BROADCASTS.com

Transcribed highlights of the show can be found in our episode summaries.\nPlandemic? QAnon? Bill Gates creating the COVID-19?\xa0\nAs the novel coronavirus has traveled around the world, so too have conspiracy theories about the origins of the disease and the winners and losers that have emerged as result. In the past month, a video making claims that Gates and Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, used COVID-19 to gain money and political power, went viral. At the same time as Plandemic, The Atlantic launched a new series examining conspiracy theories, including an in-depth look\xa0at the QAnon, a movement that makes bold claims about the global elite.\nThe Bible has many things to say about conspiracy theories, specifically with regards for how Christians should determine what is real, says\xa0Dru Johnson, the director of the Center for Hebraic Thought and who\xa0wrote about conspiracy theories for CT in December.\n\u201cThe biblical diagnosis, the biblical impulse here, is not that you have to be afraid of someone lying to you. It's that somebody will always be interpreting your world for you,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cAnd you have to lean into the wise practices that God has given us as people to discern what is worth listening to and what's not.\u201d\n\u201cPeople say that God sent COVID-19 to bring the Church in America together to teach us the lesson. How could we know such a thing?\u201d said Johnson, who also teaches biblical studies and theology at The King\u2019s College in New York City. \u201cBut I certainly do believe that God is using this as a test of us. A test of who we trust and how we think about what's worth trusting and understanding.\u201d\nJohnson joined digital media producer Morgan Lee and editorial director Ted Olsen to share about how the Bible discusses conspiracy theories, what Paul means when he writes about the mysteries of God,\xa0and what differentiates a conspiracy theory from a religion.\xa0\nWhat is Quick to Listen?\xa0Read more\nRate Quick to Listen on\xa0Apple Podcasts\nFollow the podcast on\xa0Twitter\nFollow our hosts on Twitter:\xa0Morgan Lee\xa0and\xa0Ted Olsen\nFollow our guest on Twitter:\xa0Dru Johnson\nVisit our guest\u2019s website: Dru Johnson\nMusic by\xa0Sweeps\nQuick to Listen is produced by\xa0Morgan Lee\xa0and\xa0Matt Linder\nThe transcript is edited by\xa0Bunmi Ishola\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices