Chocolate Milk Comes From Brown Cows?

Back in 2017, the internet was shocked to learn that seven percent of Americans were found to believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows; 48 percent of respondents said they don’t know where chocolate milk comes from. The same research reported that another agriculture study had discovered that four out of 10 fourth, fifth and sixth-graders didn't realize cows are used to make hamburgers and three in 10 didn't know milk is used to make cheese.  It went on to report over half of the elementary school students didn't realize onions and lettuce are plants and that pickles are small cucumbers which have simply been placed in brine or vinegar.  How dumb are we??  Well, how curious are we might be a better question.  Thousands of people (myself included) clicked on the article in disbelief. After reading the report and watching the response, “How dumb is the media,” might be the best question. Many reposted the report and their comments of how embarrassed they were by American ignorance.  “Our education system is in freefall,” one posting read.  Taxpayer funded NPR ran with the story and even interviewed the author: https://www.npr.org/2017/06/16/533255590/alarming-number-of-americans-believe-chocolate-milk-comes-from-brown-cows  Just a little investigation into the research showed the story to be misleading on purpose.  The “survey” was real and commissioned by something called The Innovation Center of US Dairy and Edelman Intelligence.  The questions on the survey were purposely vague to force the results they were looking to report.  The data was skewed and purposely misleading to kick off a marketing campaign called Undeniably Dairy.  https://www.cjr.org/analysis/brown-milk-study-cows.php
They thought it was funny, but unfortunately, some folks acted upon it as if it was legit.

I couldn’t help but come back to this story due to the present political climate we find ourselves.  Reporting has become so bad that after watching political news channels throughout the week, viewers have a preview of what they will find on Saturday Night Live this weekend.  The material is so unbelievable, the comedy writes itself.  It’s become more fun to fact check the news reporters than the candidates. We know the politicians are purposely misleading, but the reporters? Which side are they on?

That brings me to the local Church.  As Christian witnesses of God’s work, our job is to report what we have seen and heard.  The validity of the message is based on the trustworthiness of the messenger.  Do you have your story straight? The story of God’s continued work in our world does not need to be sensationalized.  We do not need to add to or take away anything to make it applicable to our day and age. We all are tempted at times to envy the work of the Holy Spirit in the public individual lives of others.  Realize that God has you where He has you on purpose.  You are to be the most influential on the people in your circle.  We don’t need an advertising campaign or catchy zinger to win for Jesus.  Your story, His work in your life, is enough.  Just remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Same thing goes for fake news, if it sounds too fake to be true, it’s probably not.

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:37

Serving the Savior,  
Bro. Jonathan