Welcome to A Christian Manifesto Today episode #26. My name is Daniel Whyte III, president of Torch Leadership Foundation. Pastor and Christian philosopher, Francis A. Schaeffer, warned us and created the war plan that we as Christians need today to deal with a society that is increasingly moving away from God, the Bible, and moral principles. He wrote “A Christian Manifesto” 33 years ago and its words are just as relevant today as they were back then. Our Christian Manifesto Today Passage from the Word of God today is Ephesians 4:14 which reads: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" Our Christian Manifesto Today quote today is from Reid A. Ashbaucher. He said: "Media has diverted our attention from the important. Remember Phil 4:8: Truth, Honor, Right, Lovely, let your mind dwell on these things." In this podcast, we are using as our text: "A Christian Manifesto" by Francis A. Schaeffer. Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer writes on "The Humanist Religion" (Part 7): The media and especially television have indeed changed the perception of not only current events, but also of the political process. We must realize that things can easily be presented on television so that the perception of a thing may be quite different from fact itself. Television not only reports political happenings, it enters actively into the political process. That is, either because of bias or for a good story, television so reports the political process that it influences and becomes a crucial part of the political process itself. A good example was Walter Cronkite's part in orchestrating the Gerald Ford candidacy for Vice-President at the 1980 Republican Convention. We must realize that the communications media function much like the unelected federal bureaucracy. They are so powerful that they act as if they were the fourth branch of government in the United States. Charles Peters, editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly, in his book How Washington Really Works, writes that the media, instead of exposing the "make believe" of the federal government, are "part of the show." Television (and the communications media in general) thus are not only reporting news, but making it. Their ability to change our perception of any event raises serious questions concerning the democratic processes. The solution is not the one Cronkite gives in his interview-perhaps changing to a political philosophy different from democracy. The solution is to limit somehow television's power to use its bias in “the editorial” reporting of events, and most specifically to keep it from shaping the political process. Lord willing, we will continue looking at the topic of The Humanist Religion in our next episode.
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