Untrustworthy
The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Which media outlets will help me be a responsible news consumer? How do I know what is true and whom I can trust? What can I do to combat all the misinformation and how it's impacting people I love?
Many Americans are agonizing over questions such as these, feeling unsure and overwhelmed in today's chaotic information environment.
American life and politics are suffering from a raging knowledge crisis, and the church is no exception. In Untrustworthy, Bonnie Kristian unpacks this crisis and explores ways to combat it in our own lives, families, and church communities.
Drawing from her extensive experience in journalism and her training as a theologian, Kristian explores social media, political and digital culture, online paranoia, and the press itself. She explains factors that contribute to our confusion and helps Christians pay attention to how we consume content and think about truth. Finally, she provides specific ways to take action, empowering readers to avoid succumbing to or fueling the knowledge crisis.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"We have an epistemic crisis breaking our brains, polluting our politics, and corrupting Christian community" contends journalist Kristian (A Flexible Faith) in this unflinching critique of the pervasive misinformation in American politics. The author highlights how the "knowledge crisis" tears apart relationships and describes how she grew apart from a former colleague in 2020 after he became convinced that Biden's inauguration would bring about civilizational collapse. The author argues that "fake news," "wild populist conspiracism," and "dubious elite expertise" have contributed to the spread of falsehoods and cites as an example the mixed messaging around masks in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. She also blames social media, noting a study that found political content on social media tends to reinforce distorted views about users' political opponents. To build a polity more resilient against misinformation, Kristian urges readers to get involved in their local church and act compassionately. The overview of America's "epistemic crisis" is competent, though it brings little new to the well-trod topic. However, other insights prove more revealing, as when she asserts that fact-checking rarely changes minds and that instead readers should build connections with those one disagrees with in order to be there for them if they start to doubt their beliefs. This sometimes formulaic volume still offers some valuable perspectives.
