“Breaking News”

I basically gave up on watching local television news early in the virus panic. I previously referred to the local newscasts as “The Giggle News” due to the typical on-air banter. We used to joke about the nightly lead story of “Breaking News” from an area suburb, where there always seemed to be a shooting or policing event. But with the virus coverage, I finally quit watching for the most part. We might tune it to the news to check the weather at a quarter past the hour, but simply don’t care about big hard-hitting stories about the staff at The Daisy Hill Puppy Farm knitting hundreds of masks to donate. I don’t care about people howling or barking at a particular time each evening to supposedly recognize medical professionals, presumably those treating virus cases and not the ones who were idled by the imposed shutdown. I don’t care about pandering newscasters observing social distancing by sitting on opposite sides of the set, or people doing their segment from home.

Long ago I gave up on the broadcast network national news broadcasts, regarding them as generally Leftist propaganda, watching only occasionally when there might be a major disaster or weather event such as a hurricane. I continue to receive the local daily newspaper, noting the sources for articles, picking and choosing what to read, sometimes little of it, sometimes when I’m in the mood for “opposition research” reading more of it. Nevertheless, looking at a variety of sources, I consider myself well informed, just careful and thoughtful of what I might accept as fact.

Just as in matters of faith, understanding culture and current events requires discernment. Check sources and evidence. Look at and analyze source data. Not everything in a newscast or the newspaper is true. The internet is full of “fake news.” Analyze. Consider data carefully. Even good and correct facts can lead to incorrect conclusions when the facts are considered out of context and out of the context of other data. The human-caused climate change debate is famous for this.

Throughout recent months, induced fear has been everywhere in our society. The run on products like toilet paper and other consumer staples showed the widespread fear. Recently I was on the road over Loveland Pass, at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet. At a parking area, few people were around, on a sunny day, with some wind blowing as it always does there, I noticed two little girls, perhaps early elementary age, get out of a car. Both had on masks. Statistically, the coronavirus does not affect children, adolescents, or young adults (yes, there are exceptions). Not my business, they are free to wear masks, but I noted that they would have had to make an effort to get within 10 feet of anyone. While there, well away from others of course, I sneezed without so much as raising my hand or arm to my face, just for the sheer joy of it. I’m tired of the whole distancing thing.

People have lost businesses and jobs in the shutdown, others have lost educational opportunities, others have suffered postponement of needed medical procedures. Economic loss and financial disaster are all too real. The recent civil unrest and riots have arguably been as bad or worse than the virus shutdown. Fear – legitimate fear – is everywhere. Fear for the life and health of loved ones. The fear for one’s own life, health, and well-being. The fear of the early-stage dementia patient, seeing no one except a staff person or two in a mask and medical garb. The anxiety of an aging person unable to visit with anyone face to face.

“Cases” (positive tests). “Outbreaks” (two or more positive tests in a facility, group, or place of employment). An athlete or celebrity tests positive for the virus; not actually ill, just a positive test. “Surge.” “Spike.” “Emergency.” Somber tones. Mass death. Panic. Despair. Be afraid. But maybe some fears are induced, overblown, and unnecessary.

A few weeks ago, I ran across an article by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, a journalism professor at Cardiff University (referenced in the monthly devotional booklet “Turning Points” from David Jeremiah’s organization). The article is titled “Feeling Panicked About Coronavirus? Media Coverage of New Epidemics Often Stokes Unnecessary Fear.” In the piece the author writes,

“New contagious diseases are scary. They frighten us because they’re unknown and unpredictable. The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronvirus COVID-19 has received extensive media attention — coverage that can tell us a lot about how uncertainty in the face of such an epidemic can all too easily breed fear.

For about a decade, I’ve been studying the role of emotions in journalism, including in the coverage of disasters and crises. Media coverage is vital to our shared conversations and plays a key role in regulating our emotions, including fear. While fear is an emotion that we frequently experience as individuals, it can also be a shared and social emotion — one that circulates through groups and communities and shapes our reactions to ongoing events. Like other emotions, fear is contagious and can spread swiftly.

Media coverage sets the agenda for public debate. While the news doesn’t necessarily tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about. In doing so, the news signals what issues merit our attention. Research has consistently shown that when issues receive extensive media coverage and are prominent in the news agenda, they also come to be seen as more important by members of the public.”

Further,

“Research on coverage of earlier disease outbreaks show a similar emphasis on fear. In the case of the SARS epidemic in 2003, a study by historian Patrick Wallis and linguist Brigitte Nerlich found that “the main conceptual metaphor used was SARS as a killer.” Along the same lines, media scholars Peter Vasterman and Nel Ruigrok examined coverage of the H1N1 epidemic in the Netherlands and found that it was marked by the “alarming” tone of its coverage. Like the coronavirus, these historical outbreaks were characterized by uncertainty, breeding fear and panic.

To put these observations into perspective, it is instructive to compare them with coverage of seasonal influenza, which is estimated by the World Health Organization to kill 290,000 to 650,000 people around the world every year. Since January 12, 2020, world newspapers have published just 488 articles on the seasonal flu without also mentioning coronavirus. In sharp contrast to coverage of this novel coronavirus, fewer than 1 in 10 stories about flu (37 of 488) mentioned “fear” or similar words or phrases.

The prominence of fear as a theme in reports of the coronavirus suggests that much of the outbreak’s coverage is more of a reflection of public fear than informative of what’s actually happening in terms of the spread of the virus. Franklin Roosevelt probably overstated the case when he famously said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But at a time rife with misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories, it’s worth remaining alert to the dangers of this contagious emotion in the face of uncertainty.” *

In Hebrews 12:27-29, Paul wrote,

^“Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Commenting on this passage, Charles Spurgeon (updated by Alistair Begg) in his “Morning and Evening” devotional, wrote,

“We have many things in our possession at the present moment that can be shaken, and it is not good for a Christian to rely upon them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet we have certain “things that cannot be shaken,” and I invite you this evening to think of them—that if the things that can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken and that will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation.

You are standing at the foot of Christ’s cross, trusting alone in the merit of His precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in Him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Even if by loss you are brought to poverty and stripped bare, you can still say, “He is still my Father. In my Father’s house are many rooms; therefore I will not be troubled.” You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and man loves you with all the strength of His affectionate nature—nothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may dwindle and wander from the field, but it does not matter to the man who can sing, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose.

Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not like little children cast down by what happens to us in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel’s land, our hope is fixed in heaven, and therefore, calm as the summer’s ocean, we will see the wreck of everything earthborn and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.”

David the Psalmist wrote, in Psalm 37,

Do not fret (worry) because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

Do not despair because of evildoers – racists, rioters, Marxists, destroyers. Do not worry because of diseases, disasters, disappointments. Do not worry – it only causes harm.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.

* https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/02/feeling-panicked-about-coronavirus-media-coverage-of-new-epidemics-often-stokes-unnecessary-fear/

The Simple Mission of the Church

Pandemics, Protests, and Purpose

Often things aren’t as simple as they seem. Sometimes they actually are.

An article titled “NAE calls on Christians to pause, mourn 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in US” was featured a few weeks ago in an on-line publication. The piece stated that “The National Association of Evangelicals is calling on Christians and churches to pause and lament the death of more than 100,000 Americans from COVID-19 on Pentecost Sunday, ” and quoted the NAE’s president’s observation that “It’s a reason for us to pause, to remember the dead, to mourn their passing, and to lament the fact that we have not been able to grieve as we typically would as Christians.” The piece further noted that “The call is being made by “an unprecedented group of 100+ national faith leaders—from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions representing major denominations, national faith-based organizations, local congregations, and millions of people of faith across the country.”

The same article related that the founder of the organization Sojourners said “One hundred thousand people, citizens, friends, and family dead is a terrible marker we must not miss or pass by quickly or easily. We must stop. We must weep. We must mourn. We must honor. And we must lament which is to feel and bear great grief and sorrow, and to reflect upon it.” The executive director of Sojourners commented that “Every one of the over 100,000 lives in the U.S. lost to COVID-19 is precious and sacred. While the need for social distancing has precluded funerals and other traditional forms of mourning, we can and must find ways to grieve and lament together as a nation. These tragic deaths include so many heroic frontline and essential workers who risked their lives to heal, protect, and serve others.”

These are not necessarily doctrinally solid organizations, but there is nothing explicitly wrong with and in fact everything right about sound churches and individual Christians supporting people who have lost loved ones and friends to the virus. Paul wrote in Romans 12:14-16, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.” But what about the tens of thousands of survivors of diseases like malaria, typhus, or dysentery, which largely occur in less developed countries, and those who have lost loved ones to such diseases? What about tens of thousands of cancer survivors or those who have lost loved ones to that condition? Or auto accidents? Or seasonal flu? Or old age? Or poverty? What about a special day for them? Why single out COVID-19 just because it dominates the secular news cycle? Is it a hook to somehow attract people concerned with a current and on-going event? Or is it maybe because some would let society and current events set the agenda for the church with the thought that addressing solutions to the societal problems of the day is primary to the mission of the church?

Sound churches sometimes purport to aspire to “change their city” or perhaps “transform their community for Christ.” But is that really the role of the church? Or is the purpose of the church to be something both more basic and ultimately more important? Jesus commissioned his followers to go into the world and preach the gospel and to make disciples. To reach people with the message that Christ came to atone for their sin and if they will respond to the gospel and call on Christ in faith they will be saved, not just from disease and calamity, but from eternal judgement. The church cannot cure any disease. But in understanding and fulfilling its real purpose the church can help people see the One and Only Cure for their most fundamental underlying condition, sin.

In a book published in 1983 titled “Idols for Destruction,” Herbert Schlossberg wrote that “Now American religion is full of the contradictions and paradoxes that come from the attempt to merge a true gospel with the faltering creeds of the surrounding society” (Page 9). Later (Page 38) he observed that “God is still active in history and still makes himself known in blessing and judgement. The message is as unpopular now as it was then, and there are many places in which the church is faithless to its charge, preferring to preach on popular themes that find ready acceptance among those who have rejected the first principles of the Christian faith.” Surely those words are even more true now than they were in 1983.

What is the mission of the church? What are we supposed to be doing? The changing of people is surely fundamental to the mission of the church, but the only way to change people is to lead them to Jesus Christ – the Jesus Christ of scripture. The only way for the church to change people is to declare the gospel. The mission of the church is primarily redemptive. The mission of the church is the gospel, the scriptures, declaring the gospel and then “teaching them to observe all things” that God in His Word has commanded.

Attempts to be contemporary, to be “relevant,” ensures irrelevance. By constantly responding to current events, the disease or disaster of the day, or the media event of the week, churches completely lose their unique and fundamental function. The desire to sympathize with suffering aside from declaring the nature and cause of that suffering – human rebellion and sin against God – sacrifices eternal truth on an altar of misguided sympathy and emotion. The church becomes just another voice in the crowd. Current societal upheavals pose a huge risk of being sidetracked for many in the American church, even in sound circles where the gospel is believed. “Social justice” concepts are not merely a distraction from the gospel; rather, such things are antithetical to gospel. Where social justice is accepted, the gospel is twisted.

The Great Commission speaks of Christ’s followers being a witness to people of all nations, men and women of all races and cultures. Evangelism and the gospel message is the absolute and only starting point for all Christian teaching and discipleship. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Believers and churches thus must be engaged in confronting the lost and presenting to them the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. But Christ did not limit His teaching to the message of individual salvation from hell. Discipleship follows and involves training in the Christian faith. The New Testament affirms the Old Testament teaching on fundamental marriage and family relationships. Both testaments speak much of material goods, affirming private property rights, affirming the necessity of industry and work, saving and deferred gratification, honesty, and instructs as to the relationship between rich and poor and employer-employee relationships. Throughout the Bible is instruction on all areas of life and relationships to others. Scripture enjoins believers to live all of life under Christ’s authority. When that occurs and becomes the focus, when individual believers throughout society begin to live out the gospel and its ramifications for life, governments, societies, and communities are changed.

In a sermon reprinted in the February 2020 Decision magazine titled “The Answer to Our Deepest Needs,” Billy Graham said,

“Yet here is where the tension in the church becomes acute. What is the church’s primary mission? Is it redemptive or social—or both? When most major Protestant denominations have their annual councils, assemblies or conventions, they make pronouncements on matters having to do with any number of issues, but very rarely are any resolutions passed that have to do with the redemptive witness of the Gospel.

The changing of people is the primary mission of the church, and the only way to change people is to lead them to Jesus Christ. Then they will have the capacity to live up to the Christian command to “Love your neighbor” (Matthew 22:39).

There is no doubt that today we see social injustice everywhere. Looking on our American scene, Jesus would see something even deeper. The great need is for the church to call in the Great Physician, who alone can properly diagnose the case. He will look beneath the mere skin eruptions and pronounce on the cause of it all—sin. If we in the church want a cause to fight, let’s fight sin. Let’s reveal its hideousness. Let’s show that Jeremiah was correct when he said: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Then, when the center of man’s trouble is dealt with, when this disease is eradicated, then and only then will man live with man as brother with brother.”

People don’t need a vaccine for the virus so much as they need the cure for sin that is found in the blood of Christ.

We don’t need to pander to the crowd. We need to declare the gospel to the crowd.

People don’t need sympathy or advice from the church. They need clear teaching from the Scriptures.

We don’t need politics or more government. We need to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Eternal King.

We don’t need to argue. We need to in deed and in word clearly, lovingly, and forcefully proclaim Christ as the only hope.

We don’t need to march arm-in-arm and sing “Kumbaya” with protestors. We need to invite them to join us in the eternal chorus of “Worthy is the Lamb.”

Lost people don’t merely need physical healing or reconciliation to each other or social reform. They need the reconciliation to God that comes only through Christ and the gospel.

We don’t only need to decry the oppressor and sympathize with the oppressed. We need to tell both of their need to repent and believe the gospel.

Simplistic? Maybe so. Maybe not.