Yes, the spin is obvious in the title - in the word, cannibal”. The aim is not to inform the public appropriately, but to raid their pocket books. Juicy sounding titles will grab their attention every time. It works! It’s a lure – a sensuous seduction which the public is drawn to – just like flies are drawn to sticky paper. Those enraptured by such sensuous titles as this one are not any different than those enraptured by the sensuous woman spoken about in Proverbs.
There’s another kind of sensuous stimulation that the public craves (and has for eons): The scapegoat – someone to tar-and-feather in the public forum. Then everyone can talk about this person – how bad they are. Why is this habit so enticing? Because it masks people from their own sense of guilt and responsibility, and instead it gives them a sense of self-righteousness: Thank God I’m not like him! I’m better. I would never be so evil. That would never happen to me.
Unfortunately news material like this heightens societal fear and anxiety. How many readers are truly strong enough to read it objectively and critically? How many are too weak to resist becoming even more depressed, fearful, and hopeless? I’d say: this is an issue of moral irresponsibility on the part of the media.
That’s right it does make it more interesting! The public loves to hear how pitiful and screwed up the religious zealots are. If you can put religion into your news article you have even a better story.
It is tempting to add our own spin here – include the devil in the story, talk about the world coming to an end. But those might merely be our own default means of avoiding our sense of moral and spiritual responsibility - as ambassadors of Christ’s redemptive hope. Also it can distract us from seeing the tragic effects of sinsickness all around us – the devastating effects of a society deprived of God – the stuff that never makes the news because it is so common and uninteresting. Think about the countless suicide attempts every day, or self injury, depression …. or the hypocrisy and falseness we practice in order to avoid facing our own emptiness and destructive habits. We are in this together, brothers and sisters - blind, naked, pitiful and poor. And indeed, if the best that God’s people can do in the face of our societal sin sickness is make effigies out of the more sensational sinners, we are indeed pitiful and poor. This is not prophetic Christianity lived out in our daily lives!
The post title here cautions that the “weak at heart” should avoid reading the article. That’s a good idea. Yet we ask: Is it not actually the weak at heart who are most vulnerable to such sensationalism? Surely one must be strong in heart to avoid drifting into the constant barrage of sensational and enticing media.
On the other hand, maybe those who see themselves as strong enough to handle this material, are actually so hardened that they are no longer shocked and disturbed. They are actually dulled. They can no longer weep and grieve for the lostness of society . They are instead entertained by it – even as they see themselves as quite fine.
There are many facts that the media will never tell us: The silent cries of the hearts of people around us…. and also the remarkable works of God through his faithful saints – those through whom God works, – quietly in our society.
May God preserve our vision – and empower us to live faithfully in the new covenant promises:
“Set up road signs;
put up guideposts.
Take note of the highway,
the road that you take. ….
Return O Virgin Israel,
Return to your towns.
How long will you wander,
O unfaithful daughter
The Lord will create a new thing on earth. (…)
“I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint”
from Jeremiah 31
