Communication and Choices

Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good morals (I Corinthians 15: 33)

Though I have written about the media severally before, I want us to look at it from another direction, the direction of decisions.

The other day Americans made a choice that shook not only themselves but the whole world when they voted for their leader.

But it was not much of a shock to some of us who are aware of the reality that we are the product of the inputs we ingest from all directions.

What do I mean? You may be wondering.

Trump was someone even his supporters were ashamed of, if truth be told. He held values so contrary to their deeply held values. His life was a display of things they were ashamed of. Many of them did not want to be associated with him.

Many who voted for him openly declared that they would be voting for his opponent when they knew all along whom they would vote for. It was so bad that his opponents held riots and protests as his victory went against all confessions.

How does someone vote for someone whose values and morals they do not agree with?

The simple reason is that he represents what they watch day in, day out. He is the manifestation of what the media has been shaping their systems for. His life and morals are so in tune with the media they have spent inordinate time with that they simply resonate with his person.

You see, it is easy to say that I hate divorce with all my heart. But if all my friends are divorced it is very possible that at the depth of that heart I could be admiring it though not aware of it.

They have watched so much depravity that they get shocked when they make a choice for the same when it appears. And you realize that this is not the first time they have had to deal with such things.

What we ingest (I am talking about books, music, TV, movies, internet etc) ultimately guides our choices. That is the reason that in the same USA divorce is normal even among pastors. Even homosexually has gained acceptance even among spiritual leaders that a prominent pastor can hold a gay function in his church, and not for evangelism!

I have said again and again that the ruling spirit of the media is Lucifer. That is the reason he is the one who draws the rules even when I want to set up a Christian media house.

Let me give us a small demonstration of how he gets his way into shaping our choices. He simply plays with the information he feeds us with until we subtly accept falsehood. Let me illustrate.

The other day a local newspaper published a ‘shocking’ opinion poll finding. 98% of all high school girls are into sexting and 68% do it often.

Now that is shocking, but in the wrong way. As a minister in Kenya I know that this is a lie. And I will explain why.

This means that ALL parents of high school students are crooks and deviant. A child without an ID can’t own a SIM card as it must be registered to an adult. The finding implies that parents have decided to break the law make it possible for these children to have phones.

But it goes further. We actually know that not all parents have cell phones. How possible is it that a parent without a phone will illegally buy one for their child?

Let us put down some figures. Probably 70% of the parents can afford a phone for themselves, the most basic type. Of those who can afford, probably a quarter can afford one for their child.

Even if ALL those who have those phones are deviant, what number do we expect to be deviant? At the very most 18%. And my son just cleared high school so I am not just guessing.

Where does this all end? That falsehood will cause us to throw in the towel before the battle has begun as we get overwhelmed with whatever findings they are spewing out. Or we will start reacting in panic because we will start trying to put out nonexistent fires as we will condemn our girls for something they have no capacity of doing because of those poll findings.

And people still trust the media to guide them or think that the media exists for the simple reason of educating, informing and entertaining (I was taught that in media school).

Will we read our Bibles more than we ingest all these alternative information sources?