Suspicion

Do you have something to hide? A new survey finds that 82% of people admit to snooping through someone else’s devices. Moreover, the most likely Americans to go snooping is a person’s romantic partner or their ex.

According to a poll of more than 1,000 people, those who go snooping around may have a reason to always be so suspicious. A shocking 53% claim they’ve found something incriminating or concerning while going through someone else’s device. The most common thing people find is evidence that their significant other is cheating or flirting with other people. In fact, 70% say they’ve discovered evidence of digital flirting or in-person cheating after going through someone’s device.

Nearly nine in 10 snoopers go straight to their target’s messages, e-mails, or social media direct messages. Nearly half (44%) check out a person’s photos while snooping and 38% read through their target’s browser history. Interestingly, more than one in three have no regrets about snooping on another person.

Even though 82% of Americans admit to snooping through another person’s device, most are apparently expert digital spies. 81% claim they’ve never been caught while snooping through someone’s device.

Women are more likely to say they snoop (88%) in comparison to men (77%). Moreover, women were also less likely to regret snooping through someone’s device. Only one in 10 respondents say they’ve never looked through someone else’s device. For everyone else, 25% say they find “something significant most or every time” they go snooping around.

In a YouTube video, political commentor Konstantin Kisin reported:

They did an experiment with a group of women and they put scars on their faces. They told these women that they were going into a job interview and that the purpose of the experiment is to find out whether people with facial disfigurements encounter discrimination. They showed the women the scars in the mirror and the women saw themselves with the scars.

Then as they led them out of the room, they said, “We are just going to touch it up a little bit.” As they touched it up, they removed the scarring completely. So, the women went into the job interview thinking that they are scarred, but actually were their normal selves.

The result of the experiment is that those women came back reporting a massively increased level of discrimination. Indeed, many of them came back with comments that the interviewer had made that they felt were referencing their facial disfigurement.

This is why this ideology of victimhood is so dangerous. Because if you preach to people constantly that we’re all oppressed, then that primes people to look for that.

You can view this 60 second video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible does recognize the reality of innocent victims, but it stops short of affirming a victim mentality. While the Bible promises that we will experience innocent suffering for the cause of Christ, it nowhere speaks of our being “victims” in the contemporary sense of the word. Rather, the Bible speaks of us as “victors.” You can overcome victim mentality through a relationship with Christ and the Word of God. Christ (1 Pet. 2:22-23), Paul (Phil. 1:12-14), and Joseph (Gen 50:19-21) all show us an example of someone who was victimized but overcame a victim mentality.

In 2021, several psychologists made an in-depth study into what drives people to political and social extremes. This can result in beliefs in a wide range of unsubstantiated and sometimes harmful conspiracy theories. The research paper was titled “Some People Just Want to Watch the World Burn.”

According to the study, bout 5% of Americans are considered "chaos-seekers." They feel marginalized and have "an intense need for social dominance; they’re angry that they’re not on top." There is a growing sense of anxiety that in a time of rapid change, ideological conflicts, and social unrest, they "feel their prospects in life have tanked. People who believe the system isn't working for them." They gravitate toward extremist views and include those on the political Right and Left.

The researchers named the model for extremism a “significance quest.” Many Americans "need to feel they matter and that their lives have purpose. These needs intensify when they feel powerless, as in times of stress and uncertainty or after a serious loss or humiliation. People will do nearly anything to restore meaning in their lives. All too often, meaning comes in extremist packaging."

Many of the people studied reported being simply bored with their lives. "People who are adrift are likelier to seek exciting, risky pursuits that give them a sense of purpose and meaning. Diehard ideologies fit the bill." The search for meaning led some to be "more sensation-seeking and more willing to support ideological violence."

On the unusually cold morning of January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle blew apart 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board. But according to some conspiracy theorists, six of the seven crew members still live among us.

Some of the examples are:

Captain Richard “Dick” Scobee, is now the CEO of a Chicago marketing-advertising company called Cows in Trees.

Pilot Michael J. Smith is professor Michael J. Smith of the University of Wisconsin.

Mission Specialist Judith Resnik is a professor of Law at Yale Law School.

Payload Specialist (and “Teacher in Space”) Christa McAuliffe now only uses her first name, Sharon. She has an almost entirely different face than that of Christa’s, and is an adjunct professor at Syracuse University College of Law.

Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis is the only person that the conspiracy theorists believe died, because they couldn’t identify a double for him.

The facts have repeatedly shown that Challenger tragically fell from the sky due to an O-ring failure after the ship was launched in unsafe temperatures.

In a recent article in Popular Mechanics, Professor Marta Marchlewska at the Polish Institute of Psychology explained the cause for such conspiracies. “People who say that astronauts are still alive refuse to accept that bad things accidentally happen to good people. So, there's someone behind the disaster or it simply did not happen.”

The author of the article then summarizes: “A conspiracy theory tames the great chaos around us, which is the likely explanation for these implausible ideas. It’s easier to blame the imagined secret machinations of influential people, serving dark agendas, than admitting life can be a cruel beast."

Possible Preaching Angle:

People are tempted to believe a lie when the truth challenges our false beliefs. People want to believe that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people. People want to believe they we are able to be good. But none of that is true. But, as followers of Christ, we have something far more trustworthy to tame the great chaos around us.

When someone requests a grave with a view, it’s usually a plot overlooking a valley or an ocean—not an actual window down to the casket underground. But that’s exactly what Dr. Timothy Clark Smith wanted when he died in 1893.

Dr. Smith was a schoolteacher, a clerk for the Treasury Dept., and a medical doctor. But according to a well-established story, he suffered from severe taphephobia, a fear of being buried alive. Let’s just say that although Dr. Timothy Clark Smith has been dead for many years, things are definitely looking up … or at least he is. Beneath the odd, grassy mound of earth, Dr. Timothy Clark Smith’s face was positioned beneath a cement tube that led to the surface. The 6-foot tube ended at a piece of 14×14-inch plate glass allowing Tim to gaze upward if he was buried alive.

Supposedly, Smith also had his tomb outfitted with “tools for his escape.” Although condensation and plant growth inside the shaft now block one’s view, past residents claimed to see the tools along with Smith’s bones. Said one, “You can see the face of the skeleton down there with a hammer and chisel crossed on the ground next to it.” Another source claims that when Smith was interred, “In the corpse’s hand they placed a bell that he could ring should he wake up and find himself the victim of a premature burial”

When Portland police contacted a woman named Amanda to tell her that they found her previously stolen ID, Amanda wasn’t entirely convinced. According to police sources, an officer first tried to contact her via phone, then sent a text when the call was unsuccessful. Her response? “There is no way a cop has my cell phone number. Nice try you creep.”

But Officer Fullington, while impressed with her incredulity, was undeterred. He sent a selfie standing in full uniform in front of his official police vehicle, holding the ID card in question. She responded with a laughing/crying emoji, saying she would call after she gets off work. Police say people in Amanda’s situation are right to be skeptical, because scammers have been known to impersonate officers, even sometimes with actual officer names inside a spoofed caller-ID system.

Potential Preaching Angles: Skepticism is only helpful if it leads us to follow through and find the truth. God can handle our doubts; our challenge is to open up to receive the truth where we find it.

Over the years belief in conspiracy theories have proliferated in America and in many parts of the world. Some of them include:

-The US government deposits $630,000 into an inaccessible, secret bank account for every person born in the USA. Only those who know the correct top-secret codes can access THEIR money.

-Victims of some mass shootings, especially Sandy Hook, were crisis actors paid by the government as part of a secret plot to take away citizen’s guns.

-Jews secretly control governments all over the world and own all the major banks.

In ministering to people, Christians need to look at these weird and irrational beliefs not with condescension, but at what is really behind them. In reviewing conspiracy theories, author J.C. Pan writes that these anxiety-based beliefs flourish when citizens feel politically or economically marginalized:

People end up susceptible to outlandish ideas not because they’re inordinately foolish or ill-intentioned, but because they’re living in times of enormous socioeconomic instability and political discord. Put another way, conspiracy theories… (are a) signal that a democracy is already decaying. Combating them effectively has less to do with sounding the alarm than with taking up a broader fight for economic equality and for robust, democratic social institutions.

A local lawmaker running for re-election was going door-to-door to check in with members in her district when she got a surprise visit from a local deputy.

According to the story in The Oregonian, State Rep. Janelle Bynum was taking note on her smartphone of her previous conversation when she noticed the deputy in his patrol car, along the other side of southeast 125th Avenue. Officer Campbell asked if she was selling something, which gave Bynum an opportunity to introduce herself as a state legislator.

In an attempt to make some sense of the situation, Bynum asked to get in touch with the suspicious neighbor. They eventually spoke on the phone, and the neighbor apologized. Audio from the 911 call revealed that the neighbor initially felt Bynum had "no apparent reason" to be walking from house to house, despite the fact that she had campaign flyers on her person. When the call-taker asked the neighbor if she'd talked to Bynum, she felt that Bynum was avoiding her, despite the fact that Bynum had spoken to her 3-year-old son.

Both Bynum and Campbell left in good spirits, and eventually posed together for a selfie. But Bynum was still surprised that after visiting an estimated 70,000 homes as part of her previous campaign, there were still constituents who would rather call the police than attempt to engage her in conversation.

"It boils down to people not knowing their neighbors and people having a sense of fear in their neighborhoods, which is kind of my job to help eradicate. But at the end of the day, it's important for people to feel like they can talk to each other to help minimize misunderstandings."

Potential Preaching Angles: Conflict; Communication; Mistrust; Disunity—Sometimes the best way to get through conflict and mistrust is to meet face-to-face and talk.

Fourteen-year-old Brennan Walker missed his bus and lost his sense of direction. Unfortunately, he almost lost his life. Instructed by his mother to walk to school after he overslept and missed his bus, Walker did his best to walk the route normally taken by his bus. However, when he was unsure of which direction to take, and did not have use of his phone, he took a logical step by stopping by a local residence to ask for directions.

Walker described the interaction in his own words.

I got to the house, and I knocked on the lady's door. Then she started yelling at me and she was like, "Why are you trying to break into my house?" I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High. And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that's when I heard the gunshot.

Walker's mom, Lisa Wright, expressed what we all long for in this broken and fallen world: "We should not have to live in a society where we have to fend for ourselves. If I have a question, I should be able to turn to my village and knock on a door and ask a question. I shouldn't be fearful of a child, let alone a skin tone."

Potential Preaching Angles: We are judged not by how we treat royalty, but how we treat our neighbors. When fear overrides our ability to extend compassion, we deny the humanity in each other.

The defining moment of Stanislav Petrov's life was the moment he decided to do nothing.

The Russian military duty officer was just a few hours into his shift when alarms blared, warning of intercontinental missiles that had been launched from an American base. The alarms turned out to be in error.

Many military duty officers might jump to take defensive measures, and this was indeed an assumption Petrov felt looming over him. During one of most tense periods of the Cold War, a series of events had led to Russia living in constant fear and anticipation of a US attack.

Before taking immediate defensive action, Petrov first sought clarity on the reality of the situation: "After five nerve-racking minutes — electronic maps and screens were flashing as he held a phone in one hand and an intercom in the other, trying to absorb streams of incoming information — Colonel Petrov decided that the launch reports were probably a false alarm."

Though Petrov was later reprimanded for not immediately reacting to the situation that confronted him, Petrov defended his inaction, pointing out that the alert system had been rushed to use and was likely inaccurate.

"We are wiser than the computers," he said.

Potential Preaching Angles: Rather than assuming the worst about our neighbors, true love "hopes all things." Patient love often takes going against our "reasonable" assumptions, and looking for reasons why our defensive posture might actually be misguided. Does lack of trust in God sometimes lead us to misguided action, taking matters into our own hands? Can we be still and trust God?

Kurt Gödel was a history-making logician and mathematician who died in 1978. In his later years, while working at the renowned Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he became convinced that someone was out to poison him. He relied entirely on his beloved wife, Adele, to cook his meals and to be his taste tester whenever they were away from home.

In 1977 Adele was hospitalized and could no longer help her eccentric husband. His friends tried everything to get him to eat, but he refused. Eventually the masterful logician succumbed—at the end, weighing just sixty-five pounds. According to the official death certificate, he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance." In plain language, he starved himself to death.

Possible Preaching Angles: We all have "faith" in something. But faith is only as good as the object we place it in. Gödel was obviously a brilliant person, but he believed so strongly that people were out to poison him that it overwhelmed even his will to survive.