When Bad News is Good News
Why does MinistryWatch publish so much "bad" news?
OPINION—One of the most common complaints I get here at MinistryWatch is this: “Why do you publish so much bad news?”
It is a complaint I take seriously. It deserves a response. Mine usually includes the fact that we in fact publish a lot of what some would consider “good news.” Each week our “Ministries Making A Difference” column features Christian groups doing good work in the world, and we often do features on great ministries doing good work.
However, I admit that we publish a lot of what some would call “bad news.” After all, news—by its very nature—often involves mishap, calamity, conflict, or some other form of brokenness.
Given that, here are a few key ideas that drive us here at MinistryWatch, ideas I hope you will think add up to a good, biblical answer to why we publish “bad” news.
God commands us to “name the animals.” One of the first jobs God gave Adam in the Garden of Eden was to name the animals. Theologians and philosophers have said this is one of the key moments in human history. It was the moment God said to us that our words matter. It was the moment we came to understand that our words have a direct relationship to reality. It was the moment God told us to tell the truth about the world.
It’s important to note that this command to name the animals came before The Fall. There was no “bad news” to tell. But the command to tell the truth, to rightly name the animals, did not disappear as a result of The Fall. If anything, this work becomes even more important.
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Thou shalt not bear false witness. The Ten Commandments is a milestone in human history. Revealed through Moses around the year 1450 B.C., it is one of the earliest legal codes known to man. Central to that code is the command to tell the truth, not “to bear false witness.” We must tell the truth about the world, no matter how broken it is. Indeed, the more broken it becomes, the more important it is to tell the truth about it.
You shall be a watchman on the wall. Ezekiel 3:17-19 says, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” It’s important that we not take scripture out of context. Just because God set watchmen over Israel more than 2000 years ago, doesn’t mean I can “claim” this verse to validate my behavior today. However, this verse does demonstrate that in a broken world, we must be wise. This verse and many others make plain that diligent watchfulness is necessary if we are to guard the peace, purity, and unity of the church.
“The truth will set you free.” This verse, John 8:32, is one of the most famous in Scripture. But do we really believe it? The only acceptable answer for a Christian is: “yes.” But if we really believe the truth will set us free, we must also accept the implications of that question. One of those implications is that hiding the truth, or failing to tell the truth, or avoiding the truth, are all great evils. Yes, the tone we use to tell the truth matters a great deal. But failing to tell the truth is, quite simply, not an option for Christians.
Expose “evil deeds of darkness.” Ephesians 5:11 says, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” I’m not sure how much more plain Scripture can be than that. Right about now, we should be saying to ourselves: How many different ways does God need to tell us something before we hear it?
“Write down what you see.” These were the words of Jesus to John at the beginning of the Book of Revelation. Jesus did not say, “Write down only the good stuff, or only the stuff that makes sense to you, or the stuff that you think would make the best story, or the stuff that you think others will like the most.” If we are going to tell the truth about the world, we have to do the same: We must write down what we see. Telling the truth about a broken world means that some of what we see will be painful and uncomfortable. That discomfort is the cost of knowing the truth.
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So I try to be patient when someone tells me that we should print only “good news” here at MinistryWatch. The truth is: in a strange sense, we agree. I do want to print the good news, and only good news.
But that means I also can’t leave out any important parts of the good news. The recent Easter season reminded me of this duty. Easter caused me to reflect on the question: “Why do we call the day on which Jesus died ‘Good Friday?’” I could make the case that it was not a good day at all. Indeed, I could make a strong case that it was the worst of days.
Yet throughout church history we have called this horrible day “good.” Why? In part, of course, because Jesus’ death was not the end of the story. As a famous sermon has it: “Sunday’s a-coming.”
But it’s more than that. I think an equally vital reason is this: For us to truly embrace the Gospel, to truly understand the magnitude of God’s grace, we must face the horrors of the crucifixion. The crucifixion forces us to confront the depravity, the ruin, the chaos that our own rebellion against God has caused. The grace of God is cheapened by a sentimental, inauthentic account of the brokenness of the world.
The reason the Gospel is good news is not because it makes us feel good, but because it offers the truest, most authentic story of the world. When we understand that, we come to understand that bad news can be good news indeed.
