Media

Many people will never entertain any challenge on the media especially concerning its wrongdoing. Others idolize the media, viewing it as the absolute truth. Some have never lived without the media occupying the most central and prominent position in their lives, beginning with their living rooms.

Some have used the media to make their fortunes. Others have literally been killed by the same media. I will give a few examples as I go along.

I am writing this due to the many responses to my post ‘Parenting Challenges’ where I lightly touched on the role of media. I then realized that I will need to write a fuller post on the media to be able to respond to the many concerns and questions I continue receiving.

Ever remember this man who was caricatured being strangled by his tongue in the eighties? He was a very wealthy government minister who fell afoul of the media through one thing or the other. By the time they were through with his case he was completely finished, literally. They first painted him in so poor light that his long term partner in a very prestigious international business had to excise his name from the company brand.

Why did that happen? You see the media will have the last word even when they are in the wrong. You will still require the same media to defend your position. Can you imagine having your enemy defending your position in an altercation between you both? Yet that is precisely what the media is trusted to do.

Or a few years ago when a powerful minister was so offended by the media that she attempted to seek redress. Again they did the direct opposite by simply burying her presence. Simply saying she stopped existing in the media yet she led a very visible ministry. For the year or so that she was thus forsaken she became forgotten by the public she served. I do not know what kind of penance she did before they reconnected her back to the mainstream. But it was a great object lesson to any who could have imagined pursuing justice against the media.

Of course we have this former minister who has been painted as a serial killer though there has not been any shred of evidence. It is just assumed as the truth simply because the media says so. It makes it even worse because the same man has severally sued media houses for some of those stories and won damages as from the legal viewpoint the media could as well have been reporting rumours. Of course the same media now paints him even worse for seeking to clear his name from media rumours which are being paraded as the truth just because it is the media that is reporting.

Many years ago a young pastor started running a weekly radio program. He preaches a ‘single’ sermon in all his programs, at least to a preacher like me. I remember telling my wife that this same young preacher will become a bishop in a short while - and that is what happened.

Another person started a radio question and answer program before he even became a pastor. He is now a bishop.

A lady started a prayer session on a vernacular station not so long ago. Now she has a huge church.

The media is more about visibility than content. I might have tons of gold in my trunk but will be treated as a pauper because the media has not reported. Another might exploit the media to parade his trash and everybody will conclude he is the wealthiest chap around.

When I said I felt for the father who was watching the Oscars with his daughter as the star was in all pretences naked, I remember one asking me why yet not so long ago people were naked and it was not a problem. I responded by saying that then the media as we have it was not there. I remember schooling in a place where people walked naked yet immorality was not an issue.

The media gives us the reality to gauge our environment. It is the one that gives us the light to see our environment. And many times it is treated as the last judge of our values.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5)

The media is the culmination of that scheme of the devil. We are able to see more than our eyes can see naturally. We are introduced to another dimension of sight. You see Adam and Eve were not blind before they ate the forbidden fruit. They were introduced to another dimension of sight; a dimension God knew was not useful for the progress of man. One that God had already warned Adam against. In fact the devil just twisted God’s word to make the detestable desirable. Remember what God had said that tree was?

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)

This other dimension of sight and knowledge opens us beyond physical senses, yet using physical senses to access. This knowledge is therefore not nurtured by normal means. It cannot be educated by the normal methods. It must use the other dimension for its growth. And I believe this is where the media is playing that part so effectively. Yet believers are blind to that plain fact. The TV is many times an altar, occupying the most prominent portion in most if not all living rooms. But it is also the tool of choice to open us to the other dimension.

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)

Who really owns the media? I believe in the spiritual order of things the media is run by the enemy of our souls. That is the reason there is very little positive spiritual input we can expect from it. Another thing to consider especially in these times is that very few (I do not know of any) discoveries in the media are done by men recognized for their spirituality as opposed to the major scientific and medical discoveries of the past. And you can never convince me that an unspiritual man can discover something for the benefit of spirituality positively. We use these tools because God is the one in charge and will use anything and anyone for His purpose.

There is nothing positive, leave alone spiritual about facebook and tweeter, the most popular social media sites. And that does not change whether I use them or not. They are tools the devil brought about to introduce that other dimension to our world.

Do I use them? I at least use facebook. And I do some ministry on that social site. But that does not redeem facebook. I will compare that with using a clean beer bottle to store milk. That milk can never sanctify the beer or the label on the bottle.

It is such ignorance that makes believers waste so much of their time doing nonsensical things on social media. Again what really trends on such sites? What is most visited and liked?

Post a sober article with some very useful, even necessary information and you may be shocked if anybody liked it. Post an irreverent and irrelevant joke and it is normal to find thousands of likes and hundreds of shares and comments.

The same applies to radio and TV. It is the ones with the most useless programs that are most watched.

Look at the news and realize that there is probably nothing godly in the media, whatever name it takes. Let me give you the verse God gave me to deliver me from my addiction to news. Again let me remind you that I was trained by and worked in the media.

Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; (Isaiah 33: 14b, 15)

What constitutes news? I remember once hearing of a team that started a paper or magazine that specialized in good news. It was closed very quickly as good news is not sustainable in the industry since it can’t sell. Does that point us to who really runs the media? By the way a friend and I are at present thinking along starting a magazine of that nature where the goodwill will come from God and His people as we seek to offer an alternative to all the trash we have to consume.

So, yes, use facebook and twitter. But do not forget the fact that exposing godliness is actually contrary to the spirit ruling social media. As an enemy you therefore need to be adequately armed with all your weapons as you are viewed as a saboteur of their system.

Another thing you need to never forget is that they have an agenda, an agenda that stands against everything you stand for. In fact they are against the God you serve. Being careless could very easily suck you into their agenda especially as they know you even as you treat them as your very powerful ally.

And this is the reason it pains me to see enough believers filling their walls with nonsensical stuff, stuff that contributes zero, actually negative, to positive Christian living, a pure waste of time and space. This is because we eventually start living according to their values instead of ours. Some are unable to switch off those sites, even when they are asleep or busy doing something else. Some must have alerts when something new is posted; and they will stop everything to laugh out the new post.

Do we realize that this might be the main purpose of the media? To fill our lives with so much triviality that we literally stop thinking beyond all that trash? Then we will be always consumed with the non essentials of life and forget to look for the actual essence of life.

But media is also a livelihood. I studied to profit from the media. Most of my classmates in the media school are also fed from the media. A bare minimum have sought to make a living outside those confines. You see the media is amongst the most well paying industries as that is the place you can be paid for doing almost nothing. Imagine the amount of money a news anchor is paid for simply reading a news bulletin for a few minutes, many times a bulletin they did not even prepare? Imagine the amount of money a talk host is paid for asking some nonsensical questions which many times are so commonsense that a child can ask them? But they can do that because the media holds the key to greatness as far as worldly standards and visibility are concerned.

And Hollywood is not much different. The woes Jesus proclaimed against the spiritual leadership of His times are the same things that make someone a hero, hypocrisy.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. (Matthew 23:27)

But the parallelism goes even further. Whereas in Jesus’ time the people could not see the hearts of these Hollywood progenitors, the same media is in the business of strewing all their filth to the world. It does not only pay to be a hypocrite. You eventually become an open book to the world so that they will appreciate the fact that righteousness is not only uncool but might even be irrelevant. Because who sees it anyway? Who is paid for living right? Who is stalked for living the way God prescribed? Who cares about what they cannot see?

Hollywood therefore transforms what is base to look honorable. Again this is consistent with scripture.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

Is that your revered Hollywood? Or am I just creating my own verses out of a nonexistent Bible? Is that verse also in your Bible? Just check to make sure. Please establish the context.

That really is what Hollywood is. I do not see any redemptive value in it. I also do not see any prospects for its redemption. Its whole foundation is faulty, if it can be called a foundation.

But let us get back to our first verses. That the tree of the knowledge of good and evil opened our sights to another dimension of reality, a dimension so dangerous that God had to warn us against it. Again the media, and I may have to dwell more on Hollywood here, epitomizes it.

Ever heard of subliminal messages? These are messages below the logical processes of the mind. They are either flashed so fast that the mind has no capacity to ‘see’ them, yet slow enough for the subconscious to capture them. For example in a freely flowing movie they may flash the picture that may relate very little to the movie, say a person hanging from a tree or a couple having sex on a beach. Since it takes a flash second and has very little connection to the movie, the viewers will conveniently forget it so that they can continue watching the flow of their movie, but the subconscious mind does not as it takes it to the data bank that controls everything from our emotions to decisions. And I think very few movies if any lack such.

Or they put a very significant picture with a message your brain will reject yet in a very inconspicuous position in the set. Your brain storage takes the whole picture but the logical looks for where the action is, leaving the subconscious to soak in all the stench without even knowing it is happening.

Yet cartoons are the worst culprits in all this as they are conveniently drawn very roughly so that they do not arouse any suspicion from especially those with a higher spiritual standard. But many do not even care to conceal their message. Again they are aimed at children who are not in any position to make decisions as they are soaking all information they receive. They therefore load children with a very demonic agenda to soak in their systems. They can then be sure of the conduct of these children thus exposed. How did I get to this point?

I once decided to watch probably the most popular cartoon our children watch, Tom and Jerry, with the eye of a child or as a child would watch by relegating its entertainment to the back of my mind. That I was shocked is an understatement. There are very few clear directions to hell as that cartoon. What it teaches children is so openly demonic even as they jump up and down in excitement at the seemingly innocent entertainment.

Harry Potter is a real introduction to real witchcraft yet some parents think their children are safe from that simply because they pray for them without removing those books and movies from their sight. But the way most cartoons have a very prominent position for witchcraft and other wickedness in their story lines.

How do you expect your children to find their way out of that indoctrination when they have to handle things their parents never saw and do not even want to see with them? Our laziness may be the reason our children are getting lost. Not laziness about looking for money but laziness on anything else. We can get money to buy all these movies yet deny our children our presence that will give them a dose of reality as they watch all this trash. I for one decided that I will watch all the movies my children ask for with them irrespective of how busy I think I am. Then I can guide them to understand the media as I am able to see and hear their understanding of what we are watching. They might not appreciate it now but I see them getting more critical in their watching responses.

The media industry the world over is the property of cartels of very few people who are not known for their godly living. These jealously protect that tuff from any outsiders unless they are thoroughly screened to comply with their standards which are more demonic than otherwise. I was told one of them also bought the copyright of the most popularized Bible. No wonder it is changing as fast as a newsflash. A friend told me that they read one such whose Ten Commandments really shocked. Imagine reading ‘you may not kill, you may not commit adultery’? The copyright owner has with the stroke of the pen changed the Ten Commandments to the ten suggestions, a thing the media has been working at all along. He has also eliminated any mention or judgment of homosexuality among other blatant omissions.

But they do not stop with feeding us with trash. They must also remove any wholesome objects from our sights. Do you see the speed at which judges are removing the Bible and Ten Commandments from public places in America? Why are they applying sanctions on Uganda for banning public nudity and homosexuality yet still pretend to fight against rape? Why deny a Biblically leaning advocate of the family yet give unfettered airtime to the homosexuals and their enablers? Why did we have no other bishop speak about Uganda’s law except enabler Tutu?

But that is the media. They always get all they want because believers do not understand what the media stands for, who the media serves and the end the media is working toward. Some of the most aggressive defenders of the media would really fight the same media once they got to understand what the media advocates.

Even print media is not much different. Of late we have had the two main newspapers opening something similar to tabloids to be able to cover trending topics which means scandals that fall below the respectability of their main papers. Some of the stories they cover are so shameful yet like the words of a talebearer. Incidentally most headlines are about this or the other compromised or sexually sinning pastor either being caught or explaining his sin. They lead their followers to decide that all pastors are crooks; that all ministry is for profit. This is because since they started there must be a front page story about this or the other sinning pastor, some simply from hearsay. Why don’t they report this or the other pastor who has consistently ministered for decades even as a hidden story somewhere between the adverts? Simply because they have an agenda they are pursuing, an agenda that does not need the truth to pursue.

The aim of this as of any other thrust of the media is to make wickedness so common as to become inoffensive. In fact that is the reason homosexuality and other vices are making headlines the world over. Then we will slowly get used to the stench of sin even as we get used to the absence of righteousness through the blackout it receives from the same media. Then our minds slowly get conditioned to think that there is no life apart from the visible which due to the media is wicked.

Once I moved to a different town where I did not have any friends. I made friends with a businessman who was doing something I also enjoy doing and so I used his workshop to pass my time. As usual in the evenings in those remote towns there are not many social outlets. Many other working young men therefore came to spend an hour or so after work as young people normally do not enjoy staying alone in their houses. Many times they will have supper in restaurants before going to their houses just to sleep.

Well, many of these friends were not friendly to the message I preached as most people sent to those remote towns live immoral lives. Many conversations were therefore of a sensual nature.

Initially they used to stop their conversations when they realized that a preacher was amongst them. They slowly by slowly started becoming bolder, and graphic. But I was also getting more and more comfortable in those conversations. Though I was not contributing in the conversations, I was not being offended by all the sin they were talking about. They eventually started mentioning me in their stories. Remember about cooking a frog?

Until God challenged me to look back at how far I had fallen! Had I been talking about somebody else I am sure I most likely could have been talking about backslider as I could not imagine someone could fall that far without noticing.

But even more shocking is that my daily intake of the scripture and prayer had not changed. My ministry in church and elsewhere was vibrant. I was even discipling a few young people in the town.

These are a few ‘friends’ influencing my mind in such a way and in a short time. Though I did not fall into sin, I realized that my mind was becoming really corrupted. What will happen to your mind when all you watch after work is news? What will happen to your children when all they watch are movies and cartoons brewed from the pit of hell?

Ever noticed that since the evolutionists lost the war of logic and fact to convince us that we are simply more developed monkeys they simply turned on the media to propagate their doctrine? And the topic of choice is nature movies. And they seamlessly package that abomination so cleverly that one is left with very little choice should they reject their proposition that the world created itself. We will therefore teach our children that God created the earth and everything in it yet pay a premium to ensure that our children are indoctrinated otherwise through these movies. Then we complain when they reject the God we worship. Our teaching was simple, a sharing of truth. Theirs is unobtrusive, designed to sink in without being noticed as leaven in dough.

The cellular (mobile) phone is another medium that I think is taking people to hell faster than sin itself. As I travel in public transport I am amazed at how this small gadget has dug out all the evil that was concealed in our hearts. The level of blatant deception is mindboggling. I sometimes imagine that during judgment day God will just show a five minute clip of a conversation on that gadget and someone will run to hell to avoid further exposure. But it is also a tool God can and does use to further His Kingdom.

Another thing I will say in passing is that the media is at best a prostitute. She dances to the highest bidder or interest. She can only be faithful to the one she is presently with, then. On the moral scale she is even lower that the lowest of the politicians. Could she be this prostitute the Bible is speaking about?

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18: 2 – 5)

I might expect some bashing from theologians for this statement but I feel it might be as valid as any of theirs. I believe the media might be the ultimate in corruption because even justice depends on them to reach the masses. Kings also depend on the same media for effective ruling. In effect the media is the dead centre of society, at least in these last days.

Anything positive with the media? I am sure so many are asking. I think my responsibility is to point you to the reality of the media. What you do with the information is completely dependent on you as you will then not be walking in ignorance. But I will hasten to add that just as Christ said he could use stones to proclaim His praises, just like He used a donkey to speak to His rebellious prophet, He can and will use this same rotten media to meet His purposes. You do not need to be scared of the media, only that you need to operate with the knowledge that you are not playing on home ground. We will therefore be more careful as we do not expect as much support as we will when we are playing at home.

What about Christian media? One of the clearest things you notice is the elimination of originality. There are many cloned and plastic saints around. People preach like their favorite TV preachers, some even copying the voice. Even the response to God has become plastic. Worship teams (they are not called singers nowadays) do everything as they see the TV worship teams doing. Even the touch of God happens exactly at the point it happens on TV.

I have been asking many people in the music ministry what happened to music compositions. I have been asking the relevance of this verse in some people’s Bibles, especially people who are known for leading people to God in worship.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:3)

And that verse is repeated severally. Where is the authentic worship that does not depend on what we see on TV? Do we really have any closet to connect to God? Why must we lead plastic worship if we have any relationship with the living God? Has the media made void God’s Spirit who gives His worshippers new expressions of worship?

Why don’t we pray for God to give us precise directions concerning our relationship with the media and especially how to guide our children to navigate that jungle?

As an aside isn’t the media the one that has deceived the African woman that she needs to smear blood on her lips to look beautiful? Isn’t it the one that has convinced others that their hair must have plastic additions to appear stylish? And isn’t it the one that has convinced some to starve themselves almost to death to retain the models’ body? To apply coats of paint on her face to look beautiful? And isn’t this the reason many city men who will play around with these women and girls will go far from the cities when they want a wife? And why? I am sure they are not sure what is hidden behind all those layers of plastic. That woman is a good toy to play with, but whoever got a toy to bear and raise his children?

Let me close by saying that the most useful knob in your TV is the OFF button. Use it more regularly and effectively.