We hear an awful lot about “fake news” these days. While I am by no means a journalist, I thought the duty of a news reporter was to chronicle and publish stories which were based on facts and truth about events. It is true that one can view events from one’s own perspective and thus “see what you want to see,” but it is also true that professional reporters have a duty to present factual accounts which fairly represent the events covered. In today’s highly politicized media world, it has become extremely difficult to find fair and balanced reporting. It seems that both “liberals” and “conservatives” want to spin events to shine the best possible light on their particular causes. It is a sad commentary on the culture of America today. Politicians spending all their time investigating and accusing one another instead of focusing on legislation and governance of the people. Mud-slinging for political gain is certainly not new, but it has been given unprecedented “importance” thanks to the politicization of major news outlets.
I urge you to consider carefully what you believe to be truth. Most news outlets have proven to be less than reliable sources of information. As we know from history, it is best to go back to the original source documents (or happening) to find the facts. If you want to know if a Court’s decision to declare something unconstitutional is valid, go back and look at the Constitution and see for yourself. Many of The Supreme Court’s “opinions” rendered in the past century, when examined under the scrutiny of the Country’s original documents, do not appear to be valid. Why? The justices who sit on the courts have biases (e.g. liberal or conservative) and tend to interpret the law in the way which best mirrors their own agenda.
With all this politicization going on in government and the media, how are we (Christians) supposed to fulfill our civic duties as citizens? It is simple: go back to THE Original Truth – Scripture, and measure everything against that. The Word of God has the absolute truth which we need to determine if an action is good or evil. Scripture has clear guidance on many hot-button social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, infidelity, marriage, bearing false witness, greed and a myriad of others. The question we must ask ourselves is twofold: how well do I know Scripture and how well do I base my values judgments on its tenets? Where do you stand on The Truth and what are you going to do about it?
Food for thought,
Pastor Dave Jones