Jesus and Gaslighting

A Pilgrim’s daily inquiry on how to stay on the lighted path

The word “gaslighting” originated from a 1938 play called Gas Light, which was adapted into two films in the 1940s. While the term wasn’t used in the 1944 film adaptation, the behavior it described led to the word’s eventual use to describe psychological manipulation. The term gained significant mainstream recognition in the early 2000s, particularly after the publication of The Gaslight Effect by Dr. Robin Stern in 2007, and was named Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year in 2022. Psychology Today, a magazine and website that makes psychology and behavioral science accessible to the general public through expert-authored articles and a therapist directory, describes “gaslighting” as an insidious form of manipulation and psychological control. Victims of gaslighting are deliberately and systematically fed false information that leads them to question what they know to be true, often about themselves. They may end up doubting their memory, their perception, and even their sanity.

The emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the mid to late 80’s and early 90’s, fueled the sharing of information into warp speed. The digital revolution had begun. The term “gaslighting” entered the mainstream of the American lexicon in the mid 2010’s, and exploded in popularity by around 2016. Google searches for the word surged that year to unprecedented levels, fueled by political discourse and increased mental health awareness. It was named “Word of the Year” in the years that followed by Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society. Like what Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type in 1450 did for the rapid spread of the written text, and Luther’s 95 Theses that ushered the Reformation, so did the digital revolution usher a paradigm change in the hypermotility and speed of shared information.

But I would argue that the use of false information to distort and disfigure truth, in order to manipulate another’s perception of reality, is as ancient as humanity itself. The linguistic frame of “gaslighting” is modern (thanks to the 1938 play, Gaslight), but the human predisposition for deception, deceit, and artifice lie at the core of the human condition.

Truth-telling is the currency in my field of vocation in theology and the practice of ministry. The gospel was spread through the truthful eyewitness testimonies to Jesus’ life and teachings by the Apostles, and the devoted disciples and followers of Jesus. And at the end of their lives, these witnesses wrote down on sacred texts their testimonies to preserve and bequeath to us their testimonies. It is not an overreach to say, that in the digital ecosystem that we now inhabit, this fundamental and bedrock task of the vocation is facing peril in ways that it has never faced before. The witness of a large segment of the American church – including those of many of my pastoral colleagues and some family members – has been coopted by partisan politics, and aligned itself with worldly power, as they openly declare allegiance to a particular political party. Their Christianity has become a prooftext, and an ascribed imprimatur, of the ideology of their political allegiance. And so the public testimony of the faith is now being culturally appropriated by habitués of contested power in the arena of nationalism, nativism, and toxic partisan politics – and antithetical to the very Jesus that they profess – all inflamed in the combustible atmosphere of the digital ether that is now omnipresent in our daily lives. Just as the Internet and social media have been the venue for truth-telling, it has also become the petri dish that cultures the pathogens of all the hatred, bigotry, racial animus, and paranoia of every discontented finger that finds its way on a laptop or smart phone keyboard.

So how does a pilgrim find the guideposts in the journey that keeps their feet, as the Psalmist declared, on the “lighted path?” How does a pilgrim eschew a Jesus-less Christianity?

Jesus offered his followers clear, unambiguous, and plain pathways to abundant life. He taught them about God’s radical love, a love that sought the good in everyone and in everything. He always spoke of what is true, good, and beautiful, in the Hebrew tradition of Tov, which means all that is good, beautiful, and true. It is the word in the Old Testament (originally written in Hebrew) that describes God’s creation. God’s will and purpose for all of us – and all of creation – is the goodness of abundant life. The Apostles also made sure that the words of Jesus himself were inscribed on sacred text, preserved for all time. We find them in the Sermon on the Mount, the collection of the core teachings of Jesus, shared by both the gospel writers Matthew and Luke, and declared as a public manifesto to God’s reign.

Finally, I have found that which helps me the most to stay on the lighted path, and that is, to inquire daily whether I’m paying attention to Jesus’ simple guide for discernment. And that inquiry leads me to pay attention to his teaching on a tree and its fruit: “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7: 16-18, ESV).

May your waiting and anticipating days during this Advent season be filled with God’s Tov, until that day when we hear the voice of the angel once again announcing the greatest truth for the ages: “Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto your is born this day, in the City of David, a Savior, who its Christ the Lord” (Luke 2: 10-11).