Todays Headlines and the battle for your Soul.

"...in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience."  -Ephesians 2:2


   I have been sick the last few days. This is my first seasonal change into Spring from the West to the Midwest, and the results of breathing and living in this wonderful air that is Southern Ohio has been less of a pleasant surprise, and more of an unwelcome guest. Breathing in what I cannot see makes avoiding the war going on in my sinuses a real battle. Nobody wins besides the medicine man, and in this case, whoever makes Vick's.  This downtime has allowed me to take a minute or two and just look at this world through the eyes of television and the internet - unfiltered. Yesterday, I had the remote in my hand and performed a little study of sorts: every time something immoral came on, I would change the channel. The results were very telling.  There were times I spent less than a second or two before going to the next channel. The winner of the study? Channel 16, Public Television - "Antiques Roadshow".  I was able to watch the whole program.  How very fitting for the message today.

  50 years ago was a world apart from the one we live in. The Andy Griffith Show was an American Institution, The Beatles invaded our radios, and Mary Poppins was Queen of the box office.  Fast forward to now. Let's just take a snapshot of what I found on the front pages online of Yahoo, Fox News and CNN just this morning. I want to make this point moving forward:  In connection with the scripture quoted above in Ephesians, this is the air that we are breathing today, it is effecting our youth, and it is clear who is the ruler of this air when we look at what is permeating our minds through the eyes of our media:
 

    "Miley Cyrus goes onstage with nothing but her underwear"  Yahoo

    "Musicians who make the most"  CNN
    "Kate Upton topless pic? Not so fast..." FOX News 
    "Duke Student - Porn career is very freeing"   CNN
    "Sponges likely paved the way for all life on Earth"  FOX News

   First of all, I personally do not find any of these headlines to be news - and lets keep it real, I did source the ones relevant to the point I am trying to make. But let us keep in mind these were all front page items on major media outlets. Lets dig a little deeper into the numbers and see how the "prince of the power of the air" operates into gradually demoralizing our minds with these less than newsworthy items. 

   Thus far, there have been 46,400 separate articles written about the Duke student turned porn star. Why is this even on the news?  I mean really, take a minute to soak in what the image and story does to your mind. I know what it does to mine, and it is not Godly - these are the very things I try so hard to avoid. I am simply being honest here friends.  If this was a story of a porn star turned Christian, imagine the deafening silence one would hear from the same sources.  Now to Miley Cyrus. The photograph of her stellar performance at the VMA's was the second most Googled image search in 2013. When did filthy make one famous? And rich?  To go along with her foam finger spectacle, she also enjoyed having the number 2 and 3 most watched music  videos on YouTube - clothing optional. Her segue from Hanna Montana into the person we see today makes me sad to know that this is the new definition of success in entertainment, and do not think that this goes unnoticed by the very children that grew up with her as a role model. Her popularity is driven by demand. If you find it difficult to believe that Satan could be behind what is considered media that matters, and how our minds process and respond to all of this, and its impact on our kids - lets look at what the left hand is doing.

  Note the out of place headline above "Sponges likely paved the way for all life on Earth"  from FOX News. Did you know that this week TV History was made? This quote was taken from an article featured this week on ft.com -  "Fox and National Geographic are hoping for a big bang with their new science series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which launched on Sunday to more than half a billion homes in the biggest ever global launch of a television series. The reviews of this program are pouring in, and your religion and faith are the clear losers in this fight. What Ian O'niell of Discovery.com says in one sentence well states the agenda that is Cosmos:  "Overall, “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” is a must-see for everyone. I think this is exactly the mainstream space science show that television has been waiting for since the original Cosmos aired over three decades ago. It links the humanity behind our urge to explore. It separates myth and religion from the scientific method, defining what the cosmos means to us and how bright a future of discovery can be.  Note this please - Myth and Religion are parallel in this context. Do you believe that it is possible that there is a war going on for the minds and hearts of our citizens?  (2 Corinthians 4:4)  From NPR.com comes something I find just as disturbing - "Evolution is Coming to a storybook near you".  Still believe this is not a war of minds?  The article continues " But in delaying evolution instruction, we may miss an opportunity to leverage children's natural curiosity about the biological world, and to establish the foundations for a more accurate scientific understanding before misconceptions become deeply entrenched..." What "misconceptions" do you think they could be pointing to? This is a headline from Forbes Magazine last month " Creationism has no place in a science class".  And lastly, from Slate.com's review of HBO's new Documentary entitled "Questioning Darwin", we see just how personal and acute the debate over our origins is becoming "...the real danger is that Creationists have no sense of reason or rationality, and they are poisoning their children so that they have lost the ability to reason..." 

    All I can say to that is wow. We live in a world where the theory of evolution is now the anecdote to the myth, the misconception, and the poison that they believe embodies the religious among us. Couple this trend with the moral decay that is thrust into the spotlight as newsworthy events, and we can see a stage being set for constant and increasing media bias for those who have the fortitude to be faithful today. We are being indoctrinated. We are being manipulated in a gradual manner to accept no God, no religion, and no moral compass as the new normal. There is a war going on that we need to start talking about. It is the battle for your souls, and that starts with our children. The ruler of this air is after our most precious of commodities - our entire living and breathing future. The future of our faith is being waged in a war that is spread visibly across this Nations headlines on a daily basis. If you are a firm believer in the words of the Bible, this will not get better. The way this all ends is when Christ returns. I wonder now, how the media will cover that...