I have a confession to make. I love conspiracy theories. I believe very few of them, but I love a good conspiracy. And in times of war, economic distress and social disorder, conspiracy theories are easy to come by. In many ways, I envy conspiracy theorists. If anything, conspiracy theories make everything make sense. There are a handful of villains controlling everything, and it is their involvement in world affairs that have led us to this point. And I love to read them, watch movies about them, even check out the History Channel specials about them. It just seems so simple!
It does not surprise me that religious folks can be sucked into conspiratorial thinking. Consider the power of the Left Behind series to take conspiracy theories and attribute them to Satan or antichrist (including RFID chips and the like). Conspiratorial thinking requires us to believe in unseen power and to believe that there is an agenda going on. Theology proper requires us to believe in unseen power and to believe that God has an agenda going on. This is why the prophecies of the Old Testament and Revelation become fodder for modern-day conspiracy theorists.
If there is one thing that conspiracy theorists get right is that they generally understand the nature of power. They understand that human beings seek power over others (a condition leading back to Genesis 3), and that power is a corrupting force. Very few conspiracy theories believe that "they" (the people really in power) are benevolent. The psalms even decry this reality- "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?" (Psalm 2:1). Psalm 2 was even appropriated by the Church to describe the adversarial relationship the disciples had with the religious leadership of the day (Acts 4:23-30).
The power of a conspiracy theory is simple- it causes fear. Conspiracy theories cause us to be afraid of the secret few running the world, the growth in power, the devil using democracy or whatever the theory is based on. And people's decisions can be easily managed by fear- our culture's response to fear is usually to buy distracting things.
But Isaiah 8 speaks into our tough reality with some warning words: "Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it" (Isaiah 8:12). Okay, so don't be afraid. Why not? Isaiah continues, "The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread" (Isaiah 8:13). I don't think that this means we should walk around looking up to heaven, scared of the day God will strike us down. I think that this means that God is the One who is ultimately in control. Jesus is Lord, ultimately, and it is Christ on the throne. The power that is guiding the world toward shalom (peace) is a benevolent one indeed, and one who subverts our human attempts at power and shows a different way- a way of service, of love, of compassion. It is no surprise that power structures have typically resisted the Kingdom of God- it operates differently. And so may we operate differently in our lives and resist fear.
Amen Andy, amen!
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