Misinformation
Everyone is upset about misinformation, and I get that.
It’s bad to tell lies and to believe lies. We need a robust life of the mind and to encourage excellence in the intellect, what C. S. Lewis called the “organ of truth.”
But we need to keep in mind that human beings don’t make decisions based on facts alone. We really are more than brains on sticks, and when we love and believe we are operating with more than our minds.
This is why we need stories, symbols, and rituals.
Or rather, we do have stories, symbols, and rituals, and we are formed by them. So, let’s have faithful ones.
Why do we kneel or bow our heads to pray, put our hands over our hearts and stand at the national anthem, clap when we’re delighted, and hug our kids goodnight? Because we are beings of ritual. We are whole-bodied beings.
There’s a quotation attributed to C. S. Lewis that resonates with many. “You do not have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body.”
There are only two problems with this quotation: 1) Lewis didn’t say it, and 2) It’s a lie.
And we must not tell lies. We don’t have bodies. We are bodies. We are embodied spirits.
Be a Christian in more than just your mind. So kneel, and stand, and bow, and close your eyes, and hug, and light a candle, and bow, and anoint with oil, and on and on and on, world without end. Amen.
And, hey, share faithful stories. Stories address the mind, but not the mind only. They invade the imagination, which Lewis (really) called the “organ of meaning.”
Don’t believe lies? YES.
Also, don’t live and love lies.
Immerse your family in faithful stories, faithful symbols and rituals, and live like what and who you are.
You are more than a mind for processing true or false information, and what you feed your imagination has the power to sneak past your best arguments and infect with, or cure, the worst misinformation.
We should be as concerned about mis-formation as misinformation.
Which is to say that we need to think positively about formation. And for that, we need stories, symbols, and rituals.
I’m on your side,
Sam
What rituals do you practice that form you intentionally as who you are and want to be? Tell us in the comments below.
We’ve turned some of these quotes into lock screens and wallpapers for you, free to download!
Taking the question, “What rituals do you practice that form you intentionally as who you are and want to be?“ broadly, I would say that that our family has rituals in three areas of our lives. They are: spiritual, physical, and intellectual. Our spiritual rituals include church attendance, sacraments, serving, and community. Our physical rituals include eating healthy, moving daily, and enjoying marriage. Intellectually, we habitually and intentionally seek to be lifelong learners, first and foremost of the Bible and Biblical scholarship, but also of individual hobbies, skills, and areas of interest. For me, that includes aeronautics, web design, and dance. Whether put in place with focused purpose, or adopted by proximity, we all have rituals. I am thankful that we Christians have guidance on the choices of daily life given in the Scriptures.
Thanks for the blog today, and the work you do for families every day. This is a worthy topic finished with a question that is relevant to every person. I have come to expect no less anytime you publish. May blessing follow the earnest contemplation of these ideas, and may the reader be better as a result. Amen.
So well said B.R.—ditto for us, and I’m glad I don’t have to type all that out! (Except for the aeronautics part…my husband does web design, but it’s for NOIRlab, the National Science Foundation’s astronomical arm.)
“We should be as concerned about mis-formation as misinformation.” I love this.
Besides reading the Bible, church attendance, prayer, and Biblical accountability; the one ritual that keeps me focused is writing. Fiction and non-fictional writing help, to use the word you used, forms me into a better person.
Thanks for all you do.
People tend to have mixed understandings about rituals, and rightly they do. Too many times throughout the history of faith have people seen rituals as a means of grace. But it is explicitly clear what Scripture teaches about such things: Jesus clearly says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Salvation is found in the saving blood of Jesus Christ who was sacrificed once for all and it is He who intercedes for us (Hebrews 7).
The purpose of rituals is not for salvation, but for the cultivation of our affections toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father that we may live to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1). Communion and baptism remind us of the salvation through Christ (1 Corinthians 11). In our remembrance of the salvation we have in Christ, we are spurred to love God in holy conduct and thought because we realize the incomprehensible love that has been bestowed on us.
Thank you, and to God be the glory!
Some rituals in our family:
We brush our teeth because we want clean teeth (and no stinky breath or cavities).
We wash our bodies because we want to be overall clean (and not stinky).
We read the Bible and pray every day because we want clean souls and spirits (and not stinky attitudes).
Rituals without meaning, flexibility, and creativity is empty.
Life without rituals is like a sailboat on the ocean without a sail.
Another ritual we have is reading good books out loud as a family, good books with no “stinkin’ thinkin”.