Don’t Fear Jezebel’s Algorithm

November 6, 2025November 1, 2025Todd R 1 Comment

Sometimes we can get frustrated with the way the media, either traditional or social, seems to ignore or block out positive stories about God or Christianity. Online networks like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook can be very efficient at this, using complex algorithms to filter information, but on top of that human editors can intervene and block users they decide don’t fit their “community standards.” However, resistance to spreading God’s word is as old as time, and God has never needed the assistance of any kind of media to accomplish what He wants to accomplish.

Consider the Old Testament story of Elijah, who prophesied during the reign of Israel’s evil king Ahab and his wife Jezebel. According to Who’s Who in the Bible, “Jezebel devoted herself to bringing the worship of Baal and his consort Asherah to Israel. She employed 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophetesses of Asherah (1 Kings 18:19), and persecuted the prophets of the Lord, including Elijah (1 Kings 19:1-9).”[1] Many prophets were killed.

Elijah despaired, as written in 1 Kings 19:10 – “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” It was as if all Christian voices but Elijah had been silenced by the authorities, and even he couldn’t feel safe.

Apostles also struggled to stay strong, including Paul. When he was frustrated at resistance and lack of progress in Corinth, “the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”[2]

When Paul needed an example to encourage others to persist, he used Elijah’s story in Romans 11:2 – “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.’ But what is God’s reply to him? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’” Corinth seemed like a lost cause, but God reminded Paul not to trust his own judgment. God had it under control.

Therefore, our hope is not in the editors of our newspaper, or in social networks where we can share God’s message, or in the benevolence of the programmers of algorithms that choose who sees what we post, or in the regulators and legislators who monitor the public square, or in the founding political documents that give us rights. But:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
            and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
            giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
            it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
            and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:10-11

Like Jezebel killing all the prophets while promoting Baal and Asherah, censorship of Christian content may seem to be everywhere. However, social network algorithms, editors, regulators, and governments are not our enemy, but our enemy is the one who tries to convince us we need these things more than we need the God who made them and who made us all. His word will accomplish its purpose, and we have Elijah’s and Paul’s words and actions as evidence.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” – Romans 8:31

[1] Gardner, Paul D., editor. The Complete Who’s Who in the Bible. (1995)
[2] Acts 18:9-10

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad News?

October 28, 2025October 26, 2025Todd R 7 Comments

One day when my son was almost 4, he greeted me at the door after work, crying, and said “mommy turned on CNN!” It wasn’t CNN in particular that was the problem. It could have been any network, and we watch a variety of news outlets in our house. While they each have their own point of view, the one thing they all seem to have in common is described in this 1974 quote from CBS journalist Eric Sevareid:

“The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television. It is the manufacture, refinement and distribution of anxiety.”

It’s a sad truth that news outlets know that if they get an emotional response from us, we’re more likely to keep watching, which is how they make money. This is nothing new. They also know we’re more likely to respond to bad news than good news. It’s sometimes enough to make anyone cry, not just a 3-year-old.

The problem also has a lot to do with the subjects covered. Much of what’s in the news has to do with politics, which reminds me of this 1923 quote from H.L. Mencken:

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

Just like anxiety is big business for the media, keeping us “alarmed” is big business for politicians because if they can make us terrified of something and present themselves as the only solution, they can keep us hooked to their side, sometimes for life. They’re after our undying allegiance and if fear of the enemy is what gets that allegiance, then fear of our enemy is what they’ll create. The bigger the hobgoblin the better, even if it’s bad for the viewer’s health.

However, we don’t have to be anxious and alarmed by everything we see in the news. Psalm 112:7 describes a particular sort of person:

“He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.” – Psalm 112:7

Who is this fortunate person? Does this person really exist in this hyper-partisan, 24-hour news cycle world? The author (unnamed) begins Psalm 112 with this verse:

“Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commandments!”

So, who is not afraid of bad news? The one who fears the LORD and delights in His commands. With God’s help, we can overcome the fear and anxiety generated by our politicians and their media outlets.

The “man who fears the Lord” knows that God is capable of overcoming these problems, and if there’s something wrong in the world there’s a reason for it. He’s in control. They not only know that He is capable, but also that only He is capable. No politician can do everything they promise to do, including getting rid of the hobgoblins. Sometimes political promises are so outlandish that believing them would amount to idolatry. Only God will keep all of His promises and can handle all of the world’s bad news. If we really believe this, we will not be afraid of bad news.

The one who “greatly delights in his commandments” knows that nowhere does God command us to address every problem we’re aware of, everywhere in the world. Nowhere does God command us to swear blind allegiance to any politician who warns us of “an endless series of hobgoblins,” because only He can ultimately deliver us. They know that although God commands us to love our neighbor, we all have limits in what we are able to do. But the person in Psalm 112:1 also knows that we have no excuse to ignore the problems we can address. We don’t need to have anxiety about things we can do nothing about, because nothing escapes God’s attention and in His commands to His people, He has considered all possibilities.

So, does the news cause you alarm and anxiety? If you do, you’re definitely not alone. I struggle with it. The solution can be found in cultivating a deeper relationship with, and reverent fear of, the Lord. Spend regular time in the word, rather than in the TV, to build confidence in God’s character. Spend time praying and meditating, sharing with God your concerns. Spend time with God’s people and avoid rabid political partisans who draw your attention away from God’s peace to the hobgoblins and the pretend saviors. It’s hard, because there’s an entire industry designed to make us fearful and anxious. But over time, while we may take 2 steps forward and one step back, we always know that He is with us.

Does the news not cause you alarm and anxiety? Count yourself blessed. But for all of us:

“Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commandments!”

A Hot Take on Hot Takes?

August 29, 2025August 27, 2025Todd R 3 Comments

Of the millions (or billions? Trillions?) of new things published on the internet every day, a lot of it falls into the category of a “hot take,” defined by Merriam-Webster as “a quickly produced, strongly worded, and often deliberately provocative or sensational opinion or reaction (as in response to current news).” I have to admit I sometimes get jealous when I see the amount of attention this stuff gets (and feel guilty when I click on it and read it).

In many of these hot takes, the writer is stating an opinion about the future, but of course nobody knows the future. Can wisdom be based on knowledge of the future? The author of Ecclesiastes seems to say no:

“A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be after him?”[1]

Since “no man knows what is to be,” it would seem that “I don’t know the future” is a better starting point for wisdom than “I have a strong opinion about what’s going to happen next.” Talking a lot about something where the starting point is wrong is foolish. Unfortunately, it’s the best way to get attention and make money online in our modern culture. Wisdom is out of style.

How much time and effort is put into predicting sports, politics, and many other things with no evaluation of accuracy or value? Imagine if people on the internet were held to the standard Old Testament prophets were supposed to be held to: “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

Nowadays we hardly keep track of whether people’s opinions and predictions are right or wrong. We just enjoy tossing entertaining opinions around. We prefer provocative and interesting over correct and useful, or wise. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, made a great point when he said: “The news media has decided that the way to arrive at neutrality is to put two opposing voices together and let them yell at each other.” That’s entertainment, I guess.

Anyway, you won’t see many “hot takes” here, and I’ll just have to be satisfied with fewer clicks and follows.

To do otherwise would be foolish according to Ecclesiastes, which was written with the assistance of Someone who does know the future.

(PS. This post was “quickly produced”)

[1] Ecclesiastes 10:14