Don’t believe everything you hear. It’s a simple message that many of us heard from our parents when we were younger, but it’s often very easy to forget. In today’s world of fast-paced news media and a wide variety of ideologies, this message seems to ring even truer that not everything we hear is the truth. The busyness of our lives also makes it very easy for us to become a bit lackadaisical in believing whatever we are told from the news sources we listen to. Too often we accept what we hear without verifying it ourselves.

Information is powerful. It has the ability to move opinions and sometimes even beliefs and values. This makes it very important that we examine the information we hear according to what we know to be the truth. As Christians we know the Bible to be the truth, and through reading and studying it we gain a Biblical worldview that influences the perspective with which we view any information we are given and the facts that we witness.

Because information plays such an important role in our perceptions and opinions, the news sources we go to become an important factor. When you consider a news source, first, remember that everyone has some bias, even in the supposedly neutral world of reporting. That bias reflects the beliefs and values the management and reporters hold. We all have to justify, or square, the facts we hear with own worldview and beliefs, or those beliefs and that worldview mean nothing.

So with this in mind, choosing a news source that has beliefs and values similar or at least close to a Biblical worldview, will help ensure that the biases toward the truth. Doing background research on your news sources is one way to do this, but sometimes it is as simple as reading between the lines of what they are telling you.

While it would be wonderful if all our news came from Christian news sources or that the people who ran secular news sources were largely Christians, that is, unfortunately, not always feasible or realistic. There are secular news sources, though, that can still have that traditional and somewhat Judeo-Christian worldview. Although they might not accept the same reasons we have for why a traditional perspective is best, they still promote those traditional views that stem from the Biblical teachings that this country was founded on, and on which many Western customs and cultural traditions were founded.

Even if your news sources hold similar values and beliefs as you, it doesn’t mean you should take their word for it in everything they tell you. Weighing what they say against what other news sources report is important. Also, examine for yourself whether what they say is true or not. In today’s world of fast-paced news, we also have a wealth of information at our fingertips.

The Internet is a given, and its potential for gathering information is almost limitless. Obviously, the Internet can be a purveyor of false information just as easily as truthful information; and we must be discerning. Another helpful resource is your public library. There you can find internet access, additional print news sources and other reference materials that can help you sort truth from fiction.

I am not saying you have to go to the library and research something every time you hear the news, but I am saying that you should always be attentive to what the news is telling you both directly and indirectly—in other words, what they’re saying between the lines. Listen carefully and critically, weighing the credibility of the source and the information. Then when you hear something you are unsure about or wonder what the context of it really is, take some time to look it up, or make a phone call, or do additional reading before believing what you’ve heard to be the truth on the subject.

This principle, obviously, does not apply just to the news media either. We should all be examining what we read in books, hear in school, and even what we are taught in church by comparing it to other sources, and most importantly comparing it to the truth of the Bible. This principle also includes what you hear from me as well and from Wisconsin Family Council. I trust that you find out for yourself whether what we say is the truth, and that you don’t just take my word for it.

While Wisconsin Family Council seeks to promote the truth and implications of that truth in our culture and society, we know the best way for us to do this is to empower you, the citizens of this state to find and know the truth for yourselves. And by far, the most important truth anyone can know is that the Bible, God’s Holy Word that reveals Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as the only way to Heaven—is absolute truth and is the only eternally 100% reliable guide and filter we have.

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”