Tuesday, October 25, 2016

What Has Happened To Our Media?

"The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." Proverbs 18:17



Many times as a youngster I would hear Walter Cronkite sign off his nightly news broadcast, "And that's the way it is." 

And I would be content with the notion, "Ok, then, that's the way it is!"

Such is the power of the news media!

A smiling, bespectacled, grandfatherly, gentleman with a steady voice shaped the reality of world events of millions of viewers for the better part of a generation.

In his book, "Well Versed", the Rev. Dr. James Garlow makes the case for the biblical purpose of the media:

"The First Amendment guarantee of a free press is implicitly and theologically important. A free media exists for the same reason as the three branches of government. Each branch checks and balances the other - because the capacity for evil in the human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 summarizes it as well, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" 

An objective media performs an incredibly important function of independently challenging power with truth. This balance only works, however, if the media is not in bed with the government or being intentionally antagonistic."

So, what has happened to our media?

Let me offer several observations based on these brief comments from Dr. Garlow.

First, as truth has become relative it has become pliable and the majority of the media has ceased reporting truth and begun contorting it to fit their worldview and social or political agenda.

Second, when you fail or refuse to challenge corruption with truth you will eventually be corrupted by power. The saying is true, "Power corrupts" and the media has largely sold out to the politically powerful.

Third when you bend the truth and fail to defend the truth you soon lose sight of the truth and start believing your own lies.

Such is the pathetic state of the "mainstream media" today and the media is paying a price for it in terms of a major decline in trust and credibility. 

Do you trust the media?

Neither do I?

So, what do we do?

Stay anchored in the truth of God's Word and speak the truth to the corrupt power-brokers who try to shape the nation's reality.

Don't allow your heart or mind to become corrupted by the lies and misinformation being propagated by much of our modern media outlets.

In the words of the Apostle Paul, "Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness," Ephesians 6:14

The people of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is the final repository of truth on planet earth. Our nation needs us more now than it ever has! There will be a high price to pay as we stand for the truth and speak the truth against political power, but it is why God has placed us in the world.

And that's the way it is!