This morning, I opened my RSS reader, Awasu, to find that John Piper updated his blog. He wrote about “The Importance of News“. He made a statement that challenged me. He said;
I determined that for me, news is important to the extent that it (1) affects me or those I care about (from my family in Florida to wider areas of social justice), (2) applies to ideas I care or should care about, and (3) allows me to take action on it. With that in mind, I can seek out journals, magazines, blogs, etc. that filter news close to my critera.
There is so much junk reported, some for political reasons, some to “sell papers”, and some to just fill up space. This isn’t simply a moral matter–because there is immoral junk out there as well, but a practical one. Why should I spend my time reading something that has no purpose for. Am I not entertained enough?–that’s what I have comic books for!
So what is my purpose with the news? It is somewhat different than Piper’s–in content rather than principle. I need to read the Army news from Iraq or Afghanistan–it may affect me one day. I need to read current brief celebrity stuff so that I can know what soldiers are watching and listening to–I think that it is important for me to relate to foster relationships. (I am 20 years older, by the way!) And, I need to have a general understanding of world events–to be a well rounded person. Then there are the thinks I enjoy–the books and the features (I had a subscription to the New York Times when I was at Fort Campbell that I loved).
The point is that even in the newspaper there are things to read, but there are things to ignore, why waste your time with the space fillers?
By the way, I also like the weather–it is raining tonight in Baumholder.
[…] post is a fresh rewrite of a post titled “The Important News” from October […]