Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” – Acts 6:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 2, 2014): Acts 6

In the early moments of a disaster, it is amazing how quickly misinformation travels. In two recent shooting incidents, even after hours had passed people seemed to be clinging to untrue information, and often the misinformation describes a situation that is worse than it actually is. And often there is also a motive behind the misinformation; sometimes it allows other pieces of information make sense, or maybe it simply gives the person the power of knowing something that others don’t know. But all of us have a tendency to stop and listen whenever that “Breaking News” logo breaks across the screen – but then we often begin to make assumptions on what else it is that is happening behind the scenes that we are not being told. And it is this information that often is simply wrong.

A case in point might be the shooting recently in a high school in Northwest Washington. As police officers slowly went through the various buildings of the school, as per established procedure, there began to circulate rumours that there might have been another gunman still on the loose in the school. Although the rumor was never stated publically, we wanted and maybe needed for there to be someone else, to be some reason for the attack. And so the early rumor took root until it could finally be dispelled.

The Christian Church was young. And their commitment to love and to community was causing a stir within the greater society and there is no doubt that they were gaining public support, but there was still a lot that was simply not known about them. It was this void in knowledge that made the church vulnerable to misinformation. And the first thing the enemies of the church needed to do was to make use of that opportunity.

But the enemies of the church were not all that imaginative. The charge that they brought against the church in general, and specifically against Stephen, were the same charges that they had leveled against Jesus. There is some question even today as to whether these were actually lies provided by the enemies of the church, or whether Stephen had actually held the beliefs that he was being persecuted for, but most likely the words of Stephen had simply been too close to that of Jesus to not accuse him of the same crime. The accusation had worked with Jesus, and there was no reason to believe that it wouldn’t work again with Stephen.

The early misinformation did exactly as the religious leaders in Jerusalem needed it to. For a moment, the support for the church waned, and as a result the window was open for the execution of the church’s first martyr – Stephen.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 7