Thoughts on Conspiracies

 They're persistent, and crop up in surprising places: at that family gathering, at the Bible study, in Christian books and videos, rally speeches, etc. I have my own history with them. From 1990 to around 1995, I was engaged with various conspiracy theories, even (for a short time) leading a chapter of fellow travelers who thought the Communists/Trilateral Commission/Council on Foreign Relations/etc. were The Conspirators. In that season I came into close contact with White Supremacists who thought the same and touted the idea that "The Jews" were behind it all.

But since leaving that all behind, I have reflected often on what made the conspiracy theories so attractive, and still makes them attractive. I have five perceptions listed below:

1 - "Conspiracy" is an easy way to explain the baffling, confusing, unsettling troubles afflicting us, or our nation, or our tribe. "Conspiracy" gives us a simple, unifying answer to what is disturbing and disorienting. "All of those people in that group are on board with Marxism - Anti-Americanism - Communism..." (add your favorite subversive issue there). The problem is that "Conspiracy" doesn't take the messiness of humans and their thoughts and choices and actions and desires into consideration. People become part of this movement or that for many and varied reasons, loaded with quite a bit of inconsistency. As a Pastor I see it all the time. People don't join my church only because they're on board with our theological-doctrinal stance. That might be the reason, but just as common is that they like the people, or they like the approach in worship, or they like that our building is close to their home, or... Humans do not all fit into some overarching monolithic framework in any community or organization. "Conspiracy" is just too easy.

2 - "Conspiracy" is an easy way to catalog people. It is a narrow, binary approach to seeing the world: good-bad, us-them, righteous-evil, patriots-traitors, and so forth. And that is another of its problems, because people are rarely all good or all bad. They're human, affected by original sin and impacted by total depravity. We're a mess, and we make messy choices, and that's hard to deal with. Therefore, "Conspiracy" is way too easy.

3 - "Conspiracy" is an easy way to shift the blame of responsibility from us (from our sins, bad decisions, human limitations, restricted knowledge, and more) to "them". "They caused all of this. Those sinister cabals made/make all of this trouble to happen. It's not our fault in any way, but theirs!" In this way I keep myself in the "Better than those people" category, and therefore can have some sense of being right. Thus, "Conspiracy" is too damagingly and destructively easy.

4 - "Conspiracy" is unbiblical. From Genesis to Revelation, God has mapped out where the societal, national, communal troubles come from and he never allows us to get off the hook by throwing down the "Conspiracy" as our get out of jail card. The troubles are a result of sin, our sin, even our corporate sin. Just read the prophets, read Leviticus 26, read Revelation 2-3. Now, honestly, not all of our societal troubles are caused only by our sin. They can come through sin-impacted poor decision-making (think about King Jehoshaphat. A godly king who made very poor decisions at times that caused Judah economic and military trouble - 2 Chronicles 17-20). The one time God brings up "Conspiracy" as an option, he says, "Don't go there!"

For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread (Isaiah 8:11-13).

This means that "Conspiracy" makes us insensible to our own sins too easily.

5 - "Conspiracy" too often gets presented as almost as powerful as God, equal in power to God, or more powerful than God. In almost a Yin-Yang manner, the presupposition is that "Conspiracy", or evil, puts God to the test, presents him a serious struggle that might defeat him. And those who present some theory of "Conspiracy" begin to fear the evil, fear the conspiracy. And for Bible readers, they know that this "fear of..." language is worship language! We're to fear the LORD, not fear the conspiracy nor fear evil (go back and read Isaiah 8:11-13). In the most trying of situations, God repeatedly tells us, "Fear not, be not dismayed. I am your God. I am the only entity or thing you need fear" (drawing from Isaiah 41:10, etc.). "Conspiracy" makes us evil-fearers rather than God-fearers, all too easily.

It was this fifth thought that someone confronted me with long ago that set me free for my conspiracy trap. And so, my heart sings every time I read Jesus' words when he says: "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).