Reading the news with new eyes

Am I thinking God’s thoughts?

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Newsworthy events happen every day. Information about them is observed, researched, and considered by journalists, editors, and newsrooms. There is more information than can be reported. This means there must be selection. Selection is based on priorities and click-ability. Priority is a reflection of ideology. Clickbait is augmented by placing the news into a narrative of drama, anger, anxiety, and fear.

There is no such thing as objective news. Not even Walter Cronkite.

Simply put, we never read, listen to, or watch news that is not already filtered and interpreted for us. At its best, journalists and editors leave minimal fingerprints on their reporting. At their worst, they engage in opinion journalism, partisan reporting, the goal of which is for their side to win. All reported news is filtered through the assumptions of the people and organizations that send it out.

If that is the case, am I aware of it? Or do I simply receive it predigested, swallowing it whole, even though many of the assumptions are contrary to the mind of God?  How do I, as a citizen of the kingdom of Christ, receive this news with discernment?

My observation is that most people decide what they will follow because the source most aligns with their political position. They “trust” that source and swallow it whole. The other options are “fake news.”   But is political preference the way I, as a Christian, decide? Is the eternal battle of the ages about the right and the left?

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New eyes

I think not. I think it is profoundly superficial to allow my news choices to be about political ideology. Indeed, I have concluded that it is sub-Christian. Why would I say that? Because of these words:

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds . . .  (Romans 12:2).

God wants to change how we think, evaluate, and interpret everything in life. This verse is not about behavior, but about perception. It is not about the hands but the eyes. Christ causes us to see differently because he sees differently.

This is more than morals. After 50 years of study of the Word of God, I am convinced that God is concerned about far more than our behavior. He is concerned with our eyes — what we see and how we interpret what we see.

Why would I say that? Because the accent of large portions of the psalms and prophets and letters of the NT are statements about who God is, what Christ has done, and how that changes our identity.

Consider these phrases:

Your citizenship is in heaven . . . You are a holy nation . . . You are to be blameless and harmless children of God . . . You will judge angels . . . Now we are the sons of God . . .. I could go on with quotations. They are about how we see ourselves in Christ. The point is this: God reveals his mind to us that we might think as he thinks and see as he sees. That is about far more than morality.

What is of first importance

It includes what God sees as “headline news.” For example: consider this report of the activity of John the Baptist.

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. (Luke 3:1-2  ESV)

God directs Luke to accent all the “important” people of the time. It is fairly comprehensive. Why? They and their activities are the ones we would have heard in the news.

But Luke tells us that what God reports is not the activity of the powerful but of one man, in the wilderness of Israel, speaking the word of God. You would never have heard about him on the Roman Empire versions of Fox or CNN. But in God’s mind, his work is of greater significance than Caesar, Roman governors, and religious powers that be.

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Remember Romans 12:2. Think about the command. “Be not conformed . . . be transformed” means seeing as God sees, not as the world sees. I want to do that. Do you?

In our day would God’s newsroom report on Trump v. Biden, Israel v Hamas, Putin v Ukraine? Maybe not. Our culture is boiling with polarized people dealing with DEI, freedom of speech, Trans-rights, who will end democracy, etc. Are those matters God would write up on the front page?

Paul is calling Christians NOT to think as the world thinks, NOT to buy into the narrative of the world, NOT to accept the selection of news by people who are blind to the ways of God. That includes conservatives, liberals, and progressives.

Or am I being drawn into another way of seeing?

Here is my observation: many Christians have a narrow vision (its only about morality), or a political loyalty that they think is Christian, or they have been captured by an American story that is a myth. The outcome of these is seeing in a way that is polluted and diluted.

You may object to this, as ‘this sounds too other-worldly.’  I do not think it is other-worldly, I think it is contra-worldly. And it is absolutely necessary. It is as necessary for conservatives as for progressives. Why?

Everything and everyone is biased against God. Could Jesus have been any clearer? The world hates him. He exposed the evil of the world. His kingdom is not of this world. He put down the rule of this world. People outside of Christ are in darkness especially in matters of seeing the whole picture as God sees it.

Why is that true? Because since the great rebellion in Eden, the entire purpose of all humans, individually and together, is to be gods — to make their own rules, develop their own culture, to create their own version of the kingdom of God without the meddling interference of the true God.

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Here is the bottom line: Absolutely everything in the “news” assumes this. I might even say ALL news (Fox and Tucker too) is propaganda. Christians are like a Dallas Cowboys fan living in Green Bay — why would I NOT expect the coverage to be biased?

The assumptions of the world are the assumptions of self-created morality, self-righteous religion, ultimate problems defined so that God and redemption are unnecessary, and the sufficiency of humanity to fix the problems so defined. Of course, we can solve many problems. We have done so. But we will not accept God’s big picture, his assessment of the foundational problem and his solution.

If that is the case, and I am convinced it is, why would I, now rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Jesus the Savior-King, think that I can receive the reported news of this world without questioning everything about the assumptions of the media? The politician?

Everyone has an agenda — am I even aware of it?

We are currently told that the future of our democracy rests in this election, that this is a choice between upholding or destroying the deep state, that this is our opportunity as Christians to begin to recover a Christian America and to reverse the rise of paganism and sexual perversion. Others say that this is the time to ensure that global warming is stopped, the right to abortion is protected, and self determined sexual identity is embraced.

Every one of these emphases and choices presented to us assumes all the prejudices of the human race against God and the Savior King Jesus. They assume certain things about the nature of being human, and being a society of humans under a government by humans. They assume certain issues to be the real problem and that we have in our hand the power to solve them. They assume a story with a beginning, middle, and desired end. If I may change the analogy: the news is all sleight of hand, distracting us from the assumptions and narrative so that they can pull a rabbit of their hats (telling us what is important).

In the next posts I will establish the assumptions I make in hearing the news. They are drawn from Scripture and the story of God’s redemptive purposes.