In less than 8 hours last week, I saw three news stories that highlight a significant change in culture that will require a change in how we consume and share news.

The day started off in a media panic. The VP’s wife is going to work for an anti-gay school! By early afternoon free copies of the Washington Post were being handed out in D.C. declaring the President had resigned! A few hours later I heard on social media that the QB for the College Champion Clemson Tigers was raving about the Big Macs he was served at the White House.

Each of these stories went viral. Millions of people instantly knew what happened, and most of them clicked “Share.”

But none of it was true.

Karen Pence? She took a part-time job as an art teacher at a Christian school. But THAT headline doesn’t generate clicks. The more salacious one read, “Karen Pence takes job at school that bans gay students and employees!”

The Washington Post? Somebody published an entirely fake edition. Most people couldn’t tell the difference.

Trevor Lawrence? He DID go to the White House where he WAS served fast food, but he never made any comments about the food – good or bad. The social media story was completely fabricated.

Something has shifted in our culture. There have always been falsehoods and people who stretch the truth, but now it’s hard to find a story with any truth in it. As a result, we will need to change how we consume current events.

Early “Jesus Music” songwriter Keith Green wrote a song with these lyrics: “I put some truth in every lie / To tickle itching ears / You know I’m drawing people just like flies / ‘Cause they like what they hear”

More and more, people immediately run with stories that tickle their ideologies without ever pausing to check if they contain any truth at all.

As if to highlight this, TV news anchors breathlessly repeated the script: “As the Vice President was saying that we have defeated ISIS, four Americans were killed in an attack Syria, and ISIS has taken credit.”

What the Vice President actually said was, “Thanks to the leadership of this commander in chief and the courage and sacrifice of our armed forces, we are now actually able to begin to hand off the fight against ISIS in Syria to our coalition partners, … we are bringing our troops home. The caliphate has crumbled, and ISIS has been defeated.”

An honest representation of what the Vice President said would have been that he was talking about the fight against ISIS in Syria and their efforts to establish a Muslim caliphate. What he didn’t say was “We’ve defeated ISIS everywhere in the world and we won’t be hearing from them anymore!”

Then came the story that a Catholic high school student in a MAGA hat was taunting and intimidating an elderly Native American Vietnam vet. “We have the video!” In less than 24 hours the entire story had changed. More videos were discovered. The elderly Native American vet initiated the interaction, and the students were the ones being taunted and intimidated by a third party. A little closer examination revealed that the Native American vet never served in Vietnam, and had instigated a similar incident just a few years ago.

“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” – Deuteronomy 19:15 ESV