It’s no secret the growing cultural divide is just as present in Christendom as it is everywhere else. It would be hard to argue that the simplest way to draw the dividing line for the two sides isn’t “agrees with CNN” and “doesn’t agree with CNN.”
It might sound crazy at first, but when you run all of the recent controversies through that filter it holds up pretty well. If that is the line that divides us, what can we do about it?
The first solution to that is to take all the time and mental effort we put in to listening to and digesting news and analysis and instead put it into the Word, prayer, and service.
Ask what God would have you do and think rather than what Don Lemon or Sean Hannity would have you do and think. He shows us exactly where to take a stand and where to defer to each other. Too many times our division comes from going off of what the news would have us do before we ever stop to check if it’s ok with God.
Like the soldier Paul references in 2 Timothy 2:4, we should aim first to please Him who commands us rather than get caught up in daily affairs. That doesn’t mean we can’t keep an eye on the world around us and know what’s going on. But that isn’t our first concern.
The second is to take every piece of news you do read or watch – regardless of the source – as narrative crafting rather than as objective declaration of the truth.
All the way back in 1981 Francis Schaeffer wrote in his book A Christian Manifesto, “Christians must certainly not uncritically accept what they read, and especially what they see on tv, as objective.” If that was the case then, how much more so is it today?
Think of how many of the hottest stories in recent years have been revealed to be misreported at best or outright lies at worst. “Hands up, don’t shoot?” Fake. “If you’re vaccinated, you won’t get sick” and “97% effective?” Fake, and fake. “Plenty of good people on both sides?” Fake. How much division has been stirred up by headlines like these? How much racial church infighting has resulted from the dubiousness of some of the reports? How many Christians shunned or shamed their unvaccinated brethren over reporting and policies that have now been dropped? How much social media arguing has happened over topics like these? How many pulpits have repeated and perpetuated some of these lies – some unaware of the fabrications to this day?
And yet nobody ever loses their job for fabricating the news. They don’t even print retractions, corrections, and apologies in most cases. That should tell you a lot about how interested they are in the truth. Take everything with a grain of salt.
The third is to not be afraid to stand on God’s truth.
Reporters are not giving their news through the filter of God’s Word. That’s our job. Sometimes pushing back against the grain of these media narratives – either claiming they are untrue or showing how the Bible commands us to go agains them – will result in division. You’ll get called unloving, bigoted, negative, and whatever label they think will intimidate you into moving. Don’t. There is nothing noble about concealing important truths in the name of appeasing and keeping the peace.
