Media

I'm typical Cincinnati-- I'm always behind the times. Robyn is constantly telling me what a crotchety old man I am. And she's right, especially considering I'm still a young pup at 24. But I'm the oldest 24-year-old I know. Sure, there's probably somebody out there in a 3rd world country that doesn't even have internet access yet (!), but you get my drift. I finally got a blog late this past summer. I'm just now starting to realize the wonders of Wikipedia. And I am Dialup Man.

All that to preface a statement about the media that no one with a pulse could dare argue with. The news media either (A) has a left-leaning bias in their reporting, (B) loves to make us depressed with horrible stories, or (C) loves to give our sinful natures exactly what we desire. It's probably a combination of all three, but regardless, Don Henley got it right with "Dirty Laundry", specifically the TV newscaster:

She can tell about the plane crash
With a gleam in her eye
It's int'resting when people die
Give us dirty laundry

I really don't want to keep up with the news. I grew up in a house where the newspaper was read daily. I see the benefits of it. (Heck, every summer day, I scoured the box scores of every MLB game from the night before, and I think that was a huge contributing factor to being a math wiz, so I don't hate the Enquirer.) But I think there are better things to do with our time than spend hours per day reading the paper or watching the news. Unfortunately, I still hit up the news sites on the web multiple times per day. Sadly, it is interesting when people die.

The 18-year-old "man" who shot his 14-year-old girlfriend's parents over the dad's disapproval of the relationship is such a sad tale. And since I'm blogging about it, I'm obviously very interested in the story. I guess I just think there are so many aspects of the story that are evidence of so many scary things in our world today.

First of all, I believe that a 4-year age gap is too big at 18 and 14. Sure, when he's 80 and she's 76 no one will care, but 18/14 is huge. I have no problem with 18/22... 14 is just way too young for a "man". The girl wanted to be all grown up before her time. And there's something wrong with the guy if he's with the little girl.

Furthermore, the "man" has naked pictures of this girl on his computer. That's not good. This revelation came after it was discovered that this couple has had a sexual relationship for a while. These are not good things. 14-year-olds have no business having sex. But how much blame can we assign to this 14-year-old girl? Does anyone think that it was really her desire to be doing the deed at this age? Is this really what she wants? Or is this just what's been fed to her her entire life? Isn't this just what everything in our culture has pointed to? From Barbie's body to everything on TV to Clinton's "oral sex isn't sex" to... I'm getting upset... moving on... this stuff kills me.

Next point, there is a complete lack of respect for my generations' elders. And yes, I'm considering this 14-year-old to be a part of my generation. I consider myself very fortunate to have grown up in a home where respect and manners were drilled into my head. In this situation, daddy very understandably says to the 18-year-old, "I don't want you to see my 14-year-old daughter anymore." The way I see it, this "man" has 2 options: (1) respect his decision and stop seeing the girl, or (2) respectfully have a discussion to try to persuade the dad to rethink his decision. Unfortunately for the family, the punk chose a third option; he pulled out his Glock and shot dad in the back of the head, then killed mom as she was sitting in a chair.

I could go on and on, but there's no need. There are tons of issues here, tons of examples of what's wrong in our world. But here's the biggest one:

THESE ARE THE CHRISTIAN KIDS. These are the kids who supposedly have a personal relationship with the Savior. These are the kids who are supposed to be impacting their world as servants of the Living God.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is much work to do. We must be committed to Jesus. If your heart doesn't absolutely break into a million pieces when you hear about this story, then you too are a victim of the lies you've been fed over the years. This is not how it's supposed to be.

Take the time to love the kids in your world. The middle school kids, the high school kids, whatever. Their whole worldview is full of lies. They've been fed nothing but lies. They need to know that there is something more in this world than pain. Share hope with them. Give them love. Show them the gospel. Don't just speak it, live it. Luv is a Verb. Proper. Word 2 ya motha.