A bit over a month ago, a right-wing celebrity was hosting a Q&A period on a US college campus. He was spouting his usual racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, anti-free-press, gun-supporting vitriol when he was shot in the neck in front of a 3,000-person audience of mixed supporters and detractors.

Amidst the confusion of the hours following the murder, the American Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives disseminated guidance amongst law enforcement and investigators claiming that the shooter had left messages of “transgender […] ideology” on the scene.

This is not a homily about the murdered person or, indeed, the murderer. Regardless of how awful someone’s beliefs are, expressing your opinion is (supposedly) protected in the US. In Canada, though hate speech is a criminal offence, vigilantism is a crime, we don’t have the death penalty, and murder is wrong. Violence is unacceptable.

This reflection actually starts with that bulletin released by the DOJ, the US Department of Justice. Because the shooter was not trans, and the messages he left on the scene were (apart from a note saying “hey, fascist”) jokes and inane internet subculture references. The DOJ just spun their wheel of minorities and, where it landed, said “it was them”. It was a lie, or what the media calls “misinformation”.

The “trans people are terrorists” message was quick to be taken up by major media organizations, including the Wall Street Journal (which has since watered down its article). It is, as one might expect, excellent fodder for the American right-wing movement, members of whom have called for a ban on gun ownership for trans people (a truly extreme step by American standards) and institutionalization of anyone identifying as trans. This just rides on the wave of homophobia and transphobia sweeping the US in a crackdown led by the White House. Discharge of trans people from the military. Criminalization of bathroom use. Removing “x” designation from passports. Classifying any inclusion of gay or trans characters in media as pornography. A renewed attempt to re-ban gay marriage.

Why is this happening now? Why is the US government so filled with conspiracy theorists? Why are we living in a world where convicted rapists are given lauds and honours but those who have done nothing wrong – immigrants, Muslims, and queer folks especially in our current day – unjustly have their rights stripped from them?

We truly live in the world Paul spoke of in his letter to Timothy. Paul warned and instructed Timothy about teachings that distracted from the gospel among the congregations he shepherded in Ephesus, and his words apply equally well to this age of misinformation. In his words, “A time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.” Instead, to suit their own fantasies, “they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear”: political and cultural leaders who parrot insincerities and blame the powerless instead of holding to account those truly responsible. “They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths,” plunging into conspiracy theories and discrediting experts. It’s a lot easier to come up with a good conspiracy than to fix the underlying, systemic issues facing our modern society.

But we must pursue the truth, and combat misinformation where we encounter it. In Paul’s words, we must “correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

There are many, many people who believe in conspiracies, who support culture-war topics, stoking the fires of xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and transphobia. And this hateful rhetoric causes concrete, not merely theoretical, harm for people who are already living on the fringes of society. In the spirit of World Food Sunday, I will share with you the story of one of those people: a woman named Saige.

Saige was a young trans woman who, rejected by her own family, was reliant on social services for food and shelter. But there, too, she faced barriers due to her status as a transgender person. Many food banks require ID and proof of address: things you might not have access to as a trans person who might not look like their photo, might not use the same name, and, like Saige, might have been kicked out of their home. And that’s before we consider the discrimination and harassment a trans person can experience amongst strangers. These are all systemic issues confirmed by a number of other trans people who have had similar experiences. In the face of the continual stigma and intolerance she encountered in every area of her life, she eventually committed suicide.

Saige was the inspiration for Saige Community Food Bank, a local charity named in her honour. Saige is a food bank that provides a no-barrier safe space for transgender, gender non-conforming, or queer individuals to access healthy food and support from their peers and allies. It is also open to any individuals in need of food, or that cannot access government food banks because of barriers such as ID, lack of housing, income, or other specifics needed to be accepted. I encourage everyone to look them up.

Access to food is something that should not be a challenge for anybody. But it is a reality for many people around the world. Today, on World Food Sunday, we hold in our prayers the estimated 673 million people living with hunger. Avoidable hunger, caused by failed systems of distribution in our capitalist world where almost 1/5 of the world’s food goes to waste. Avoidable hunger, where human-caused climate change, still denied by right-wing political parties, is causing crops to fail due to storm, pestilence, and drought. Avoidable hunger, where warring governments are too focused on destruction to bother to care for their people or trigger famine in an attempt to break the resolve of civilians – a war crime actively being implemented by the government of Israel in their blockade of international food aid to Gaza.

Something needs to change. To achieve an equitable society, where we tend to God’s creation, where we take care of those that fall through the cracks, where each is respected and honoured for being true to who God made them… it takes work. Governments and human societies are unjust judges, acting out of convenience or in their own self interest instead of doing what is right.

We must learn from the parable of the persistent widow. We have to keep coming back, again and again, crying out day and night. By correcting misinformation. By donating to just causes. By purchasing from local shops or from ethically-minded corporations. By voting for governments who do not point fingers at the less fortunate and say “this was their fault.” Because, if we do, maybe the world will eventually say “because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice.”

Whoever we are and wherever we stand politically, whether young or old or left or right, Christ calls us to be truth-telling and neighbour-loving. Though we live in an age of rumours and conspiracies, I hope we can all join together and move our world a little closer to God’s vision for God’s creation.