Remember the balcony scene in Aladdin when he’s standing, white-robed and blue-feathered, atop the Magic Carpet? He’s laying on the charm with Jasmine and he pops the question, “Do you trust me?”
“What?” she sputters, neurons firing behind enormous Disney eyes.
“Do you trust me?”
And she says, “Yes”—which is a little bit inexcusable because she’s known our hero-in-disguise Prince Ali for a total of, well, gosh, not very long at all.
They board the Magic Carpet non-stop flight to, apparently, Everywhere-in-the-World, which bolts with such animated acceleration as to force Jasmine to, reflexively, throw her arms around Mr. Ababwa in the ultimate romantic harbinger.
This is all just pre-“I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid,” so you’d be forgiven for not recalling these details, or considering any of the numerous theological subtleties Disney was undoubtedly summoning, yes?
Not least of those references: Love always trusts.
Let me be honest: I’ve never known how to take this. I mean, I’ve heard theological and practical explanations, but it’s not always satisfying. I know God isn’t calling us to be stupid or gullible. Isn’t skepticism healthy? Isn’t a little honest leeriness wise? Honestly.
Anyway, Americans—even and perhaps especially Christian Americans—aren’t particularly good at trusting.
Do you know how many Americans trust the federal government to do the right thing always or even most of the time? A whopping 13 percent (CNN/ORC poll).
How about the percentage of blacks in Ferguson—or anywhere in America—who trust the police? It’s low.
How about you when it comes to keeping your house or car unlocked? Keeping your Twitter account logged in? Trusting that Ebola does not deserve plague-status in the United States?
And when someone creates an event on Facebook and ten people click the “Maybe” RSVP, frankly, I don’t believe any of them. (When people click “Maybe” on a Facebook event, it means “No,” but you somehow thought it would be nicer to leave open the possibility of the inevitably forlorn hope of your attendance. Slippery!)
And here’s the thing that really got me thinking about this again: I just read a report from Pew called “Political Polarization and Media Habits.” Basically, it looked at how conservatives and liberals of all stripes approach media outlets—who do they trust? who do they watch and read?
As a journalist and a Christian, the results were scarier than a clown in a Stephen King novel. In the study, respondents were presented with 36 U.S. media outlets: some mainstream (e.g. CNN, NYT, ABC) and some more niche (Breitbart, The Daily Show, BuzzFeed). Among “consistent liberals,” 28 of the 36 are more trusted than distrusted. Among “consistent conservatives,” amazingly, 24 media sources draw more distrust than trust—and the most trusted of all? Fox News!
It doesn’t surprise me that conservatives prefer Fox and Rush, and that liberals prefer MSNBC and CNN, but what amazed me is the apparent fact that this is not simply a matter of preference. It’s not just that strongly right- or left-wing people prefer certain sources of news, it’s that they (especially hardcore conservatives) think that so many other sources are outright lying. Seriously, “consistent conservatives” have more distrust than trust for journalism from PBS, NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, and more. Is it just me, or does that deserve a wow? Could Peter Jennings or Diane Sawyer even tell a lie on air if they wanted to?
This is getting too political. I don’t mean it to. Really, trust issues aren’t just for you and your significant other. They’re hurting all of us. Maybe we live in a society that can no longer trust or be trusted. I hope not, but maybe. But if that’s true, how long will it be before we stop riding the train of mere suspicion and arrive in the new, dim empire of total social, political, and spiritual agnosticism?
That’s not what we want, Princess Jasmine. Trust me.
After a few years spent correcting grammatical errors and writing subtle, clever headlines in a Chicago newsroom, Griffin Paul Jackson (’11) now does aid work with refugees in Lebanon. He writes about that, God, and, when the muse descends, Icelandic sheep. Read him here: griffinpauljackson.com.
