. It is easy to lie with words, harder to lie with actions. An important caveat is just because a person makes an error doesn’t mean you should discount everything they say, but it doesn’t help their credibility
Getting your own News
Another source of information gathering is to listen to a trusted friend or someone you know and trust. You should listen, yes, but hold what they say until all the facts are in. And there is the rub – we don’t want to take the time to figure it out. We appreciate other’s perspectives, but they are human and prone to error. Listen to them but discern what are the facts that you can validate. The alternative to validating what you are told is to just take their word for it. Is that wise? Much of the confusion today is because we just accept as fact what we are told. The solution is to check it out, not just accept it sight unseen. In the Bible the Apostle Paul commended a group of believers in the city of Berea for they took what he said and validated it against other Scriptures. You need to be a BEREAN with the news!
So how do we sort out this “news”? Again, the solution is right in front of us, but it requires work. If they cite a resource – go read it, but if you don’t KNOW who wrote the source consider it ‘hearsay’. When I listen to anyone, I am looking FOR the FACTS. Back in the 60’s there was a cop show called “Dragnet”. The main character was Joe Friday, he always said, “Just the facts sir/ma’am, just the facts” whenever they – which they always did – went into opinions and conjectures and what we now call ‘narratives’, he would bring them back to “just the facts”. Narratives are NOT facts; they are OPINIONS made to LOOK like facts. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the narrative or not, it really doesn’t matter. What matters is the TRUTH which you can derive from multiple narratives, opinions, facts, when you use logic and reasoning and a few simple tools to help you understand what “really happened” (a phrase OFTEN used for narrative building).
The best way to gather information is through what I call “raw news”. This means YOU do the job of a citizen journalist seeking truth. We can get news directly, the trick is to keep opinion out of it. I use Twitter for raw news when there is a current happening, BUT I avoid all conjectures. I listen to the House of Representatives (occasionally) when they are in session or the same with the Senate. I used to listen to White House press briefings when we had good press secretaries, but the current one is, uh, hum, rough to listen to. Get the news DIRECTLY without commentary you’d be shocked how many people TRUST others who TRUST others who TRUST others to get it right! Have you ever played the game of “Telephone”? It NEVER comes out right!
Fortunately there is NO LACK of information sources! I will list them here in bulleted format. I wish I can say that NONE of these had narratives, they do, but these sources tend to give you information the “main stream” media doesn’t. If you want to know what is going on, read it from both perspectives. Since there are about 100 news outlets that give you a liberal narrative to every 1 opposing narrative, I will only list the ones I recommend with the opposing narratives. I must mention that The Epoch Times is a subscription-based service who is excellent in giving just the new or properly labeling opinion pieces. If you can afford it, I would recommend it (and I get NO kickback! 😊).
- https://www.theepochtimes.com
- https://www.westernjournal.com
- https://www.revolver.news
- https://thecentersquare.com
- https://themidwesternernews.com
- https://vigilantnews.com
- https://TrendingPoliticsnews.com
- https://breitbart.com
- https://townhall.com
Remember to not just believe them, but use them to get “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say. Once the facts are gathered we will need to validate them. You can also gather facts from other “Main-Stream” sources, just be aware of their worldview and bias.
Validate the Facts
Once you have determined the worldview you now are able to begin filtering it. We do this through validation. In the Old Testament of the Bible there is deeply embedded in it that you NOT believe ANYTHING unless you can get 2 or three witnesses to testify! This is a great starting point. But you Bible scholars might remember that there were “witnesses” that condemned Jesus! They did this by creating a narrative among themselves then telling that narrative as fact. Hmmmm, sounds a lot like today!
The Steele Dossier used to discredit Trump did this by “leaking” the facts through anonymous sources to multiple outlets. Then several “news” outlets wrote articles that the FBI reported were independent of each other. Were they? NO! They were from the same source. One sure fire way to tell a narrative is how strangely it sounds IDENTICAL to what they are all saying. The truth is derived from listening to multiple perspectives and piecing all the facts together into a timeline, a logical or sequential order, etc. The 4 Gospels in the New Testament are 4 accounts of Jesus’ life. They were the truth, but notice that they are NOT the same words, but tell the same story. The TRUTH was derived from ALL the accounts of Jesus’ life. Narratives “tie things” together through association, innuendo, asserting motives, exaggerating facts, using unneeded and strong adjectives and adverbs to make a connotation that is not proven by the facts, and as in those troublesome math word problems they threw in unneeded information to confuse you. Truth weaves all the facts into a consistent whole that answers more questions than it leaves behind. Narratives leave the inquisitive mind with MORE questions; truth leaves that same mind with LESS questions. The key is to question what you hear, which, ironically, is what the scientific method is supposed to do.
Now listening or reading narratives is not bad, unless you just accept them as gospel truth! I think the best way to point this out is two opposing “news sources”. The New York Times and the Gateway Pundit. One is VERY LEFT leaning the other VERY RIGHT leaning. Honestly the NYT is a LOT more subtle with their bias, and the Gateway Pundit makes no bones to pick about how they see it. You can read both, but ignore the adjectives and adverbs, the degree of certainty and the attributions. Look for the verifiable facts, then look to OTHER sources that are INDEPENDENT of what you are reading or listening to, to validate it. It used to be considered good journalism to get multiple sources to verify the information. You should do this since hardly anyone else does.
One fact asserted by one source is maybe a fact. When two sources agree that makes it LIKELY a fact. You must use diligence to make sure the two sources aren’t connected! Three sources in agreement is PROBABLY a fact. Four or more sources is a fact! Please keep this in mind.
Another important way to validate information is to automatically be suspicious of anonymous sources. Anonymous sources can be telling the truth, but you have no way of validating it. Please just be suspicious. Be VERY LEARY of “documentation” that you don’t know the chain of custody or who compiled it. If the sources are NOT disclosed, don’t believe it until you see something else that DOES back it up. I’m not saying it isn’t true, I AM saying take it with a grain of salt.
Get to the Root Premise
Once you have established their worldview you know where they are coming from. Now the final piece is to discern the “root premise” of what they are attesting. Once you have figured that out, understanding the truth gets easier because you understand their bias and the way they look at it.
NEVER assume motive, but if they tell you their motive you can certainly add that to your arsenal. You can DEDUCE their motives by actions and arguments, but do NOT ASSUME it.
If you understand their motive, it now becomes easier to NOT be propagandized or fooled. The BEST way to guard yourself is to have your own worldview. If you are a Christian get that by reading God’s Word and talking to other believers, listen in church, and pray!
Stand for Truth – call out the lies at every turn
This may be the hardest part of our “Simple” plan! “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the head, that is, Christ”, Ephesians 4:15. It may be the hardest thing when you hear a difference of opinion and have something to contribute; but please add to that conversation by speaking the truth in love and with respect. Yelling at someone, even if it is the truth, doesn’t generally help. You must always speak that truth in a loving way. Stick to the facts and don’t let others stray from the facts. Question them when those arguments are without source, or if they make categorical statements as fact, but give you no context. Stand your ground but do it KINDLY with compassion. There is no need to be rude or nasty, but sometimes firmness and deep conviction are needed. You gain nothing by being mad or yelling (even though I understand the urge) but you advance your perspective when you thoughtfully engage and ask questions. You might not be able to persuade the one you are talking to, but someone else may be listening. God spoke to Joshua 3 times in Joshua 1 about having courage and not being afraid. That theme is not isolated to Joshua. It is prevalent throughout the Bible. There are times when we may have to do battle, as Joshua did, and that will take courage. If you KNOW what you are fighting for is TRUTH, you have the conviction of what you are doing. In these political battles it is imperative we have the right armor.
Ephesian 6:10-17 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This passage of Scripture really lays it out. It almost seems like it was written to us TODAY. In it we find the “belt of truth”, living a righteous life avoiding truthful accusations, and the faith that God is in control!
Another Bible verse comes to mind, James 1:19b-20 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” And Colossians 4:6 “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
How do we disarm falsehood? Here are the steps!
- Be quick to listen.
- Discern where they are coming from.
- Get informed with facts, not narratives.
- Speak the truth, seasoned with salt and with a heart of grace.
- Stand for Truth, not narratives.
Not EASY, but a straightforward simple plan.
I hope this helps or reinforces how to deal with all the news in your inbox, and brain!
Author: Russ Hyde reach me at [email protected]