Following The Media's False Lead

We're getting another round of widespread media coverage of a war, this time in Israel. Like the large amount of coverage of the war in Ukraine. And of other wars over the years. The people watching it are wasting their time for the most part. Sort of like watching hours upon hours of highly repetitive coverage of a hurricane, rioting that's occurring somewhere, etc. People enjoy passively taking in that sort of coverage on television, the internet, radio, or wherever else. They're following the crowd, it moves their emotions, and so on. They can act as though it's virtuous to be concerned about such things and to stay informed about them, even though they aren't accomplishing much, and they're being so negligent about other things in the process.

Why do people keep following the media's false lead? That includes the false lead of politically and religiously conservative media. Disagreeing with the conclusions of political and religious liberals on the issues they discuss can be accompanied by agreeing with them too much about the amount of attention and other resources we should give to those issues. Disagreeing with the media about which presidential candidate should be preferred in an election can be accompanied by following the media's false lead in spending too much of your life on presidential politics. You can disagree with some aspects of how the media cover a court case like the trial of O.J. Simpson or the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, yet spend too much time following those cases. There's more than one way to be misled by the media. And many of the people who complain the most about media bias are frequently in far too much agreement with the media in contexts other than the ones they're complaining about.

How much do the media influence what you think about and talk about? You probably wouldn't be wasting so many hours following the latest developments with politics, a war somewhere, the latest hurricane in Florida, the latest shooting that's occurred somewhere, etc. if you had specific objectives in mind about how to advance the kingdom of God and were steadily working on those objectives. If you're just aimless and meandering instead, then you can easily be distracted by the media, even wanting them to take up hours upon hours of your time on things you should be spending minutes upon minutes on, if even that much.

Think about the sense of purpose and direction in Paul's life (Acts 20:24, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Contrast that to what you're doing. And notice that the latter of the two passages I just cited is one in which Paul includes his readers in the sense of direction and commitment he's setting out for his own life. He expects other Christians to live that way. He doesn't make excuses for their negligence the way church leaders and other people today keep making excuses for the low standards of the people they're influencing.

Something that often occurs when a war, presidential politics, or something else is prominent in the news is that material on that subject gets far more of a response from the public, including Christians, than material of a better nature gets. I frequently notice that in a lot of contexts, such as Twitter. So often, if somebody on Twitter posts both religious and political content, the political material will get much more of a response. Or if he tells a joke, posts a family photograph, or talks about a birthday or anniversary celebration, much more interest will be shown in that than in anything that's said about God, theology, or the like. Or look at what's most popular on YouTube, including Christian YouTube channels, or on Facebook, on television, on radio, in the workplace, etc. It's so much about the secular and the trivial, moving people's emotions, what's prominent in the news at the time, only making rudimentary comments on religious issues if such issues come up at all, personalities more than arguments and evidence.

Paul told us that we should be "making the most of [our] time, because the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). If you're so upset about media bias and so concerned about the state of the culture, why do you follow the media's false lead so much, and why are you so similar to the culture?