We Interrupt the News

When I grew up (just this side of the dark ages), I remember how things were a bit different regarding the news. 

I remember that the St. Paul Dispatch was delivered every evening except Sunday.  I remember that the St. Paul Pioneer Press was delivered each morning including the huge Sunday edition. There was a lot of information provided by newspapers.  One of the articles I most remember was the one in 1978 that informed everybody in the city that my mother and her friends found the Winter Carnival Medallion and collected $2,500!  They went to Florida to celebrate.

I remember we had three major television channels: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Mostly, we gathered around one of these stations in the early evening to watch about 30 minutes of coverage. Mostly we watched a black and white tube television.

Then, my grandmother bought a color television! You can only imagine the excitement to watch cartoons (hey, I was only 5) in “living color”.  It was important that we watch every moment, and I hated missing the NBC Peacock.  I think that became my channel of choice.  It was that peacock, don’t ya’ know.

Well, maybe cartoons needed the peacock association, but the news was something different.  We watched Walter Cronkite. After all, he was “The Most Trusted Man in America.”

Sometimes, I wish we could go back to those days. 

• The days before a 24-hour news cycle. 
• The days when we made a point to see what was going on in the world and our neighborhoods. 
• The days when we could believe this most trusted man. 
• The days when there was respect, calmness, and desire to inform what happened during each day without the need to, well, I won’t even elaborate.  You already know.

A heavy sigh.

But things are different now.  I came by this quote earlier this week.

It’s hard to imagine anyone even casting a vote for the most trusted man in America anymore, let alone having a reporter on the ballot.

Now, look.  I’m not ignorant.  I know that even when I grew up, politicians and the media lied. In fact, a semi-factual historical movie called, The Post makes special note of that.  But one line in the movie continues to haunt me; “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.”

I wonder who serves who in this world. I was going to itemize a few of the headlines to make a point here but this requires no additional exposure. 

Enough of the lead-in, already.

Today, I was listening to a sermon about prayer. The speaker acknowledges that there are a great many variations available to us when we pray. One of her favorites is to use what she called “Scriptural Prayer.”

This is done by choosing a passage, reading it slowly, and stopping frequently after a sentence or a phrase to just open your mind and heart and listen to what God might have to say. Her communal exercise used Colossians 1:9-14.

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

I played along. 
I was humbled by the thoughts which took hold.

During this 'exercise', I found that I was thinking almost exclusively about those on the other side. This is to say that I was not distracted by the details of life today but focused only on the people, especially those who have viewpoints and agendas that I find hard to understand. I noticed a desire to pray for those who thrive on anger, division, and lies.  I found the desire to pray for all of us who are misled and righteous and angry and loud. 

And yet, none of these prayers included judgments of any kind.  None of these prayers were to ‘smite’ anyone – even when sometimes I wish, never mind. 

The prayers were centered on the people God created out of love.  They were for His peace in a lacking world. I think it is time that I keep this scripture from Colossians in front of me for a while so that when I am exposed to the agenda of others, I might hinder the anger in myself and find this peace not just for myself, but for the manipulated and the manipulators – yes, all of us.

If that passage gets too long, maybe I’ll keep this one handy as well.

"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:17-18

"And, that's the way it is."