It's nothing new for a conservative evangelical Christian to be disappointed, even angered, with the mainstream news media. I've been on that bandwagon for some time and have written about the fake news, but a recent news story concerning my church covered by my local news stations has reinforced my disdain.
To be honest, these local stations are usually fair. My frustration has been with the outright lies of the national media. Fake news doesn't have to include pushing an outright lie. It can contain the truth but often miss the full context.
Jesus warned that we should be careful how we judge, because we tend to judge the small speck of sawdust in the eye of others while there is a whole plank in ours. True words from the Lord and the Master Teacher. So, I suppose it's ironic for me to reference this verse in judging someone else – but here I go.
Daily, American news outlets report the specks of sawdust in society and miss not just the plank of the story, but the entire lumberyard.
This is what my local news stations did.
Each station reported and showed video coverage from the Arkansas Nonviolence Alliance protesting outside of my church – Cross Church in Rogers, Arkansas. The alliance had chosen the location because my pastor is on President Trump's Evangelical Advisory Board, and the group wanted to change Trump's decision concerning the Paris Climate Agreement and wanted him to direct more money to the poor.
The story was true – I saw it with my own eyes. There was no outright fake news. No lie. My family passed by the protest as we exited church, and then we made multiple passes to read their signs. Most of the local news outlets even added that when the church was contacted, personnel replied that "as long as the protest is peaceful, they had no problem with it." The group didn't hurt anyone, and church members were civil. As the coverage stated, it was a peaceful protest. But the protest, which drew the news attention was only the speck of the story – and a small speck at that. Let me tell you about the plank and lumberyard.
Again, all news stations featured the protest – all 11 people gathered on that sidewalk. Yes, just 11. And that's after multiple weeks of promotion, in which the group advertised on its Facebook page of 250 followers. The protest also was advertised in a liberal statewide paper that has at least 25,000 subscribers. Out of all that promotion, only 11 protesters showed up. And when I drove by half of them were sitting on the sidewalk playing with their phones. Eleven people protesting is a speck, especially when you consider the church where they protested averages over 8,000 attendees each weekend. Eight thousand vs. 11 … which is the bigger story?
That morning those gathered in church put their phones down and united their voices to sing praises to God. Most of those in attendance agreed with the sermon from Genesis that proclaimed God as the Creator, the sanctity of life from conception, humanity being valuable due to being made in the image of God, distinct genders, and God's plan for marriage being between a man and a woman. On top of giving an offering to the church for its operation, local ministries and international missions, $30,000 was given that morning to send children to summer camp who couldn't afford it. Therefore, there was a larger story of protest that day than those holding poster board signs on the roadside; it was the thousands inside the church who protested the moral status quo in our nation through the affirming of God's Word.
The 8,000 is still only part of the story. On that same day, over 15 million Christians in the same association as my church gathered for worship, agreed with the truth of Scripture and gave money to make the world a better place. That's the lumberyard. But news sites like The Hollywood Gossip made the protest seem like a big deal. It wasn't anything remotely close.
I saw this disproportionate news report with my own eyes – how much more do we miss? Fellow Christians, your faithfulness and the good you do is worth it – it's even newsworthy. Don't get discouraged when the speck is celebrated and the lumberyard of truth is forgotten.