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News is things we do not know, things “new” – things which interest us because they might affect our lives. News is also the unusual, the curiosity. And in this category, unfortunately, what is almost always reported are things which are unusually BAD. And this type of reporting has been shown to be, in itself, “bad news”.

In our lifetimes, this country has had a deterioration of morality, of virtue. And the unusual things being reported as news have had a role in this decline. Unusual bad things – murder, rape, theft, and public adultery -- when constantly, daily, almost endlessly reported, gradually become NOT unusual. They become the norm. They become talked about on radio, acted out on television. We come to think of them as behavior we could easily see ourselves imitating – and many do.

And our family, our neighborhood, our church, and our country suffer for it. And so do each and every one of us. Non-stop reporting bad things had led to many people doing bad things. Even us.

Reporting of unusual things, the satisfying of human curiosity is not wrong in itself. What has proved to be wrong is reporting ONLY unusually bad things. Highlighting, going into deep detail WHY people choose bad things; justifying their wrongs via a form of empathy, sympathy, making us understand why people do these wrong things. It leads us to justify evils as “not that bad”, or not bad if there were some intended good outcomes from them. These relativistic views, promoted by the news, have dimmed our awareness that some things are inherently bad, and some are inherently good. We’ve come to view the laws of God as something we can judge to not apply some times, but they are not our laws, and we are not the judge. And we seem to have forgotten the admonishment not to do so.

You know, there are many unusual good things happening in the world. With bad now becoming the norm, and not so unusual, will we see then more detailed news reports of unusually good things? People who stand up against the bad, who make hard choices to be good? Will we see reports of why they choose to be good, so that we can have empathy and sympathy with them – and, perhaps, justify our becoming good also?

Will we ever see a newspaper with an emphasis on reporting good news? We can only hope – and pray.

We have written here only of the influence of news which we read, but what of our lives, our actions? Our lives are not meant to be lived watching and reading about others. We were told to go out and proclaim the Good News. We were shown how to live our lives to proclaim it by our actions, by the man who has had more written about him than anyone else who has ever lived.

You are to the example of Christ in the world today. YOU are the news. You are to proclaim his love by showing yours. By your actions, you are to BE the Good News that others can see – and perhaps, God willing, read about. But even if not, then be the Good News that others don’t have to read about, because you touch their lives. Love your neighbor as yourself; it’s a start of virtue others can see. It’s a start for changing the morality of our country. The apostles started out in a country which didn’t believe the things as they did, but they showed them, they lived lives that other people talked about, and changed the world.

That is the example, the Good News has given to us, for he touched our lives that we might touch others. Things seem bad in our country, but they can change. Do not be anxious!

Extra! Extra! Read all about … the Good News!

It starts with us.