Dear Parishioners,

There’s something that has been worrying me lately: our politics and society are driven by anger. Regularly, we are against people and immediately judge others who are not against the thing we think they should be against. So many news commentary shows get their ratings by labeling and pointing out the flaws of the opposition, both left and right. They know that if they make people feel uneasy, they can convince them to tunein. People who are afraid will pay more attention resulting in higher viewer ratings. That is one of the many reasons why I do not watch any of the 24hour news networks and take anything I see on social media with a grain of salt. They want to suck you into their world and keep you off kilter enough to pay attention to them.

We need to be aware when we are being manipulated for someone else’s goals. I do not want to get more specific than that because it is not the role of the Church to comment on politics or set public policy. However, I think we can apply certain principles to ourselves to make sure that we are thinking critically when consuming news media. First, ask yourself: is this information being transmitted in a charitable way, or in a way to make one side look bad? If not, it may be a sign of bad motives. Second, is there anything in the reporting that can be independently confirmed? If so, then you may want to confirm it. If not, that may be a sign they’re making something up. Third, do not look at just the conclusions but the reasoning behind the conclusions. We can all easily fall into a confirmation bias where we agree with something because it states what we already believe. Fourth, try finding a news outlet that disagrees with your basic point of view to see if the other side has a point.

There is injustice in the world and we ought to do something about it. That is why God gives us anger to deal with injustice. However, for anger to be used in a moral way, it needs to be tempered by reason. We can very easily give in to fear and hate. But, when that happens, we know that it does not come from the Holy Spirit who lifts us out of our fears and brings us to trust God. I hope that we can all practice our faith as well as good critical thinking skills in any time of crisis we find ourselves.

God bless!

Fr. Carter