by Dan Jones
American society loves buzz words, and nothing has been buzzing more lately than the phrase “fake news.”
There’s an amazing irony in the very media outlets accused of delivering “fake news” reporting on the prevalence of said “fake news.”
One of the reasons I so appreciate Kinship Christian Radio is the absence of said erroneous information.
I don’t know if I mentioned this in a previous blog, but I was an actual reporter for eleven years at an actual newspaper. Granted, it was not the HuffPo or the WaPo, or even the Star Tribune, but I attended a lot of city council and school board meetings and I took a lot of pictures of the Prom Queen. (Yes, it was a small-town weekly newspaper which meant I often functioned as both Reporter and Photographer –and other duties as assigned.)
While I may not have been a hot-shot newshound for a big-time newspaper, I certainly saw how the business worked from the inside out. And, to this day, a news report that leaves relevant information out or slants it with an obvious bias raises the prickly hairs on the back of my neck.
Those prickly hairs don’t cause me a problem when I hear Salem Radio News (SRN) on Kinship Christian Radio and I am grateful for that.
A week ago, SRN reported that Compassion International, a Christian charity that has been helping poor children in India (and many other countries) for almost half a century would no longer be able to help these children because of a new law that bars foreign charities from receiving money from outside the country. This will impact nearly 147,000 babies, children, and young adults currently registered in Compassion’s Child Development Program.
I am familiar with Compassion International because I sponsor two children through this organization. For $38 per month, a child gets food, clothing, a Christian education and they are loved. I know this because the children I sponsor (neither of whom are in India) correspond back and forth with me through letters. I know it has changed their lives and the lives of their families for the better because they have told me so –and I have a three-ring binder with every letter and photo I have received from them over the course of ten years to look back on and see that this is indeed so.
It also means I have been praying for these children and their families for that same ten years, and the letters they send back say they have been praying for me and my family. It has opened my eyes to the fact that the Kingdom of God does not exist in the little six-foot circle around me that I can reach out and touch, but around the whole world that the Lord our God created.
Not coincidentally, I came to be moved to sponsor the first child through an event sponsored by Kinship Christian Radio. (I believe it was a Geoff Moore concert.)
And the point here is that had I been listening to even the most reputable and respected of the secular media outlets, I almost certainly would have heard nothing about Compassion being forced out of India and 147,000 children and their families affected.
Even more important is that this is an action on the part of the Indian government specifically designed to curb activities it deems are “detrimental to the national interest.” Compassion representatives report that it was very clear the government’s objection to their help was a fear of “religious conversions.”
It means the government of India is so afraid of Christianity it is willing to take clothing off the backs and food out of the mouths of its children for fear of what Jesus Christ might do to a nation where people struggle to find clean water and overcome disease spread by poor sanitation.
So, while the secular media gives us the latest on “safe spaces” and some celebrity’s struggle with “body shaming,” the news on Kinship Christian Radio is about things with eternal consequences.
Mighty and everlasting almighty Lord God, please help these children and the nation of India. Please have mercy on them. AMEN
Today’s Praise
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (Corinthians 4:18 NIV)