God & News Reporting

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being… Acts 17:24-28a

The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.  In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him." Luke 8:24-25

Current events, admittedly, is a subjective topic. To an historian or geologist, current could mean anything in the last 100 years. To someone trading the stock markets, current could mean something happening in the last 10 minutes. And then, of course, there is the issue of deciding what is an event that is worthy of being labeled as a current event. In reality, news reporting is a highly subjective process. For some, the annual Country Music Awards show last night was a current event. Later this week, the new Indiana Jones movie will debut. The intrigue of the presidential campaign vies for the attention of the media. If you are a sports fan, the NBA playoffs are in progress, however slow that progress may be.

But there is one element about news reporting and current events that is consistent. God is rarely, if at all, acknowledged to have anything at all to do with current events. As we noted in the last post, this is something that has changed over time. It used to be understood that  Providence was behind whatever was noteworthy in life. Now such thinking is not politically correct; many would be offended that God is mentioned in the news.

This is significant for parents. As soon your children are exposed to the world of news reporting, they will see dramatic images, live on-the-scene reporting, dazzling graphics and endless sound bites. Events like the earthquake in China are described in detail. But as Berta pointed out in her comment on the last post, a more precise description of how something happened does not address why an event happened. According to the Bible, God does things without having to consult others. The two passages above teach that even the winds and waves obey the command of Christ. Acts teaches that God even determines the exact places where men would live so that they would reach out to him. These are compelling truths! They suggest that God may not be relegated to the occasional memorial service that meets the mystical need of man to cope with unexplained tragedy. God is not the servant of new-age imagery that caters to our “need” for religious closure.

Hurricanes are interesting in that people often have days to prepare and worry about them. Tornadoes and earthquakes strike without warning. But hurricanes approach the coast at speeds of 10 to 20 miles per hour, or sometimes even more slowly. You have seen people write signs on the plywood covering the windows on their homes telling the hurricane to go away. But where the frantic pleas of humans go unheeded, the voice of Christ has but to speak, and the storm obeys. This is awesome power.

To leave God out of the news is to miss the point of life. God IS the news.

With this in mind, we are ready to address powerful events, such as the earthquake in China or the cyclone in Burma,within a biblical view of   reality.  Such a view of reality—a biblical worldview—must be at the core of your own response to life before you can teach it to your children. We will take this up in the next post. In the meantime, if you have a particular event that you would like to discuss, let me know and we will take a look at it together.