How ‘Shock Media’ Shocks Us Into Desensitization
A Tuesday morning on a baseball field was perhaps the last place a group of Republican congressmen and their staff expected that an angry gunman would show up and change their lives forever.
But exactly that happened, and now, a week later, the country is still reeling from the attack and wondering if this is indeed what society has become.
Sam Rohrer, president of the American Pastors Network (APN, www.
“As our society becomes more secular and crass—and as headlines become more and more disturbing, such as the frightening shooting that targeted lawmakers and their aides on a baseball field in Alexandria, Va.—one of the places it shows up most and surprises us is in the media,” Rohrer wrote. “Recently, the Media Research Council published a survey declaring the majority of network television and cable outlets present negative material about the president as much as 90 percent of the time.
“The reason reporters ‘cook’ their stories,'” he continued, “is because they don’t want to obey the law or tell the truth. It starts with the fact they have no basis for objective, third-party unchanging standards for judging truth, such as the Bible, upon which our country was founded. Media reporters not having a basis for judging truth make up their own stories that may have nothing to do with the truth. In fact, they may be completely crafted for the sake of advocacy journalism that is anti-God or may fulfill a desire to tell stories that fit their worldview and desire for humanistic change.”
Rohrer added that occasionally, “artists” will present something to shock the world and get publicity for their “cause,” such as the recent bloody photograph from comedienne Kathy Griffin. But the “shock value” she was going for is not new; in 1987, a picture of a crucifix in urine by Andres Serrano showed the artist’s contempt for organized religion.
“Conservatives will strongly defend the First Amendment,” Rohrer said. “There’s no doubt. But when the shock experienced by the public is so strong as to offend adults and not take into account the tender consciences of children, common sense suggests it should be eliminated from public view. It contributes nothing to the positive forward movement of the society.
“Denying the existence of God, making fun of God-appointed authorities, offending the beliefs of millions of people and making any other source than the Bible the fountain of truth helps us to understand that all are born into sin and sin is in us from the start. What we’re simply seeing now in our society is the working out of depravity in the heart and mind as people decide to not recognize the jurisdiction and authority of God’s law and human law givers. It reveals itself as coming from the hearts, minds and hands of those who hate God enough to wish the death of any (or all) authority figures prescribed by our constitution. It also reveals people who have become their own god and who, by their works, dismiss the possibility of eternal punishment in hell that awaits them according to the Bible.”
Read Rohrer’s entire op-ed here.
