Recently on Facebook I noticed a former beloved pastor of mine, now retired and in his 80s, pleading for his Facebook friends to help him understand which reports were reliable and which were not. He referenced a particular false news story that apparently originated in Eastern Europe but was widely circulated in the USA. This retired pastor was confused, because after all, many of his friends had posted this story. So it must be valid, right?
As someone who for many years has tried to report accurately about United Methodism, and often very critically from a conservative/orthodox perspective regarding our denomination's controversies, I am troubled that false news is no longer so abstract but has now afflicted my own church, which has enough real problems without fabricated ones.
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