In Controversial Essays, Thomas Sowell wrote, “One of the reasons for conspiracy theories is an assumption that people in high places always know what they are doing. When they do something that makes no sense, devious reasons are imagined by conspiracy theorists, when in fact it may be due to plain old ignorance and incompetence.” This really is where we find ourselves these days. Leadership in These United States of America smells putrid regardless of whether it vents from the left side of the infrastructure or the right side. As a result, it’s essential that we begin to ignore the hot air of bloviation passing as principled leadership. Instead, we need to wait until we find at least a smidgeon of credible evidence before buying in.

Here’s a good example…I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard newscasters say, “The use of the horse and cow medication, Ivermectin, should be rejected.” Meanwhile on the NIH website you can find this…https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/. It’s a review covering the research regarding Ivermectin as used to treat SARS-CoV-2. It’s long (and well worth reading), but here are a few things covered…

1. The title of the review: “Ivermectin for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19 Infection: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis, and Trial Sequential Analysis to Inform Clinical Guidelines.”

2. The common prescription of this med for humans: “Ivermectin is a well-known medicine that is approved as an antiparasitic by the World Health Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration. It is widely used in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to treat worm infections. Also used for the treatment of scabies and lice, it is one of the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines. With total doses of ivermectin distributed apparently equaling one-third of the present world population, Ivermectin at the usual doses (0.2–0.4 mg/kg) is considered extremely safe for use in humans.”

3. The wrap-up paragraph: “Ivermectin is likely to be an equitable, acceptable, and feasible global intervention against COVID-19. Health professionals should strongly consider its use, in both treatment and prophylaxis.”

4. Published in the 2021 July/August edition of The Journal of Therapeutics and posted on the National Institute of Health website.

You might wonder why I bother with this at all. Well, it’s certainly not because I have a dog in the Ivermectin fight. I don’t. It’s just that in this epic era of history we are seeing another great resurgence of multiple full frontal assaults on truth. Every where we turn we see the steady erosion of integrity regarding evidence.

Folks just get to say stuff!

I’m not even suggesting you should trust the “journal research at the NIH” more than the “Yellow Journalism of FOX, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC,” etc. Quite the contrary…my suggestion is skepticism and suspicion as first responders in all the palaver flooding pages, airwaves, and digital outlets. Who and what we believe is of paramount importance in the effort to reclaim sensibility and the governance of “we the people.” Old truth must increase, while psuedo-truth must be resisted. And one cannot start with better “old truth” than that which is eternal. It’s found in and through the Messiah.