{"id":85,"date":"2022-10-13T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/humanencounter\/?p=85"},"modified":"2022-10-13T12:57:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T17:57:18","slug":"alex-jones-and-the-theology-of-bad-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/humanencounter\/2022\/10\/alex-jones-and-the-theology-of-bad-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Jones and the Theology of Bad Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\r\n<\/head>

A jury determined today that Alex Jones must pay $965 million<\/a> to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.<\/p>\r\n

Photo: \u00a9 Sean P. Anderson \/ cc-by.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Jones is often characterized as a conspiracy theorist. This is a little generous. Art Bell was a conspiracy theorist; Alex Jones is a bearer of false witness and well aware of the fact that he is one<\/a>, according to his divorce attorney. This puts him in a different category. He\u2019s not a kook; he\u2019s a huckster at best, a predator at worst. How is he able to justify this kind of behavior?

There are several answers. None of them are particularly interesting as explanations for Alex Jones\u2019 behavior, because Alex Jones is not interesting, but they may be useful if you want to make sure you don\u2019t repeat his mistakes:<\/p>\r\n

• \r\nAlex Jones sincerely believes he\u2019s good, and that the people he criticizes are evil.<\/b> This is immediately clear if you\u2019ve watched his rants about Democratic politicians who smell of sulfur; he may not believe everything he says, but on some level he clearly managed to convince himself that he\u2019s engaged in spiritual warfare. Since he\u2019s on God\u2019s side, nothing he\u2019s doing can be entirely evil in his eyes if it benefits him; since his enemies are on the devil\u2019s side, nothing he does to harm them can be wrong. Do you ever find yourself relaxing your ethical standards because you\u2019re sure<\/i> you\u2019re a good person, or sure<\/i> another person isn\u2019t? Be careful; that\u2019s where your worst character traits can sneak in.<\/li>\r\nAlex Jones became rich and powerful off his lies.<\/b> None of us can entirely avoid complicity in evil systems, unfortunately, and none of us can entirely avoid conforming to unethical norms from time to time. But be mindful and intentional about the compromises you make, and make sure you\u2019re not losing your own moral center through these compromises.<\/li>\r\nAlex Jones was, at one time, idolized by millions.<\/b> People who make terrible moral and strategic mistakes, as we have recently seen with Putin in Ukraine, often make them because they\u2019ve surrounded themselves with people who reinforce their decisions no matter how foolish or wicked those decisions are. We live in a culture that tells us to cut out toxic people, to distance ourselves from our haters, to purify our social networks. A certain amount of this is necessary for self-care, but you should also be mindful that you\u2019re not limiting your circle to flatterers and enablers. As with many things, finding a good balance is key\u2014and you have to find that balance yourself.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
  
  For his entire public life, Alex Jones has been a moral and political parasite. But he has something to give us: a warning that the roads are slick, and the bridge is out.<\/p>\r\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
  
  Before we forget who Alex Jones is, we should remember him as a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4777,"featured_media":217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAlex Jones and the Theology of Bad Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before we forget who Alex Jones is, we should acknowledge him as a cautionary tale.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/humanencounter\/2022\/10\/alex-jones-and-the-theology-of-bad-faith\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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