There’s a news story going around this week about a lie told in the social media of the late 1800’s, that is newspapers and magazines. Most of these publications are no longer in existence and were published overseas so it’s difficult to trace and even know if the reporting is accurate, but according to the story the media hyped something called “bicycle face” to keep women from riding bikes. It’s hard to believe, but supposedly men didn’t like the new-found freedom women discovered from biking around town, so they invented a medical condition that amounts to what mothers tell preschoolers – “You keep making that face and its going to get stuck that way.”

Yep, bulging eyes, a flush face and lips curled back over teeth is the face news pundits of the day claimed characterized women who rode. Again, I’ve no idea if any of this is true especially since it sounds like so much nonsense, but people have believed other ridiculous “facts” before so who knows? In Africa, for example, rhino’s almost became extinct because people believed powder made from their horns was an intense aphrodisiac. The story is so outlandish I suppose many believed it couldn’t be made up. It sounds a lot like the climate change phenomenon to me.

What’s the point of all this? Lies can be told for any number of reasons, and in modern media its usually an attempt at social engineering, a way to guide society toward a positive end. But the lies, even if they work, always result in an unintended consequence. And by “consequence” I mean “evil”. Whether it is an attempt to keep women at home, get a person to fall in love with you, or reduce pollution someone, or something is always damaged by the lie. Just ask the rhino.

We all know on a philosophical and theological level that lying is wrong, but what about believing them? When someone believes a lie they contribute to the damage being done by the lie making them culpable. For this reason it is important for citizens of God’s Kingdom to have a healthy skepticism regarding new “facts”. Darwin’s theory of evolution taught that black people were closer to man’s ape ancestors than whites and reinforced racism. He also taught that a fetus underwent its entire evolutionary history in the womb, developing into a fish, then a reptile, finally a mammal and then an ape and a human child. This undoubtedly gave great comfort to abortionists.

The world isn’t the only one that can participate in spreading lies. I remember one Sunday the Baptist church I grew up in had an insert in the bulletin talking about a study NASA did and how they found a missing day in earth’s history. They said this equated to the day the sun stood still in Joshua 10.13. How wonderful! My 12-year-old mind thought. Until I found it wasn’t true, NASA never performed such a study. There are other examples of the modern church willing passing along lies instead of carefully discerning truth from error.

When it comes to modern “facts” followers of Jesus must carefully discern truth from error. We ought to have the same attitude of King David when he wrote (Psalm 141.3-.4),

“O Lord, place a guard on my mouth! Protect the opening of my lips! Do not let me have evil desires, or participate in sinful activities with men who behave wickedly. I will not eat their delicacies. May the godly strike me in love and correct me!”

According to the Psalmist we have two obligations: do not participate in evil and correct those brothers and sisters in Christ should they become unwitting participants.