Earlier this week a number of you may have noticed that our local paper carried a story, with an above-the-fold headline, in which they said that a Christ Church elder was in the process of buying the old grain silos downtown. Now it wouldn’t be our local paper if they hadn’t gotten some things wrong, and other things correct, just to keep us guessing. But the overall point of the article was clearly malevolent, bigoted, and measured by their own standards of righteousness, illegal.
How should we respond to this kind of thing? Fortunately, the Bible tells us how to respond when we are misrepresented. We are explicitly told to rejoice, and to be exceedingly glad about it (Matt. 5:12). That’s the first thing. God is always in control. That never changes.
Second, pray for Andrew and Elise. They have a great perspective on it, in line with what I just said, but at the same time it is never a picnic to go through this kind of thing. “That’ll teach you kirkers who want to bless your town—how dare you try to preserve a historic landmark?”
Third, keep your eye on the strategic ball, which means continuing to pray for New St. Andrew’s attempts to buy the old CJ’s building downtown in order to put a musical conservatory there. This article was clearly an attempt to poison that well, and to feed the conspiratorial mindset that unfortunately our local progressives have regressed into. So follow the CUP hearings, pray as requested, and show up if requested. Even though they want to poison the well, we can still keep our water clean.
And last, in light of all the above, maintain a robust and healthy sense of humor. Love God, love His Word, and roll with it.
“And last, in light of all the above, maintain a robust and healthy sense of humor. Love God, love His Word, and roll with it.”
Amen! Words of wisdom, indeed.
Isn’t there a specific verse against buying up large grain-storing buildings?
Just kidding, throwing in the sense of humor as requested. :)
Ha ha, good catch!
I think it’s okay as long as you don’t directly address your own soul in the second person.
Why not? “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” (Ps 41) “Bless the LORD, O my soul (Ps 103).” etc.
And from Martyn Lloyd-Jones (on “Spiritual Depression”??): The trouble is that instead of talking to our selves, we let our selves talk to us. J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p 13, on preaching to oneself as a good thing the Puritans taught him.
I am referencing Luke 12:16-21. In that context, you don’t want to be that guy. :-)
What was the actual issue with the article anyway? I tried googling it and one article seemed tame and neutral, the other started tame and neutral, then asked for a subscription to keep reading.
You can read the full text here: http://right-mind.us/christ-church-elder-to-buy-silos-property/
While nothing absolutely hysterical is said in that article, you can ask yourself how many news reports of real estate transactions normally tie a private person’s commercial activities to the church he’s involved with, and the real estate transactions that church has engaged in.
IOW, the private transactions of a member of Christ Church and the commercial transactions of Christ Church and NSA have nothing really to do with one another unless you already think in terms of a big Kirk conspiracy.
Mentioning Andrew’s affiliations in the article is not inappropriate. He is an elder at the church, and the church is a major institution in the Moscow community, for better or for worse. Very vaguely tying the purchase to the expansion plans of NSA seems like a greater offense.
Having lived in Moscow, it is clear that Christ Church is the second most important institution in town (distant second). And given the controversies in the past it worth noting what it’s officers are up to in the community.
Andrew is not on the NSA board (they said he was), so it was even further out of line to tie this purchase to the CJ’s building purchase by NSA . They were simply hoping to get people whipped up about it.
Every day in this country, elders at large churches engage in public, commercial transactions. How often do you think their church activities are mentioned in news reports about it? I can think of situations in my local community in which people known to be involved in large, wealthy, active churches engaged in business transactions, and it was not considered a legitimate thing to include in a news article about the business transaction. As it should not be, unless somehow they were acting on behalf of their churches. Yes, vaguely tying it to NSA’s expansion plans compounded the problem, but they… Read more »
I don’t buy it. It is normal for a small town paper to run articles about important property transactions and it is normal to include some biographic information about the purchaser. If it is rare to report on the eldership of the purchaser that is because it is considered less important than being treasurer at the local rotary club. Bully for Christ Church being a big enough deal in Moscow that it warrants inclusion. Also, the controversies surrounding Christ Church, Trinity Fest history conferences, etc. are of interest to much of the population. That makes what the elders are doing… Read more »
Hmmmm….I’ll back off. I Googled the circulation and the MPDN is a much smaller circulation publication than I had imagined. I can’t imagine my own small city newspaper doing such a thing as associating a businessman’s church affiliation with his business activities in a report on a commercial transaction, but I was imagining the MPDN as closer to “city newspaper” than “small town paper” on the spectrum, but it’s the reverse. I can better see it as being appropriate in that context. But as a separate issue, I don’t buy “controversy exists, therefore it’s a legitimate journalistic topic.” When mainstream… Read more »
Moscow and Pullman are very small towns. I enjoy old newspapers from my part of appalachia, and they often reported on who was eating dinner with who last week, or where the pastor went to Sunday dinner, minor gossip is a part of the newspaper tradition. With regards to the controversy question, I’m not sure I’m following you. Lots of people in Moscow are very anti-Christ Church and its effects on the local milleau. Lots of others are anti- the anti-Christ Church crowd (intoleristas as Doug refers to them). Some of the past stuff is too sensational for local newspapers… Read more »
I’m sure Moscow’s culture wars are relevant topics for coverage.
Unfortunately, the Daily News is firmly on the side of the leftists, making it less “coverage” and more “agit-prop”.
The continued culture wars are a legitimate topic. Someone buying a property is not news unless there is a pre-existing assumption that the grand conspiracy to run the town from the session chamber is actually a thing, not merely that some people believe it is a thing. (Hence my flat earth comparison — reporting the news as though the flat earth theory should be given the time of day only makes sense if you either believe the the flat earth theory should be given credence, or you are you deliberately agitating the controversy.) Buying a property is not an act… Read more »
This is all rather confused now… My argument is: A: the sale of a historic property, and something of a landmark, is newsworthy for a small town newspaper. B: a biography of the purchaser of the property is appropriate, and leadership at Christ Church (a major local institution), and NSA (though this was apparently false reporting) are valid biographical items. C. due to past controversies and clashes between Christ Church and other local institutions (UI, city council, etc.) Additional “culture war” reporting is appropriate. I don’t think conspiracy mongering is appropriate, and I don’t agree with the slant of the… Read more »
It might help to have the context of a previous Daily News article from this year (http://right-mind.us/nsas-plan-for-expansion-reminds-us-of-a-battle-plan/) before deciding whether they are just reporting newsworthy events, or attempting to create the news.
The Daily Snooze is just sore that it was a Christian businessman who bought their old building, and turned it into something useful.
If the Daily News desires any street cred, they might want to leave out sour-grape, extraneous details like Christ Church members buying their old digs.
This kind of one-sided, lefty journalistic “investigating” is happening all over the country, not just Moscow. Kudos to you for standing up to it.