How do I know who I can trust to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

I’m asked one question more than any other by listeners: where can I get a reliable source of news? People are frustrated by the bias on all sides. If you’re like me, you just want the straight story and then you want to form your own opinions and take your stand in the political discourse of the day. But all journalism is viewpoint journalism so we have to wade through multiple sources covering the same story from different angles and try to suss out the information from the spin and partisan rhetoric. It doesn’t matter if its a story about dogs or college sports or birth or death or license plates or coffee cups…its now all political. How that happened is a long story (as discussed here with Carl Trueman).

Here are a few additional handles to lay hold of:

Politicians – and journalists, college professors and cultural commentators – use rhetorical devices that based in 12 dominant logical fallacies. Once you know what they are, you can become adept at identifying them. Bruce Ashford lays it out here and we talked about it here.

Os Guiness. Enough said. Everything he writes, you need to read. Here are a few of my conversations with him.

Cal Thomas has been covering the devolution of American civility for generations. My conversation with him about America’s Expiration Date is important.

Ross Douthat’s book, The Decadent Society, helps us see ourselves and American cultural realities today.

Rod Dreher’s observations in The Benedict Option and more recently in his book, Live Not By Lies, have proved prescient.

There are a handful of people to whom I turn on a regular basis to check my own thinking on the issues of the day. They include:

1. John Stonestreet, whose Breakpoint program airs every day during Mornings with Carmen. The conversations John and I have had over time have helped form and deepen my thinking on a range of topics.
2. Jim Denison, who posts his observations each day at The Denison Forum has joined me for conversations about how he brings the mind of Christ to bear on the headline news of the day.
3. Al Mohler offers daily commentary on the challenges we face as Christians in the culture today. I listen most days The Briefing and have found his recent episodes of Thinking in Public to be an excellent help. He has also joined me on air to discuss a range of topics: the Apostles Creed, the 10 Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer.
4. Russell Moore is a consistently faithful voice at the intersection where life is lived: Faith in Christ – at it relates to everything else. If you don’t like what he says or his take on on a topic, pause and ask yourself why? Why do I resist what he’s saying? Is he actually wrong or am I defensive because his preaching has gone to meddling in my life?
5. Bruce Ashford is another voice I trust in the conversations of the day. His book, Letters to an American Christian, is both excellent and accessible. Here’s my conversation with Bruce about the book.
6. George Barna and I have had several conversations about the findings of the American Worldview Survey 2020 and the implications for the church and the nation.

Suffice it to say, we talk frequently about the challenges facing Christians in the context of 21st century America. Let me know if there are particular questions I help you sort through or additional resources you need. cflaberge@reconnectwithcarmen.com