Chapter 10. Disasters and TV

Television cameras can focus on a particular aspect of a disaster and magnify it in all the viewer's minds. There is a lot of power there that we willingly give to the television news media because of the authority they have presumed they have and that we have presumed they have, as well. All we see in any disaster is the physical remains, we are not shown the spiritual at all. Why? Our worldly bodies were not designed by God for us to be able to see the spiritual. The spiritual is invisible. How, then, can the spiritual be known to those who cannot see, by way of faith, beyond the physical? Disasters, then, leave us feeling depressed and agitated because they do not convey any sense of hope, but only hopelessness. For the focus of those who report the "news" must be on appearances and the physical, not on faith and the invisible. True hope is only found in Jesus Christ. He is rarely, if ever, brought into coverage of disasters because the world has placed Jesus in a subordinate position. He is the leader of our spiritual life on Sunday, but He is somehow not worthy to be considered as anything special the rest of the days of the week.

The reason we wanted to separate church and state many years ago was because MANKIND tainted the church with carnality. God didn't do this, we did. Unfair laws were made that forced others to do things against their will. Society took a firm stand against that and said, by virtue of the laws they passed, "Church, you will not do this again." The church forced itself upon the community and the community rebelled against the church. Jesus became the scapegoat because of this. Now, all of society attempts to run on its own steam and God is unacknowledged as the power and authority that He is. Prayer is not generally thought of as an important ingredient in disaster reporting. The one-eyed monster just stares at the mess and shrugs its metal shoulders hopelessly as if saying, "This is the way it is and we are helpless in this world." Is this the attitude we want to bring into the disaster, whatever it is? When we watch TV, we take on the attitude of the reporters and find ourselves, with our spiritual thinking caps off, shaking our heads in despair, in agreement with the godless approach the reporter takes.

We, the viewers, cannot help but adopt this helpless, hopeless point of view because we are relying on a godless system to tell us what is going on. Again, this godless system cannot know that life goes on eternally for everyone. This godless system cannot advise all of us to hope and pray that everyone who lost their lives knew the saving power of Jesus Christ. The media is often run by people who have a vested interest in reporting only appearances, only what they can see, hear, touch, or feel. God's Holy Spirit, and our eternal spirits, are never acknowledged because to them, they are unreal.

Are they unreal to you? Do you find yourself somewhat down when you watch the unfolding of a disaster on TV? This is because the media cannot acknowledge the existence of God or His Son, Jesus. They cannot suggest that people pray because, in order to do that, people would have to turn away from the TV (and the sponsors) and close their eyes. This would be unthinkable to them. Besides, if prayer were suggested as often as it should be (considering the mess the world is in), people would eventually rightfully decide that prayer offers more to them than television ever did. And they'd be turning off the sets by the millions, never to turn them on again. As the televisions were carted out to the garbage dumps, furniture could be rearranged in such a manner that people would be facing each other, communicating once again, laughing, loving, and enjoying each other's company. What a concept!

Of course there are times when God can use the TV to let us know of impending danger. But we have allowed the television to dominate too much of our lives. Let's somehow let it be a servant to us rather than we being a servant to it.

Have you watched the reporting of severe weather? Some reporters can get very excited about dangerous situations, and they talk very fast, pointing at circulating arrows on their big map, and warning people to take cover. The violent forces of nature appear to be stronger than Christ. He is not even considered. Do you remember reading in the Bible about the time Christ calmed the storm, relieving the anxiety of the apostles, who feared for their lives? Can Christ do this today? Do fretful weathermen ask everyone to pray to the Lord that He might calm the storm, and keep us from harm? Actually, we know of one local forecaster who did just that. His request for prayer, when a tornado touched down, was refreshing, but he is a rare exception to the norm. My family and I have experienced God's protection during a particularly violent storm with golf ball sized hail raining down—yet had no damage to our vehicles parked outside. We sang "Praise God" to the tune of Amazing Grace, over and over, praying with all of our hearts for God's protection, which He provided. Why do you suppose, the mighty God of countless miracles, is given such low emphasis, when we need Him the most?

We have fallen into a deep and dark ravine that envelopes our minds and hearts and makes us insensitive to others. We have taken a sleeping pill known as TV, and Jesus Christ is gently shaking us even now, to awaken us from our slumber. He loves us and wants us to share and live the truth as the writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John (and Paul) have written it. The truth will set us free. Appearances never will. Know the truth and be set free. Know only appearances and dwell in a grotesque world that sucks the life out of your mind and heart. It calls you a "consumer" and yet all it does is consume you. It wants to do nothing, but eat you up alive!

Next time you pick up the remote, remember what it is called. It's called a remote control. This is because with each click, it takes control of your mind as it takes you to a remote place, very far away from the truth. It takes you away from our Lord and Savior, Jesus. With each click, its underlying teaching is that we live in a godless world and all is hopeless. Is this what we want to believe? Is this the truth? Is this the faith that can make us whole?

Why do we get excited about all the carnage that goes on in this world? Why is death so fascinating to us? Which headline is likely to find its way into the newspaper: A Million Souls Found Christ Today or Ten Bodies Found in a Home? Of course, the ten bodies found in a home will garner top headlines. Why? The media cannot acknowledge God's Spirit and all that is related to His Spirit. But they can count bodies left behind and this makes for interesting, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat reading. But, it isn't just the reporter that makes the decision to dwell on all the negative stuff that is going on. He does this because we, his readers, are obsessed by this news as well.

Make sure you check your heart and your heart's desires. Make a conscious decision to swing toward Christ's hope and away from the compelling but depressing carnage being reported daily, all over this world.

There is a sense of completion that we all need. It is very comforting when someone can sum up the day's events in a half-hour and tell us all, "Good night." We now know it all and can rest assured that nothing is getting away from us. We've got it. Our attention can now resume to our own lives, where we cope in a world fraught with unresolved issues, because we refuse to adopt Jesus' commands to love and forgive. This is too dangerous, we assume. The risk is too high, we surmise. It's a foolish idea, we reason, as we refuse to check our hearts and lift others up to the Lord's care.

Let me help be a reasoner for you. There is no truth that needs to be known except Jesus. There is no news that needs our attention except the good news, The Gospels. There is no sense of completion that is of any value unless it stems from God's word, the Alpha and the Omega and involves what Jesus did for us on the cross.

In 1960, Seventy million people watched the presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon. I was too young to vote, but I remember watching this debate. I was impressed with John Kennedy and I sensed a genuineness emanate from him that seemed lacking in Nixon. Others must have thought so, too, because John became the President for a season. But the TV failed to reveal the genuine spiritual condition of either of these men, so we elect our leaders based on the carefully presented "appearances" of their character.

There are so many things we have to do for ourselves here on this planet. We have to have political leaders because our invisible God chooses not to manifest Himself as He did in the days of Moses. He only dwells here by the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ, in each of our hearts. Jesus occupies a throne next to the Father's in heaven. He was in the world, but not of it, when He was a man walking this world. He did not want to be made king here, but gladly accepts His role as King and Lord, in heaven, as well as the coming millennium. "Every knee shall bow" before Him, one day.

Meanwhile, here on earth, we, too, might like to withdraw some of our investment we have in this world and redirect it toward heaven. Only our awesome and almighty God should be involved in our decision making. And, in turning more toward Him in prayer, we will find our lives gathering a heavenly momentum that draws men to Christ.

Why don't we spend more time in prayer? As individuals, let's discover the amazing potential God can have in our lives (which are really His lives). Let's watch Him do amazing things with times, places and circumstances, here with us today, as He is made ruler and Lord of our lives. No, we can't literally hand over the reigns to our invisible God and ask Him to run things here, but we can ask Him to run our own lives, as we get to know His reality more every day. As more and more people do this, His hand will actually reach into the very mechanism of our government and He will play a very proactive role in helping us get our priorities straight. We'll begin to see that because of God's sovereignty, He DOES rule all the time.

He allows us to make fools of ourselves as we position ourselves in this world. He knows we can never trust Him fully right away. It takes time for us to hand over the reigns to God. But, as we see His wisdom, given to us through our prayers, we'll know that no knowledge, totally based on the world, is ever enough. We need God's wisdom and He is more than willing to give it to us IF we will only spend more time with Him in prayer.

Initially we cannot see that giving our lives to God means much because we are numb to His reality. We have numbed ourselves by our daily choices—to watch TV instead of pray, to read entertaining books or magazines, instead of pray, to watch or play sports instead of pray. We think our minds to be worth next to nothing in the entire scheme of things—and we are wrong. God needs every one of us to get to know Him and trust Him and love Him as a friend. For He is our best friend and He is willing to share with you His deepest truths and give you His full attention, for He is your personal Savior.

Prayer is rated very low on many people's priority lists. And yet, through the power of prayer, we can be given, through God's Holy Spirit, wisdom that does not come from the world. Prayer is interactive. When we submit all our talents to God, God often gives our talents back to us with instructions on how to use them...for Him. How much of our lives are we willing to give to God? What portion of our lives is self-made and, thereby, completely worthless to God? God knows our hearts. He wants to be in charge of them. He wants to be the King for you. He will lead you on an exciting journey with His abundant life and a shared joyous walk, with Him always in your heart and at your side.

Seek first the kingdom of God…and political and all other worldly interests and events will take care of themselves. Build your trust in God through prayer.

Mat 6:31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?
Mat 6:32 For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.
Mat 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. (MKJV)

In 1962, Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS Evening News. "And that's the way it is." For 20 years Walter Cronkite would actually cause news to happen by his insightful interviewing, and his choice of which news stories to report. He almost always ended his newscast with "And that's the way it is." But is it?

As stated earlier, with levity, someone has to cull through thousands of news stories to determine which ones are newsworthy. This someone is making an arbitrary decision that the news they report is actually all that's happening. Walter's signature sign off statement drove home a certain false conclusiveness to those watching the news for the twenty years he was managing editor at CBS.

We need to be conscious that what is reported on TV (or anywhere, for that matter) is not necessarily "the way it is". We have a tendency to fall into a kind of dream world in which what is said on TV is considered fact. But what often isn't considered is that the world is made up of people who live and think and breathe and pray and dream. Many people are confused and lack a strong faith in God. The "news" has not generally helped anyone feel more confident in the Lord, or helped them see that their lives are of tremendous value to God, or that they have a special purpose that regular communion with God (through prayer) can reveal to them.

The "news" often leaves nothing but huge question marks hanging in the air like, "Why did THAT happen?" and "Where's God in this?" How does the evening news promote faith in God? It can't. What is it that most of us need around 6:00 PM and 10:00 PM every night? Faith in God. Has faith in the world and its events, ever satisfied us or made us feel safe in the arms of our Father? Why do we choose to view the news (as the local and national TV reports it) when, 1.) it is never satisfying from a spiritual point of view and 2) it is, by its very nature, and by natural time-constraints, very incomplete. All it does is make one feel completely powerless and hopeless.

Is there some payoff that TV reporters (and the networks) get for sharing the fragmented and hopeless stories in which bodies lay strewn on the ground and the ones who blew up the building, are still at large? Where is God in all of this? Why can't He be brought in? Why can't people be asked openly to pray for the victims and their families? Why does God have to be left out? Perhaps because, in the name of objective reporting, no religious assumption can be incorporated into the fabric of the "news."

We don't need "objective" reporting. In the name of Jesus, we need a more complete report that includes the assumption of our spirits, alive and (if our bodies lie still on the ground), the assumption that we are, hopefully, in the presence of the Lord. These physical eyes cannot see past the physical and one of the major atrocities of the evening news is that nothing is reported PAST what can be seen. Death is always seen as final, and not an entrance into the eternal. We damage our hearts (defile them, if you will) by assuming, "That's the way it is!" with every newscast. Check your Christ-centered heart and ask yourself, "Is this the way it is?" Don't numb yourself to God's truth by watching "the news" and unconsciously buying into the underlying assumptions of our absolute death and the underlying assumption of godlessness. God loves us too much to allow us to continue to delude ourselves with these untruths.

In 1962, TV surpassed newspapers as an information source for the first time. A Roper poll indicates that 36% of Americans find TV a more reliable source. 24% favor print. There is really only one reliable source of news: The Bible. It is the Gospel or "The Good News." With a tremendous variety of angles, and personalities, and sources that surround the events of the world, we can't really know what happened because everything is tainted with the underlying bias of the ones gathering the news and the ones disseminating it. Though God's word has all the news we need, we remain far too interested in the temporal news found on TV.

Take a break from temporal news and soar into the heavens, while replenishing your heart, with the news found in God's word.

As of Jan. 2, 1971, all radio and TV cigarette ads were banned due to a congressional law passed in 1970. The broadcast business survived despite losing 220 million in advertising that year. The Surgeon General had come out earlier saying that cigarette smoking was bad for us. Over time, we came to our senses regarding this issue, and stopped suggesting that people harm themselves with this product.

We need to become aware of the power we allow TV to have over our lives. We may need to strip ourselves of it for a time as we step back and observe what we have allowed it to do to us. Will it survive us doing this? More than likely it will. It is driven to survive. Will it change to suit our needs? Of course. Maybe if programming begins reflecting a Christian view instead of a worldview, some time could be devoted to it again. Meanwhile, we must all learn to appreciate each other as time opens up for us. We want to talk with each other more, and, of course, we must all use a portion of our new found time to get to know our God through prayer.

In 1952, TV reached the Dominican Republic.

In 1953, TV reached Japan.

In 1954, TV reached Colombia.

In 1956, TV reached Australia, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Uruguay.

In 1957, TV came to Cyprus.

In 1958, TV came to Portugal.

In 1960, TV came to the Republic of Ireland.

In 1960, 90% of US homes have television.

By 1968, nearly 200 million households owned television sets in the world. 78 million of them are in the US. Some of the areas in 3rd world countries that are furthest away from civilization, in which the inhabitants are living in squalor, with barely enough to eat—in their homes, you may still find a television or two on.

The Television Bureau of Advertising and other reporting organizations⁷, announces that the average American household watches television between 3 and 7 hours a day.

In 1992, there are 900 million television sets in use around the world. 201 million are in the United States.

In 1993, 98% of all US households have at least one television. 64% have two or more.

In 1996, over a billion households around the world now own a TV set.

It is obvious that we haven't got our own best interests in mind and cannot really make proper choices here on this planet. As you may have noticed, we've chosen to spend an incredible amount of time staring at a box. Perhaps we could make another choice—and back off from this preoccupation, for now. Maybe we could, sort of, regroup.

There are some wonderful ideas found in the Bible. The Bible is the account of Someone God sent to save us (primarily from ourselves). By the blood He shed on the cross, He has given His pure life for our sinful ones. In addition, He has given us some guidelines for living by His teaching, while He traveled with us on this planet.

Eternal salvation is quite simple to achieve. It is free. Although you had to listen to some advertising to find out about it, you are only required to claim it in order to have it. Once we have given our hearts to Jesus and made Him Lord over our lives, there is a channel that we need to turn to. We need to switch our mental, self-sufficiency focus. We need to stop what we are doing and humbly ask God for help. We have done more absurd things than just spend uncountable hours staring at a box. We were born in sin and are part of this fallen world. We all must take Jesus Christ as our Savior. We must understand that we need Him more than anything this world has to offer. We need Him exactly as God sent Him, as our Lord and Savior.

God didn't want to use a remote control to change us. Instead, He sent His only Son, Jesus to lift all the sins of the world from us. God didn't want to just zap us into submission. He asked His most precious Son to journey from heaven and dwell in this fallen world for a time, teaching us how we must behave so that we might be a representation of Him. He prays that we would decide to make Him a part of our hearts, that we would, hopefully, shine His light for all to see, and share Christ's love that all might receive it.

His death for us was the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to the human race. It must be grasped by us. It is not in the TV Guide. It is in the Bible. The Old Testament points to His coming and the New Testament tells us He came, fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies. Let's look at some passages for help in praying correctly as well as to help us understand why TV may not be in our best interests.

6. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/disastersand/disastersand.htm. Back.

7. "The amount of time people spend watching television is astonishing," according to the article quoted earlier from Scientific American, February 2002 issue, "Television Addiction is No Mere Metaphor" by Robert Kubey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "On average, individuals in the industrialized world devote three hours a day to the pursuit--fully half of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep. At this rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube." Back.

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