Happy Sunday,
You’ve heard us say it before, and we’ll say it again: the brokenness of the world shouldn’t move believers to passivity but to compassionate action, remembering our always-available action: prayer.
This week, The Pour Over is praying with World Concern for the hunger crisis in East Africa. If you want to join us, click here to get our three-day audio devotional text series where you’ll get an overview of the situation, Scripture, and a guided prayer. It begins tomorrow!
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“But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:22
The following is a draft section of my book, Broken News, scheduled for release in ~Fall 2027.
I add/revise/cut content based on feedback from this newsletter each week, so if something stands out as wrong, confusing, or wow-that-actually-helped-please-don’t-change-it… hit reply and let me know!
Scriptural Basis
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus (Matthew 22:37-39)
The news rarely lies.
Trust in the media is near an all-time low (~70% of Americans have little or no trust in news outlets… oof), but the problem isn’t either side telling lies.
Even opposing news sources agree on the basic facts almost all the time. It’s rare to find any two news sources disagreeing on who is on the ballot, whether an earthquake happened, which celebrity died, or what companies are reporting earnings. The divergence in news sources does not come from one telling the truth and the other lying; it comes from which (true) stories are reported, which (true) details are included, and the opinions that are given airtime.
In short: there’s enough truth for everyone to be convinced of their correctness.
Imagine the president gives a primetime speech announcing a strict new border plan. The next morning, three outlets run three different headlines:
“President Unveils Bold Plan to Secure the Border”
“Immigrant Rights Group Sues to Block President’s New ‘Inhumane’ Border Policy”
“President Addresses Nation on Immigration”
All three will give you the same bedrock of facts: the president addressed the nation last night and proposed a new border plan. But, after that, which facts are included may diverge significantly:
A supportive network may share statistics about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, praising the call for stricter borders.
An opposing network may share quotes from a migrant fleeing persecution, expressing fear her kids will be rejected by the U.S. and sent back into danger.
A third may simply link the transcript.
The risk of hearing only one side isn’t primarily that you’ll hear falsehoods; it’s that the true details will be selected and arranged to support a specific narrative. Over time, that narrative starts to feel like the whole truth, and we begin to assume real people in our lives who see things differently are ignorant at best, and evil at worst.
That should be an unacceptable outcome for followers of Christ.
If the greatest commandments are to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-39), then we shouldn’t consume news in such a way that makes it harder to love others. We should seek to understand opposing views so that we can better love and care for the people who hold them. That’s what Jesus modeled by coming to Earth—He didn’t wait for us to see things His way before loving us; and that’s what He commanded His followers to emulate.
Was this valuable? Was this heretical? Do you have a rebuttal? Should it not make the book?
Please hit reply and let me know! Your replies are genuinely a huge help and are massively shaping this book. I don’t have time to respond to each one, but I personally read every email.
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