Bonnie Kristian explains what she means by ”Knowledge Crisis” — the phenomenon that is breaking our brings, poisoning our politics, and corrupting Christian community.

From October 2022 American Values Coalition Webinar.
www.americanvalues.org

So the knowledge crisis is uh it’s that Sort of sense of of unease and Uncertainty and confusion that I think a Lot of us feel when we’re trying to Engage in media in the public sphere Especially social media but not Exclusively and especially political Media but again not exclusively Um that sense of you know everything Feels sort of slippery that you’re Having questions about what can I trust Here what what voices are reliable how Am I supposed to be able to figure out When there’s this Avalanche of Information coming at us all day long How do we figure out what which of this Is you know reliable which of this is Trustworthy Um but it’s not just about like parsing That information as it comes at you It’s also about the those relational Effects and so you know families have Always thought about politics that’s Nothing new I think what’s what’s Different or what feels different at Least for many people is the sense that It’s you know we’re not arguing about Like a policy position we’re not saying Like okay here’s the problem and I think We should do a and you think we should Do B Sort of like the way we commonly Conceive of you know I think you should Vote for him and and you think about the

Other guy it’s not that straightforward Anymore and it feels like in many cases We’re having arguments about Um like the nature of the situation Itself where we’re looking at different Realities because we’re consuming Different media and it becomes so it’s Incredibly frustrating because it’s you Know how can you talk about something if You can’t even settle what you’re Talking about Uh and and so that sense of Um our our uncertainty about Informational things driving these Wedges into our our relationships and Also into our congregational life I Think that is a big part of the Knowledge crisis as well Um the the effects that it has offline You know outside of social media on the Way that we behave ourselves the way That we interact with people whom we Love and yet many times do not treat in Very loving ways because of these uh Disagreements and and because the other Person’s position just feels so Unfathomable