Current Affairs and Causes on News Media

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The News-Media: Moving from Sports to Entertainment to Horrible Crises

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1 Kings 19:11-12, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 46:10, Matthew 6:33-34, Philippians 4:6-7

In those same weeks, Harper’s Magazine featured an evening-long conversation between two professors, Neil Postman and Camille Paglia, about the meaning of television for persons and for polities...

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Author

Epictetus

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Scripture

Proverbs 11:2, Ecclesiastes 7:16, Micah 7:8, Psalm 131:1-2, Philippians 2:3-4

If you wish to improve be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.

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The CNN Effect

Author

Ryan Holiday

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Scripture

Philippians 4:8, Romans 12:2, Luke 21:34, Psalm 46:10, Matthew 6:22-23

In the 1990s, political scientists began to study what they called the “CNN Effect.” Breathless, twenty-four-hour media coverage makes it considerably harder for politicians and CEOs to be anything bu...

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Bowing Down to Progress

Author

N. T. Wright

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We are taught, often by the tone of voice of the media and the politicians rather than by explicit argument, to bow down before…progress. It is unstoppable. Who wants to be left behind, to be behind t...

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The Good News or the Bad News

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Genesis 39:, Exodus 7:, Exodus 8:, Daniel 6:, Ecclesiastes 3:1, 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 43:2

I read in a book recently about a young pastor who was fired from his church over a theological controversy. When he went to share the news with his wife, he said, “I’ve got good news and bad news, wh...

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The Medium is the Message

Author

JR Woodward

Keywords

Scripture

James 3:5-6, Matthew 6:22-23, Proverbs 18:21, Nehemiah 8:, Isaiah 44:

Culture is shaped by the primary medium of an era. Marshall McLuhan is widely known as the father of media studies. He coined the famous phrase “the medium is the message” in 1965. And while some to...

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The Good News Isn’t Sounding Good to Some

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Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 53:3, Jeremiah 20:7-10, 1 Kings 22:8-28, John 15:18-19 , Acts 5:40-42, Psalm 37:1-2

In Vanishing Grace , Philip Yancey examines the growing negative perceptions of evangelicals. Although the book was written in 2014, these dynamics have only intensified in the era of MAGA and Ch...

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Author

Dr. Caroline Leaf

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Scripture

Proverbs 4:7, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 , Isaiah 40:28-31, Luke 10:38-42, James 1:5-8 , Psalm 1:1-3

Everything in our society seems to convey the message of “now!” It’s almost as if we’ve entered an era where we have sacrificed the processing of knowledge for the gathering of data.

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Author

Jay Leno

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Scripture

Genesis 22:1-14, Exodus 14:21-31 , Daniel 6:16-23 , Luke 15:11-32, John 6:1-14, Psalm 23:

“Here’s something to think about: How come you never see a headline like ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?”

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The Church Losing its Place as the Center of Attention

Author

Tim Wu

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The Church was the one institution whose mission depended on galvanizing attention; and through its daily and weekly offices, as well as its sometimes-central role in education, that is exactly what i...

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Times of Crisis: Sermon Illustration Tuesday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Crises

On November 28, 1942, a fire broke out and spread rapidly through an overcrowded Boston nightclub called Cocoanut Grove (the owner’s spelling), whose sole exit became blocked. A total of 492 people di...

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The Proclamation of Good News

Author

Peter Gomes

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 40:1-5, 2 Kings 7:3-9 , Isaiah 61:1-3 , Luke 4:16-21, John 20:11-18, Psalm 96:2-3

When I remember that the literal translation of the term gospel is “good news,” I recall a wonderful encounter with her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. In the summer of 2001, I f...

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Seeking Integration Between Faith and Politics

Author

Kristen Deede Johnson

Keywords

I grew up near Washington D.C. surrounded by politics…I helped with the campaign of a friend’s father as he ran for state office, watched our friendly county supervisor become a US congressman, and le...

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The Dark Side of the Web

Author

Andy Crouch

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 25:40, Romans 12:21, Luke 4:18-19, James 1:27, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17

In October 2014 Wired magazine reported on the dirty work every social media company must somehow handle: moderating the deluge of exploitative, degrading content posted in unimaginable quantities aro...

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Author

Bill Bishop

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Like-minded, homogeneous groups squelch dissent, grow more extreme in their thinking, and ignore evidence that their positions are wrong. As a result, we now live in a giant feedback loop, hearing our...

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Lord our God, we have sometimes not

Author

C. Hassell Bullock

Keywords

Lord our God, we have sometimes not listened for your summons to praise you; we have not acknowledged that this good news we proclaim is for the whole world; and we have too often been silent to the s...

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Where Were the Humanists?

Author

Timothy Keller

Keywords

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Isaiah 41:10, Revelation 21:4, John 14:1-3, Romans 8:38-39, Psalm 34:18, 2 Corinthians 5:1

Not long after the December 2012 Newtown shootings, and all the speeches by civic leaders, memorial services, and funerals were over, Samuel G. Freedman wrote a column in The New York Times titled “In...

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Author

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Times of crisis, of disruption or constructive change, are not only predictable, but desirable. They mean growth. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

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Looking for Recognition

Author

Max Lucado

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Scripture

Psalm 25:3, 2 Corinthians 12:9–10, Luke 24:19–21, Jonah 4:1–4, 1 Samuel 16:6–7, Genesis 11:4–9

Speedy Morris is the basketball coach for LaSalle University. He was shaving when his wife told him he was wanted on the phone by Sports Illustrated. He got so excited over the prospect of national re...

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An Unexpected Friendship

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 6:2, Psalm 34:18, Proverbs 19:11, Colossians 3:13, Ephesians 4:32, Luke 6:37

Sometimes moments of forgiveness and friendship come from unexpected places. In 2018, the comedian Pete Davidson appeared on the “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Davidson made a ...

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Politics and the Resurrection

Author

Rachel Clark

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:1-28, Romans 13:1, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, 1 Peter 1:3, Revelation 21:5

It seems that every four years, the American people come through another exhausting political season. No matter who “wins,” there are feelings of frustration and disgust on all sides as we observe the...

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The Anatomy of a Crisis: Sermon Illustration Thursday

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

All crises are judgments of history that call into question an existing state of affairs. They sift and sort the character and condition of a nation and its capacity to respond. The deeper the crisis,...

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“Neil!”

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Acts 17:11, 1 John 4:1, Proverbs 4:7, Ephesians 4:14

Neil Marten was a member of the British Parliament from 1959-1984. One day he was giving a group of constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the tour, the group happened upon the...

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Trying to Keep Up with the Jones’ in the 21st Century

Author

David Zahl

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 18:13–27, Ecclesiastes 2:22–23 , Isaiah 40:28–31 , Luke 10:38–42, Matthew 11:28–30, Psalm 127:1–2

The picture shows cartoon villain Cruella de Vil, bloodshot eyes staring straight ahead, hands clutching the wheel of her infamous coupe, black-and-white hair waving wildly in the wind, oversi...

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Poverty from Differing Perspectives

Author

Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

Keywords

We have conducted the previous exercise in dozens of middle-to-upper-class, predominantly Caucasian, North American churches. In the vast majority of cases, these audiences describe poverty differentl...

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Adapted from Luke 4:18

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 4:18

Leader: As Jesus began his earthly ministry, he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” People: Through the Holy Spirit, we too have ...

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Author

Grace Ji-Sun Kim

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The marginalized and downtrodden receive special insights. They are the ones who can see the pain and the injustice that are killing the world. It is to these voices that we must turn

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Times of Crisis: Reappraising and Rebuilding Lives

Author

Jared Diamond

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Scripture

Psalm 34:18, Romans 12:15, John 11:35, Isaiah 61:3, 2 Corinthians 1:4, Lamentations 3:32

On November 28, 1942, a fire broke out and spread rapidly through an overcrowded Boston nightclub called Cocoanut Grove (the owner’s spelling), whose sole exit became blocked. A total of 492 people di...

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Praying for Demar Hamlin & Our Primal Desire to Pray

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 4:null

Like many of you, I've been somewhat glued to the story of Damar Hamlin since Monday evening, when the defensive player for the Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field after making a tackle. In the ...

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Seeking a Better Way

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

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Scripture

Genesis 11:1-9 , Isaiah 58:6-12, Jeremiah 29:4-7, Matthew 5:14-16, Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 133:

In the land whose founding metaphor was the mutuality of John Winthrop’s seventeenth-century vision of a “city set on a hill,” we live more and more in estranged, hostile, exclusive enclaves, linked o...

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