Bible Text: John 8:32 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

Can you really trust the press to give you the full story? “No!” Barbara Reynolds, formerly an editor of U.S.A. TODAY would answer. She believes that the press consistently whitewashes stories and gives them a secular spin, leaving out references to spiritual topics. She has charged that, repeatedly, references to prayer meetings, references to God and Jesus Christ in the speeches of world leaders and statesmen have deliberately been edited out by newspapers such as The London Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek.

She wrote, “Eastern European activists have a lot to tell us about how God rescues people from the depths of personal and political hell, but somehow, much of the press has decided the public has no right to know this.”

References to God, Jesus, the Christian Spirit, being “born again” and so forth are systematically eliminated from print as though there was an unspoken conspiracy not to acknowledge or print statements invoking the spiritual natures of people, by the major news services which feed newspapers and magazines. Question: Why the bias against Christianity when there is none against reporting smut or the moral failures of Christians?

Lyn Cryderman, a former news editor of Christianity Today, says, “Some journalists are biased against all matters of faith and, no doubt, the Christian faith. A lot of them don’t understand religion, so it becomes easier to ignore it.” The late William Adler, a spokesman for The New York Times, explained that editing is not a science, [quote] “just a matter of fitting the copy into the newshole.” So not quoting references to the part that God has played in the affairs of life and our world is simply due to the fact that there is not enough time or space to do the whole story. Right!

The untold story is the part that God plays in the affairs of humankind, often setting one government aside and raising up another which is just. Whether or not democracy should be the norm for every country isn’t the issue, but fair and just reporting should also acknowledge how faith in God has driven much of what has taken place since 1991, usually an unreported, unacknowledged segment of history.

When a secular press chooses to edit out references to God and Christianity, it should be no great surprise, as the world has never been a friend to grace. But let the secular press own up to the fact that they are biased, giving us only the news they chose to give us and slanting it in such a way that references to God and Christian faith often appear to be characteristic of weak, rather quaint individuals who have not yet fully joined the twenty-first century.

Almost totally absent from the secular press are stories of religious interest, the thousands of people who meet together and pray for world peace, who read religious literature, and who demonstrate peacefully, expectantly, and confidently that God will give direction to world leaders and bring peace to our world.

The real story behind the story is how God has answered the prayers of His people no matter where they are, who are tired of religious oppression and want to chart their own destiny under God, who want the right to choose their own form of government and their own leaders. Let us not forget it, either.

It my sincere conviction that the closer we are to the return of Jesus Christ, the darker will be our world, and the more those who have integrity and are committed to the principles and teaching of God’s Word will stand out as vividly as did Lot and his family, when God rained down fire upon Sodom.

Resource reading: Isaiah 11:10-16