Every year, usually in January, my church has a three week fast. The first one I participated in was in 2022, about six months after I began attending. A lot of people choose desserts for their fast, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be food. The point of fasting is to exercise control over my all-too-earthly body and its desires, so I can legitimately fast from almost anything I do that isn’t directly following Jesus, and is not sin (If something I’m doing is sin, I don’t need to fast from it, I need to repent and turn away from it entirely). In 2022 I fasted for three weeks from news and political commentary.
Is there anything wrong with paying attention to politics and current events? No, of course not. Or possibly, yes. At least, there could be. It depends. When I began the three weeks, I knew that I had a tendency to obsess over things I don’t control, and to get angry about them. So for me, reading and watching the news is not necessarily a positive thing. That’s why I chose this particular fast. But I didn’t realize when I began just how strongly I was being affected by what I was reading and watching.
Keeping the fast took effort. It was harder than I’d expected to resist the urge to just take a quick look and make sure the world hadn’t blown up while I wasn’t watching. I had to remind myself frequently that I wasn’t actually cut off from all information, and that if something happened that I actually needed to know, God was certainly able to make sure I found out about it, one way or another.
At the end of the three weeks, however, I realized that I didn’t want to go back to what I’d been doing before. It was obvious, even to me, that my attitude had shifted dramatically. I was no longer spending hours at a time thinking about things that made me angry, or having arguments in my head with imaginary opponents. I was experiencing a lot more joy in my everyday life, and a lot more peace. That felt better, and I have no doubt that I was more fun to be around.
The interesting thing about all this is that, although for three weeks I hadn’t been keeping up on news and political commentary, I hadn’t forgotten anything that I’d known beforehand. All the bad news, all the alarming, and frustrating, and enraging, and downright frightening things I’d been obsessing about, were still just as true, and just as relevant to my life, as they’d been before. But three weeks without constant reinforcement left them without the power to drive my emotions. That was an eye-opener, but in hindsight, it’s exactly what I should have expected.
Sex sells. Advertisers and promoters have known that for a very long time. But in the last few decades, they have discovered that controversy, outrage and fear sell just as well, and often even better. (Or perhaps I should say rediscovered, since I see some evidence in the Bible that this was understood by the false teachers Paul warned Timothy about.) This does not necessarily mean that news reporters and commentators cynically and deliberately create fake stories in order to profit from them. Most don’t do that. An absurdly high percentage of them, however, appear to be recklessly indifferent to the facts as long as they can advance their preferred narrative. And while many of those reporters and commentators might be doing this because they are true believers, the corporations that fund the news are driven by profit. That’s as true of the conservative media as it is the liberal. In other words, the people from whom I was getting my news and whose commentaries I was reading knew that they drew larger audiences, and consequently made more money, if they provoked their readers to be outraged or angry or frightened. And I’d been falling for it. No wonder cutting myself off for three weeks had such a big impact!
The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippian church:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things (Philippians 4:8)
I have sometimes heard this verse interpreted as a warning that Christians should not indulge in one or another form of secular entertainment (by an interesting coincidence, it’s almost always a kind of entertainment that the speaker does not happen to enjoy). A much better argument could be made that followers of Jesus should not waste time on poor quality entertainment, even if it’s “Christian,” but that we should, rather, spend our mental cycles on things that are actually good.
I think, however, that what Paul is actually talking about here is much larger than just entertainment. If I take this verse serious, I really should be continually asking, “is thinking along these lines making me more like Jesus?” whether I’m watching a video, reading a book, or just pondering something. That’s a tough question, and one that requires judgment to answer because there’s no set formula; it depends on how whatever I’m thinking about is affecting me personally. The things that are best for me to think about are not necessarily the same as the things it’s best for you to think about, because where I am spiritually is not necessarily where you are. More than that, even the things that I would do well to think about right now will not necessarily be what it is best for me to think about tomorrow. Making rules and drawing lines to try and guard my thoughts is counterproductive. It’s not rules I need to follow, but rather Christ. What I want to do is get closer to him. Which means I need to be looking at him, and not at how close to some line that I’m getting.
Nevertheless, this passage does, I think, argue for being intentional in what I choose to think about. To think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, I need to be conscious of where I am turning my attention. Not to drift and just watch whatever comes on TV, but to be deliberate about watching, reading, and thinking about only what I choose to watch, read and think about. It may be that I will someday reach the point where I automatically think only about what is good, but until that time, I need to be deliberate and pay attention.
The fast lasted three weeks and afterward, as I said, I found that I didn’t want to go back to what I’d been doing. So for the past 3 ½ years I have been limiting my news intake. I’m no longer fasting entirely from it, but most of the time I limit myself to local news, the Christian Post and the Babylon Bee (Yes, I know that doesn’t technically count as news. It is entertaining, though). Every once in a while I’ll go back to reading selected news sites for a few weeks, usually after a major event, but always while trying to pay attention to my attitude, and especially asking myself, “am I getting angry at things that I don’t have power over?” Then I go back to not following news and politics. It’s not always easy. There always seems to be something happening in the world that screams for my attention; I can’t avoid hearing at least that much. But I’ve found that the effort is worth it.
This is not about obedience. If God had told me never again to look at the news I would, of course, have an obligation to obey. But he has not given me any such order. Limiting my news intake is simply something I’ve decided to do to help maintain my health, both mentally and spiritually. As such, I can recommend that others follow my example if they’re struggling with anxiety, depression or (like me) anger, but I can’t say that it’s for everyone. In fact, this kind of self-imposed news restriction is specifically not for anyone whom God has called to serve in government or politics. So far, however, God has not called me to that kind of service.
With that caveat, I think that restricting consumption of news and politics – not avoiding it completely, but taking it in much greater moderation – might be a good idea for many of us.
There is one more factor to consider. Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval Romans 14:13-18.
This passage was, obviously, most directly addressing the issue of followers of Jesus eating food that violated the Jewish dietary restrictions. But I wonder if things like news and social media and even popular TV shows, while not wrong in themselves, might be areas where exercising my freedom to indulge in them is not always for the best, either for myself or for the others around me. It’s a consideration for me, anyway. I know that I do better emotionally and spiritually if I don’t spend much time reading news and politics. Others likely do as well. When the brothers and sisters around me know that I restrict the amount of such material I’m willing to consume, I make it a little easier for those who wish to do the same.
But when I do that, I do have to recognize that I am making a deliberate choice not to exercise my freedom. If others make a different choice I have no grounds to condemn them, even if they are the kind of person whom I think would be better off consuming less of what passes for news. My brothers and sisters don’t answer to me with regard to how much time, and how many brain cycles, they devote to monitoring the events of the world. But by the same token, I don’t need to pay attention to voices that try to tell me I’m “copping out” by not paying attention to politics. If something occurs that I genuinely need to know about, God still has innumerable ways to make sure I find out about it.
Because ultimately, it’s not about following or not following the news, it’s about following Jesus.
I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).