I’m abandoning political and social issues to blog a bit personally today. It was an excellent weekend — one willed with fun, laughter and a whole lot of wisdom. I’m turning 27 tomorrow (Tuesday), so I spent Saturday and Sunday with friends and family. We ate, drank wine (ate some more) and truly enjoyed ourselves! After consuming way too much pizza and dozens of Candlelight’s delicious wings (if you live in the NYC/Westchester area, you likely know these wings well), we played Taboo and laughed our ways into oblivion.
On Sunday, my wife and my friend Bridget joined me in our backyard to try out my new helicopter from Brookstone (it’s a remote-controlled unit that, in my view, is super cool). Okay, I know what you’re thinking — this soon-to-be 27-year-old shouldn’t be playing with children’s toys. That’s neither here nor there. I have a penchant for technology, regardless of the recommended age of usage.
Anyway, we headed outside, I turned on the remote control and before I had a second to collect my scruples the helicopter shot up over our big white fence and landed in our neighbor’s backyard. After trying to figure out how to conspicuously get the toy — and failing — I realized I had no choice but to knock on my neighbor’s door. So, I did just that.
Upon knocking, my neighbor and I got into a discussion about nearly every topic under the sun (and fortunately, she willingly let me into the yard to collect the helicopter). My neighbor (we’ll call her Ellen) ended up bringing some excellent words of truth to my ears.
See, Ellen suffers from a rare and painful disease. She’s also in her eighties (though she’d easily pass for 50). Over the course of 45 minutes or so, Ellen shared many of the struggles she’s had in her life, while I sat and listened patiently. While this would typically be an extremely depressing experience, there was something captivating about the way she spoke. Unlike so many others who have been scorned and battered, Ellen seemed happy. Even in discussing various travesties, she was bubbly and seemed to have a very positive outlook. She said,
You know, many people see me in pain. Then, they see me the next day out working in the yard and they say, ‘Ellen, what are you doing?! You were so ill yesterday! You need to rest.’ I tell them, ‘Today is today and yesterday was yesterday.’”
See, it’s Ellen’s philosophy that we need to prevent ourselves from allowing the pain of yesterday to permeate our life experiences today. This concept truly stuck out to me. If God commands us to forgive and move on (which He does), Ellen’s theory rings true. However, it’s often extremely difficult to simply move on and forget. Furthermore, when we have a bad or painful experience, many of us (myself included) carry negative emotions for days, weeks, months — even years.
In listening to her life’s pain, Ellen described how she’s used betrayal and disappointment to learn to take care of herself, while ensuring she becomes a stronger person. In the end, I was glad to hear Ellen’s story and to soak in some of her wisdom.
Personally, I struggle with worry, though I know the promises God has made through Jesus Christ. Still, I worry about life circumstances I cannot control. Perhaps control, itself, is the issue. I know I am not alone in this struggle, but hearing Ellen’s testimony of sorts made me more aware of my own deficiencies in the areas of forgiveness and reliance upon the Lord.
“Today is today and yesterday was yesterday” is an excellent philosophy. Rather than dwelling on the worries and pain of yesterday, we should be ready and willing to move forward, with each day starting on a clean slate. What started out as a lost toy in my neighbor’s backyard ended in some unexpected wisdom. I always love when God gives us words of wisdom in, from and at the most unlikely of places.
In life there are certain situations in which we may feel powerless, hopeless and trapped. These dead-end situations leave us unsure of where to go, what to do or what the next proper step to take is. Sometimes, it seems as though nothing can change the circumstances we find ourselves in. I’ve faced this many times in my own life with friends, family and my faith. This morning, I was reading Acts 12 and Peter’s dead-end scenario truly stuck out and resonated with me. If you have’t read it, here’s the main gist (verses 1-4):
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
Considering that James had already been murdered, the situation looked pretty grim for Peter. But, just when Peter’s life was placed on the chopping block, God sent an angel to the rescue. The angel appeared in the cell, smacked Peter to wake him up, told him to grab his stuff, released his chains and guided him past the guards and away from the jail.
Talk about being saved by the bell. In Peter’s hour of need, God came through. While we won’t always be rescued by angels, the knowledge that God is in control and that He knows the best path for our lives should never escape us. We may be faced with tough situations in which we must ensure some pain (not everyone has such a heroic and angelic rescue), but if we maintain our faith and knowledge that the Lord is at the helm, those dead-end dilemmas won’t overtake our lives. The Lord really can — and often will — rescue us in our hour of need.
Verse nine reads, “Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.” We may not recognize that the Lord is at work in the midst of personal chaos (hindsight is always much more accurate than our perceptions while dealing with life’s dramas), but we should remain faithful and follow God’s calls, as Peter did in Acts. What an awesome lesson to retain and practice. Anything truly is possible with and through Christ.
Today’s “Our Daily Bread” by Dennis Fisher asks, “What is your focus today? Are you preoccupied with getting ahead and making life more comfortable?” I typically fall into a pattern of seeking out what I want in my life. This isn’t always a bad thing, especially when my goals and wants are meshed with the Lord’s. But, if I don’t take the time to consult God and to ask for his guidance, I glide down a slippery slope (unfortunately, I find myself sledding downward quite often).
Fisher’s entry is a good reminder that our focus should be fixed upon Christ (and, primarily, on how we can be more like him). With this as the basis for our thoughts and actions we are exponentially more likely to succeed.
I’m not preaching here, as practicing this is a prime struggle for me. That said, the “Our Daily Bread” piece resonates with me and leaves me thinking about how I need to keep my focus on Christ if I want to “win” in life. Often times, I am consumed by opportunities and experiences, but I don’t always take the time to ensure that said experiences are, indeed, blessings the Lord wants for my life.
As a Christian, the hardest act is remembering that, no matter what, the Lord has a plan for my life. While I may move forward in exercising my free will, the only way I will find the proper path is to align myself with the Father’s will. I know, I know — it sounds much simpler “on paper.” But, practicing what is preached here is essential. Just some thoughts for you on this fine Thursday.
Be sure to read the entry and be praying for this change in your life (if you’re already keeping proper focus, rock on!).
The media have an inadequate understanding of religion. This simple fact is corroborated frequently, as mainstream outlets attempt to illustrate stories, explain religious themes and delve deep into faith-based systems. Unfortunately, most outlets miss the mark entirely, as journalists do not have proper understanding of the constructs through which they are attempting to report. As a result, the American public suffers a lack of pointed and well-presented information on a subject that stands at the forefront of important global and domestic issues.
Case in point, Christiane Amanpour’s 2007 CNN mini-series entitled, “God’s Warriors.” The three-part series delved into the world’s three largest religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam. As is typical of the secular media, an enhanced level of relativism led the Iranian-bred Amanpour (born in London to a Persian family) to equate “extremism” within and among adherents to the three religions.
While each belief system has had moral failures, equating the deaths as a result of radical Islamic fascism to those of contemporary Christianity and Judaism is absurd. Furthermore, as is the case when journalists attempt to cover religion, Amanpour left out essential details that would have provided a more fair-minded picture.
In terms of her opaque coverage of Christianity, MercatorNew.com wrote the following,
“But she missed the obvious. [Christians] were participating in America’s legal and political system exactly as it was intended by the Founders, as a representative republic, with citizen involvement. She missed the pre-Jerry Falwell political civil rights activism of Dr. Martin Luther King and other Christians, and she totally missed Catholic social justice and the involvement of the roughly 70 million strong Catholic community in the US in the pro-life movement. She did highlight the powerful impact of Roe v. Wade on galvanizing Christians. She just failed to mention the Catholic involvement, which is considerable.”
In its usual ideologically-balanced form, The New York Times wrote the following endorsement: “This three-part series…is a fine primer on the emergence of strains of Judaism, Islam and Christianity that want to fuse politics and religion, and have shown a willingness to blow things up and kill people to do it.”
Again, an unhealthy and unbalanced level of moral equivalence – though I will give the Times credit for writing: “the issues on these Christian warriors’ minds seem positively quaint next to the agendas of the people in Parts 1 and 2.” Still, the inability to truly distinguish, on the whole, is a detriment to true understanding. Unfortunately, this sort of coverage is common.
The modern secular newsroom lacks the ideological know-how to truly understand religion. Perhaps Terry Mattinglybest exlplained the media’s “diversity problem”. According to Mattingly, “While there’s been heavy gender and racial diversity … there’s a lack of cultural diversity in journalism…” It is this lack of diversity that leads to major misconceptions and the media’s inability to adequately tell stories that are rooted, themselves, in religious themes.
The lack of diversity may lie in the journalists themselves, as personal faith plays a role in the ability to understand and thus illustrate religious themes. Just how religious are journalists? According to USA Today, “the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported in 2007 that 8% of journalists surveyed at national media outlets said they attended church or synagogue weekly.” Additionally, 29% reported never attending church services, with an additional 39% stating that they go a few times each year. In sum: Not very religious – especially when compared to America as a whole.
Pew found that 39% of the public claims that they attend church services weekly. Additionally, past Gallup pollshave shown as many as eight in ten Americans claim allegiance to Christianity. Clearly, these numbers show the need for proper journalistic understanding and presentation, especially when covering stories rooted in Christian themes.
Not enough journalists are regular church goers. Faith is not an attribute one can physically observe, thus “affirmative action” – a promotional methodology that is highly controversial to begin with – is an impossibility (also, employment laws generally forbid interview questions of faith). While general ignorance and inexperience with religious themes is likely a culprit amongst journalists, and consequently mainstream media outlets, complacency is also an impediment.
In a 2003 Los Angeles Times piece, David Shaw wrote the following: “Absent…scandal — or the death of a pope and the election of his successor — the news media often seem indifferent to, ignorant of and, at times, downright hostile toward religion.” Shaw is completely correct in his assertion. If not indifferent altogether, the media approach religion so slothfully that it appears as though the effort to misunderstand is undertaken with a barely concealed level of hostility.
In covering the American Religious Identification Survey that was conducted in March 2009, the Pew Research Center wrote,
“A comment on the blog Matters of Faith declared, “The media’s tendency to give inordinate attention to religious dimwits and crackpots has seriously damaged the credibility of religious leaders. You rarely read or hear of the miraculously generous work of faith communities in caring for the poor and infirm around the globe. But let someone suggest that the Virgin Mary has appeared in a plate of refried beans and the bulletins circle the globe in minutes.”
This commentary targets one of the media’s main malfunctions when it comes to covering religion in general and Christianity in particular. As is the case with most stories covered by the mainstream media, the more outlandish, the more the story is pursued. In practice, this creates a climate of coverage strewn with the “dimwits and crackpots” mentioned above, as journalists lack the understanding or desire to seek a wide array of theological viewpoints. Meanwhile, thousands of Christian missionaries risk their lives both domestically and internationally to make lasting spiritual and physical change in the lives of those in need. Yet their stories go widely unnoticed.
Modern democracy hinges in part on a proper understanding of religion amongst journalists, leaders and the general public. Matters of faith are some of the most personal aspects of American life. Furthermore, faith is one of the only cohesive forces that, if properly nurtured, leads to interdependence and personal, spiritual and societal growth. It is a shared and common experience.
Given the religious turmoil present in the Middle East – conflict that has affected America and Americans for for decades – one might think that the media have a responsibility to offer properly informed coverage. While efforts to ethnically and sexually balance the newsroom have been underway for quite some time, ideological and theological divides have led to tilted and incomplete coverage in matters of faith. It is time that the media better serve our democracy in covering a subject that will be increasingly important in the coming decades.
