Tag Archives: media

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Outrageous

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A bumper sticker popular in certain circles declares “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention”. Am I actually outraged? Or do I just see the outrageous?

Is outrage even possible now in response to moral depravity? Or, is it merely another way to be angry and hateful?

My former colleagues in the news media play a part in this sickening climate of public discussion; I’ve written about this before.

Three years ago, I published an obituary for American journalism. I was too hasty. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps journalism isn’t dead: it is now un-dead, zombie-like. News-as-golem.

What is called “news” has devolved into a soap opera: winners and losers; left and right; Ins and Outs; Non-mythinformation and conspiracy theory, and the like. Edification now takes a back seat to speculation.

Story lines are driven by ideological narrative, not from a desire to truly inform or enlighten. Hard questions are no longer asked; creating and sharing Fake Outrage are now the order of the day.

So what then, is a discerning person to do? My friend Joel Baker has some excellent observations, which lead to practical answers.

Problems and Solutions

News provokes an emotional reaction in us. We don’t usually notice it much because we’re used to it. If I can watch video of babies being murdered, buildings being bombed and catastrophic natural events without weeping, I have a hard heart. 1 Am I really immune to this? Or do I just spend too much time with it (and at the movies)?

A practical answer: Turn it all off until it hurts to watch it again because my heart is softer. The truth is, I don’t need to know. It’s okay not to know. 2

The more I consume stories of evil and mayhem, the more I become hardened to them. This endless scrolling through the Outrage Machine sows seeds and these seeds produce fruit: very bad fruit. 3

What is that fruit? Anxiety, fear, anger (I might justify this as “righteous anger”), judgment (I condemn someone), scorn (I laugh at someone), skepticism, disappointment, deep sadness, or misplaced hope in some man-made solution.

A practical answer: Prayer that leads to repentance for partnering with these things and a softer heart. 4

News is now like professional gossip: tasty morsels that go down easily but are laced with poison. 5

With everything I see, read, ponder or act upon, my daily choices are to respond, to react, or to ignore. There are only two outcomes: I harden my heart, or soften it.

A practical answer: God’s word. God’s word is truth. It purifies, sanctifies, washes, liberates and edifies me. All other words, including news media and social media, are laced with lies, which come from the father of lies. They ensnare me. They bind me. They slowly build a fortress of fake outrage that wars against true Godly outrage: moral outrage.

The words of the world are a heart-hardening potion. But the words of God are life and soften my heart, when I let them in, and let them rule me. 6

I must guard my heart above all things. It’s a fickle thing 7 and cannot be tamed, but it is the most precious think I own, after my soul. It’s worth guarding because I’m worth it. Jesus thinks so.

He thinks that about you too. 8

1. Jeremiah 18:11b-12 – “Repent now, everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your deeds good. But they say ‘There is no hope! But we will walk after our own devices, and each of us will do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”
2. Matthew 6:25 “Therefore, I say to you, take no thought about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body than clothing?”
3. Matthew 7:18 – “A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit.”
4. Job 23:16 – “For God makes my heart soft, and the Almighty troubles me;”
5. Ezekiel 21:7 – “It shall be when they say to you ‘Why do you groan?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news that is coming. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water. It comes and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord God.”
6. Ezekiel 36:26 – “Also, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
7. Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is more deceitful than all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?”
8. Ephesians 2:10 – “For you are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (NLT)

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Overflowing rubbish bin

Are You Compromised?

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“If you’re not going to preach the gospel, you don’t have anything to worry about. If you’re not going to talk about sin, you’re not going to have anything to worry about; but if you’re going to proclaim the gospel, they’re going to try to shut you up.” – Evangelist Franklin Graham

I’m tired of being a compromised Christian.

The world of politics believes compromise is good: all parties make concessions so that (reasonable, acceptable, tolerable) agreement can be reached. This works in its imperfect way in our imperfect world.

However, in God’s kingdom there can be no compromise. When I make a concession to the world, to my desires or to the lying suggestions of the devil, I sin. This is compromise.

God is not a compromiser. He is a promiser. He gives grace and mercy, yes – but only on his own terms.

People who want me to shut up, as Franklin Graham suggests, are asking me to compromise. I’m tired of it.

My largest area of compromise is my focus on the events of the day. There truly is nothing new under the sun.1 Much (likely most) of what I read outside the Bible doesn’t inform my Christian walk. I’m deceived if I think there actually is something new out there. And yet I find myself returning to this secular arena again and again. Too many days I check the news before I check in with my Lord and Saviour.

This futile search for ‘something new’ compromises my walk with Jesus. I think it’s sinful for me, and so I repent.

As part of this, I spent several hours this week going through my various inboxes, unsubscribing from junk.

Yes, the seemingly endless flow from the cloaca of culture: attack, criticism, counter-criticism, culture war volleys and parries, cancellation, disparagement, rumor, conspiracy theory, speculation, condemnation, self-righteous proclamation; all of this fills the news today, from the Times to Tumblr to TikTok.

Do I really need to know any of this to be relevant? The great weight in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians has landed upon my shoulders and can no longer be shrugged off: “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 2

If I believe what God says in the Bible, I should need nothing else for wisdom and demonstration. Who could say something as well as scripture, unless it too is inspired by the Holy Spirit?

It’s wise to know what’s happening in the world. But I’m becoming convinced the endless

drip–

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of cases only puts my eyes where they don’t really belong.

Times are dark. But then, times have always been dark. The Apostle Paul died in prison. Ten of the original 12 disciples were martyred for their faith in Christ, many of them horribly. There was persecution everywhere for the early church, as there has been for outspoken believers throughout the Christian Age.

The only relief from persecution has been in times and places where church leaders and believers compromised themselves: becoming worldly, political or, as we might say today, ‘relevant’.

Worldly relevance is irrelevant to God’s kingdom. Compromise has no value there.

When Peter unleashed his fusillade of a sermon on the day of Pentecost,3 he was not interested in relevance, but repentance.

He preached Christ’s basic gospel: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.4 ‘Repent and be saved’ was Jesus’ version of the prophet Zechariah’s warning: “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Return to Me, and I will return to you”. 5

Are you afraid of proclaiming the gospel? It reveals truth and brings life. Relevant messages bring confusion and death. Are you bold like Peter? Or are you compromised?

I’ve been told: ‘keep your faith to yourself’ and ‘shut up with that *** and stop judging me’. I’ve been called names. I’ve been told I have no right to speak in the name of Jesus.

The world is compromised. Are you?

Christian organizations are being de-platformed. Why? Because they refused to compromise like the app stores do.

Christian organizations are being kicked out of financial institutions. Why? Because they refused to compromise like the banks do.

Christians are being arrested in Western nations for preaching the gospel. Why? Because they refused to compromise like local governments do.

Christians are being fired for sticking to their faith in the face of uncompromising work rules. Why? Because they refused to compromise.

There is nothing new under the sun. And yet, too often Christians foster outrage instead of resting in the grace and peace Christ gives us to meet them.

Focusing on outrage brings us into the same compromise we complain about. It tricks us into glorifying what the devil is doing instead of searching out what Christ is doing. Remember, where sin abounds (read the news), grace abounds more (read the Bible). 6

Here’s the bottom line for me today, as it has been for the church for two millennia: “Now Lord, look on their threats and grant that Your servants may speak Your word with great boldness, by stretching out Your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be performed in the name of Your holy Son Jesus.” When they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.7

Are you speaking the word of God with boldness? Are you fully living the life Jesus called you to live? Or are you a compromised Christian?

By virtue of cleaning out my spiritual rucksack this week, my burden just got a bit lighter, and my path a bit straighter. Praise God.

1. Ecclesiastes 3:8-9 – ‘All matters are wearisome; a man is not able to speak to them. The eye is not satisfied with what it sees, and the ear is not content with what it hears. What has been is the same as what will be, and what has been done is the same as what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.’
2. 1 Corinthians 2:4
3. Acts 2:38-41 – ‘Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.’
4. Mark 1:15
5. Zechariah 1:3
6. Romans 5:20

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smartphone

A Full Mind is an Empty Mind

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All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance. – Will Rogers

I open my browser each morning,
Check in with curation-phone.
The pages are full of opinions,
With nothing new under the sun.

The newspaper too, where I find one.
A daily parade of the same.
The wag of the finger, the self-righteous tone,
Declaring the villain to blame.

The inbox as well, it is chock-full
Of siren songs: Eat-me and Drink.
Like Alice I blindly consume them,
And change the way that I think.

This molding is not to my liking;
It’s not even of my own choice.
When real information’s abandoned
In exchange for invidious voice.

The press is now propagandistic;
Agendas leap out to attack.
It seems like there’s no one to turn to
And certainly no turning back.

Our choices are clear, bright and simple:
The choice is between death and life.
One choice is the tightrope of freedom
The other a slippery cliff.

So turn off your lousy subscriptions.
Stop reading repetitive lies.
Stare out the window a moment or six.
And enjoy the truth that inspires.

‘You are what you eat’ said the writer.
It’s equally true for the heart.
Take care what you feed yourself – really.
Eat smartly, or be blown apart.

Distraction will lead to deception;
Delusion is not far behind.
Destruction will certainly follow,
In all those who keep themselves blind.

Such blindness may come from a smartphone,
Or earbuds we will not remove.
They create inhuman relation,
Replacing the flesh-and-blood kind.

A ‘wicked perverse generation’
The Christ called the men of his time.
A truth that is true in all seasons,
It holds in the days that are mine.

So I think I’ll go stare out the window,
Instead of the window within.
To see Him in His good creation,
And in my own freedom from sin.

The psalmist reports on the heavens,
How they speak of God’s wonderful love.
My own inner beauty reflects them,
And His grace means I’ve nothing to prove.

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