A Christian has a worldview. Having renounced
the world and entered a new kingdom- he resolves to live a mandate that was
stolen in the Garden of Eden by Satan the god of this dark world. His new world
view means an adoption of new culture, attitudes, belief system, goals, motives,
lifestyle language. Indeed a new life that drives those qualities.
In 1932 when the young Curtis D. MacDougall published a
journalistic bible Interpretative
Reporting, the hitherto holy ethos of objective reporting found a place on
the cross of condemnation. But to be fair to him, he admonished that “the
reporter must be well versed in every field of human endeavor so that he can do
more than just present facts to his reader. The reporter must select the facts
he wants to present and then interprete them according to his own personal
feelings and impressions”
The assumption here is that the reporter
is more knowledgeable than the reader. Quoting Marquis W. Chids, Curtis broadens the
horizon further,” The interpretative reporter expands the horizon of the news. He
explains, he amplifies, he clarifies…expand the peripheries of the news…going
behind the handout and the press conference”
This means that the editorial page
style writing gained license to bring objective reporting
within its edifice. That is, the reporter in his new found “authoritarianism”
reports how he personally evaluated the news in the context of the whole story.
It wasn’t long before another
world view started challenging the NEW MEDIA Philosopher- King. Between 1979
and 1980 sociologists S. Robert Lichter
and Stanley
Rothman conducted a research on the free
press in America under the
authority of the Research Institute on
International Change at Columbia
University.
This research showed that;
·
50% of the media elite eschew religious
affiliations. The majority were liberals and godless people exuding a world view
antagonistic to belief in God.
·
Their personal morality convictions
revealed 84% of
them rejected state regulation of sexual practices;
·
90% agreed
that a woman should have the right to decide if she wants to kill her unborn
child;
·
75 % disagreed
that homosexuality is wrong;
·
85 % supported the right of homosexuals to teach
in schools;
·
54 % did
not consider adultery wrong;
·
15 % agreed that extramarital affairs are immoral
The result of this exposition is that
the media elite could not be relied upon to give a fair, balanced world view of
the sensibilities of the majority of the people. There is therefore the urgent
need to recognize the defining influence of religion in public and private life
in the world today.
A Christian is wont to see an
event differently from a non Christians because he lives to obey a God whose
ways are not man’s ways.
Religious convictions motivated the founding of the earliest American
colleges, such as Harvard (1636), College
of William and Mary
(1693), and Yale (1701). In the 19th century rivalry among Protestant
denominations, and competition among towns seeking a commercial edge over their
rivals, were responsible for the creation of hundreds of colleges. Almost all
were privately supported, and many failed to survive. Nevertheless, 573
colleges existed in the United
States in 1870, a testament to civic and
religious support and to the faith of Americans in the power of schooling.
For instance prosperity has often
been misunderstood by the secular media. While it understands it as another business,
a Christian expects prosperity as God’s will for him. Prosperity in the bible
is not mutually exclusive to holiness and salvation. This is why many people
within and outside the church has been frustrated because they believe
otherwise. The truth is that why it is God’s wish, “…that you may prosper in every
way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well
and prospers”, [3 John 2, AMB] anybody can be wealthy through any other means.
Satan actually tempted Jesus with
this other means to wealth. A scenario like implosive instant messaging today,
“…the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the
world. …and said to him,” To you I will give their glory and all this authority;
for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you,
then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
Jesus answered him, “It is written,
Worship the Lord your God, and serve
only Him.”[Luke 4:5-8 NRS].
Satan wanted to make Jesus wealthy
his own way. It is a battle of who you worship.
Like any system of belief and values—is
it Platonism, Marxism, Freudianism, or democracy—Christianity is understood
only “from the inside,” to those who share the beliefs and strive to live by
the values…”
Journalistic and other interpretative effort that ignores
these “inside” aspects of it would not be theologically or intellectually
faithful.
Pope Benedict XVI, the beloved professor who was loved by his
students for his gentleness and intellect as he encouraged them to seek out
truth anywhere was latter overwhelmed when existentialism questioned the
relativity of truth.
Stephen Mansfield, the New
York Times best selling author of The
Faith of George W. Bush in
the biography Pope Benedict XVI-His Life and Mission, writes,” In the Marxist
worldview, faith is frequently trumped by atheism, the church is replaced by the
state, community by political party, and man as a spirit is replaced by man as
an economic unit.
“When many students at Tubingen [where Pope
Benedict XVI was professor] embraced this secular religion and rejected the old
order, the school became a “battle zone… Students kept professors from talking.
They were verbally abusive, very primitive and aggressive…discussions erupted
into a furniture- throwing fight…Many of the young whom the professor had
learned to love became long-haired, unkempt radicals who were insulting,
arrogant, and threatening…
“…These new radicals retained
biblical language but gave the words a new political meaning. Now, “sin”
frequently meant “oppression” “redemption” meant “revolution”, and “righteousness”
meant “social justice”, as defined by Marxist ideology. The professor realized
that if you alter Christian language, you lose Christian meaning and,
ultimately, lose God in the process”.
“…Now he understood: Marxism was
not a new ideology by which to interpret Christianity, Marxism was a
replacement for Christianity-a dark, sinister, secular reworking of the very
truth of God”.
As new forces try to reinterpret
the Bible we must hid the following guidelines.
·
Read prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit for understanding.
·
Study the preceding and succeeding contexts.
·
Recognize other related passages
·
Study other non-biblical materials related to
the subject.
·
Choose interpretation consistent with the whole
Bible.
·
Be open to new revelation.
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