OPINION:
I watched the news for the first time in a while this weekend. While hurricane recovery efforts, the presidential election, and the wars in Israel and Ukraine were covered, the bulk of the coverage was related to the developing saga of Sean “Diddy” Combs and Biden’s surprise appearance at a White House press briefing.
As I watched, I felt mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was thankful to have some idea of the world’s events. On the other, I lamented the fact that so little had actually been said about any of those events.
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I found myself thinking back to Carl Bernstein’s “The Idiot Culture” where he writes, “The pressure to compete, the fear that somebody else will make the splash first, creates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised; and even in those fortunate instances in which such questions are raised…no one has done the weeks and months of work to sort it all out and to answer them properly.”
With the increasing reach of digital media, we have an unprecedented ability to be exposed to the struggles of people around the world. Yet, that exposure can become a distraction because the needs of a broken world will always outpace our capacity to care for those needs. As we become more aware of the suffering of people we will likely never meet, we are forced to recognize that our capacity to love our neighbor is limited. While there is nothing wrong with being aware of the difficulties others face, Christians need to avoid being distracted from loving God with all we are and have and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Too often the stories we see in the news or on social media are less concerned with prompting us to love our neighbor than with encouraging a morbid curiosity. As such, the news doesn’t encourage us to pray, give, or act in some other way to love our neighbor in concrete ways, but to “stay tuned” as the story “develops.”
As Vervaeke, Mastropietro, and Miscevic note, some stories are crafted “to direct your attention not to the truth or untruth of an idea, but to the catchiness of an idea.” There is a sense in which the news encourages voyeurism and inactive compassion rather than love.
As Christians are presented with the various stories on the news, we need to keep our collective calling to love God and others at the forefront of our thoughts. We need to avoid being drawn to the sensational. At the very least, we need to recognize when, having been drawn in by some spectacle, our morbid curiosity hinders our capacity to love well. While it is somewhat overused, we live in an “attention economy” where organizations and individuals of various sorts are putting out content in the hopes that we will watch it, respond to it, and share it. The goal is not so much to prompt us to love, but to “like.”
Allowing our attention to be drawn toward “sizzle” rather than “steak” degrades our capacity for wisdom and for understanding how to love God and neighbor in any given situation. If we develop a fetish for spectacle, we are less likely to be driven by love. We must remember that the stories curated by reporters, commentators, and social media influencers aren’t pushing us to love God and others but to love the world on its own terms.
As Daniel Boorstin notes, “We need not be theologians to see that we have shifted responsibility for making the world interesting from God to the newspaperman.” As Christians approach the news, we must curb our appetite for spectacle through an uncompromising commitment to love God and others.
What might this uncompromising commitment look like given that our ability to love others in tangible ways is finite? Augustine offers some guidance in “On Christian Doctrine” noting, “All men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”
Augustine’s advice gestures toward a dynamic we often invert. We tend to think that we have unlimited possibilities (i.e., we can do anything) rather than recognizing that our concrete situation (i.e., what is near and “real” to us) is a gift given specifically to us and, to some degree, placed under our care. To the degree that we dismiss the (theological) significance of “the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance,” we are likely to miss opportunities to love by fixating on the struggles of those we may never meet.
For instance, I don’t know anyone who has ever been to a Diddy party. That limits the options I have for loving those particular neighbors right now (i.e., I can pray, but I can’t offer counsel and support). There are more ways to help hurricane victims (e.g., donating goods or funds, or working with a ministry to help with relief efforts), but many of us may not be in the position to do more than pray. Voting in the upcoming election is something most of us can do. It is nearer to us than some of the other current events. As such, it has been “brought into closer connection with you.”
The ways we can love are often limited. It isn’t that God can’t create new possibilities. He can. Yet, God has already given us opportunities to love. We don’t need a change in circumstances to do so (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:17-24). As we see the various stories in the media, then, we should always be drawn to love. Still, we need to recognize our finite capacity to love so that we do not lose sight of what God has given us to do. It is that work rather than the next story in the news cycle that should get our attention.
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James Spencer earned his Ph.D. in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He believes discipleship will open up opportunities beyond anything God’s people could accomplish through their own wit and wisdom. As such, his writing aims at helping believers look with eyes that see and listen with ears that hear as they consider, question, and revise the social, cultural, and political assumptions hindering Christians from conforming more closely to the image of Christ. James has published multiple works, including “Christian Resistance: Learning to Defy the World and Follow Christ,” “Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D. L. Moody,” “Thinking Christian: Essays on Testimony,” “Accountability, and the Christian Mind,’ and “Trajectories: A Gospel-Centered Introduction to Old Testament Theology.” In addition to serving as the president of the D. L. Moody Center, James is the host of “Useful to God” a weekly radio broadcast and podcast, a member of the faculty at Right On Mission, and an adjunct instructor with the Wheaton College Graduate School.
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