Friday 6 December 2013

The Curse of Twenty-Four Hour media

And two hour a week Church!

Today, in case you missed it, the world has been mourning the loss of one of the men who was became a legend in his own lifetime (which might be better than being one later and never getting to know - but that's a point for discussion later perhaps?).

The problem is that we know the man has died (not 'passed on' or 'over' or whatever else naff term you'd like to use) and he's lived for some 95 years against all the odds when you think of Robbin Island and everything else he lived through and achieved much in that time too! A bright and intelligent, charismatic man (although I can remember when he wasn't, for popularity came later rather than earlier to this man).

The problem is that the news media have to fill 24 * 60  which means there are 1,440 minutes of airtime to be dealt with every day and so we end up with those interminably long pieces of dross sandwiched between the repetition of the better stuff. There are great insights and banal interludes and somehow they manage to hand on to their audience, probably in the off chance that there will be something of value!

Sadly - there usually isn't!

On the other hand, within those 1,440 I find many people who struggle to find 120 minutes (that's 8.3% of a day) to 'do' church. Oddly, one of those told me how they spent some four hours (c. 17% of a day) 'watching people talk about a man who brought freedom to people, brought peace and changed the world.'

How odd, I didn't see anything about Jesus on my TV last night!

Odder still is that they can't manage to sit through less than two hours focussed on Him in a church!

Media or Church?

Obvious innit?

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