Category Archives: Paradigm Shifts

November 1, 2021 · 7:54 pm

Handling a Cultural Shift

The Introduction

Today is one of those transitional days.  We are honoring our dads and their influences in our lives, and we are closing out spring and moving into true summer.  It is interesting how we mark our calendars and how pivotal days like today keep us connected to traditions and guides us through our lives.  If we seem so glued to our calendars, then how come things change?

Most of you know that I took a vacation–a pandemic-delayed vacation.  This trip was never one I had considered, but my close friend encouraged or pushed me to go to Disney World.  (It did not help that my daughter joined her efforts.)  

Still, this trip demonstrated to me that I had been unaware of a cultural shift that was playing out in front of me.  I had not been in a setting outside of our local community for well over two years, primarily because of the pandemic.  I had not stepped outside of my culture and looked at the larger, global culture until I spent these days people watching.

What did I see?  Certainly, I saw an environment that focused on fun, but I saw much more.  I saw families in an entirely new light.  The families came in all shapes, sizes, and cultures.  The stereotypical Midwest family image with which I grew up and worked around has become redefined; and after a week, I am glad to report that it is better than my own preset image.

One morning I woke up to a dream and a new insight because I realized that we are undergoing a cultural shift in defining the family, but maybe more specifically a shift in the roles of the 21st century parents. A cultural shift is nothing new, but the evolution can be so slow we fail to acknowledge it and then inadvertently do not understand it–maybe even fight it whether good or bad.

Today, I am going to share some of the evidence I witnessed and then relate it to how God is always present with us, even when we are in the midst of a cultural shift.

I suggest that you have your favorite Bible at hand as well as notetaking supplies.  You may need to make a note to read more details or to ask questions as we dig deeper into God’s presence during a cultural shift.  Let us ask God for understanding:

Dear Loving Father,

Open our minds to your wisdom preserved in scripture.

Open our hearts as we seek to understand your presence.

Open our eyes that we may see you in the lives of others.  –Amen

The Message

            Throughout these months of the pandemic, the term pod has become synonymous with that of family.  The CDC has encouraged us to stay within our close-knit family and friends.  Certainly, the family are those living under the same roof; but as the months of shutdown continued, the boundaries of our homes began to shift and the term pod became more common.  Pods grew to include close friends and then even our working peers.  Our culture shifted and is shifting.

            In the Bible, the first five books lay out the beginning history and even the laws that the Israelites were to follow as they managed the challenges of living faithfully among pagan followers.  The Israelites were those who followed God, lived by his laws, and worked together in maintaining that close relationship with God.

            In the selection from Deuteronomy 11:18-21 we read about the Laws of Moses, and these verses are just a small piece of the laws:

18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem[a] on your forehead. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.  –NRSV

            As the generations of the Israelites continued, the success of their faithfulness was challenged.  The culture was tribal and the laws that developed were to keep the tribes together and to define the various roles of those within the tribes.  

For instance, there are 11 tribes, and each one has a specific geographical location, but the 12th tribe is that of the Levites.  The Levites were the priests and could not hold property.  They lived to serve the other tribes in the practices of worship–which included the sacrifices and distribution of food from those sacrifices as outlined in the laws.

The tribal culture provided order for the people and the laws created became more and more specific, challenges to the culture came from other cultures’ attacks.  When the Israelites were overpowered by the pagan cultures, they were often taken in as slaves.  The challenge then became how to maintain the faithful God-centered culture while living among pagans.

In Daniel, we see a model of how to live faithfully even among the pagans: 

8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal rations of food and wine; so he asked the palace master to allow him not to defile himself.  . . . 11 Then Daniel asked the guard . . . 12 “Please test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 You can then compare our appearance with the appearance of the young men who eat the royal rations, and deal with your servants according to what you observe.”  –NRSV

Even though captured by King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel remained faithful to his culture and led his friends Meshack, Shadrach and Abednego, demonstrating their culture’s diet is superior to that of even the pagan king’s personal diet.

Between these two Old Testament scriptures, we see how the ancient culture of the Israelites evolved.  No longer was the faithful bound by the tribal culture, now they could live their faith even among the pagans.  The culture was shifting, the faithful Israelites were adapting to new cultures while maintaining their own.

Of course, today’s cultural shift follows another shift outlined in the New Testament.  The global cultures continue to evolve as the influences from one culture meet other cultures.  As the travels of the ancient people continued to expand, the tribal culture and the ancient Law of Moses begin to evolve.  The evil influences become invasive and the Jewish religious leaders exercised control by adding more and more restrictive laws.  God saw a need to step in.

Jesus, God as man, is born and his purpose is to teach the people, not only the Jewish people, but all people, a new law: 

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.  –Matthew 7:12, NRSV

A cultural shift begins to evolve again.

As King David shared in Proverbs:  basic life instructions to preserve the God-centered culture of the Israelites:

1Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
    and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2 for I give you good precepts:
    do not forsake my teaching.  –Proverbs 4:1-2, NRSV

Now Jesus began teaching the new law of the faithful.  He lived his message teaching the disciples how to love one another, how to shift the culture away from the minute, excessive, restrictive laws the Jewish leaders had created over the generations.  One simple law encompasses all other laws:  love one another.

            The culture shifted.  In three short years of ministry, Jesus moved the faithful into a new structure for everybody.  The culture of the Israelites simplified as the global influences broke down geographical boundaries, peoples moved in and out of other cultures.  

            Today, we see how effective following Jesus’ one law has changed the global community.  What started as a movement in one small region along the Mediterranean Coast grew.  The faithful disciples continued Jesus’ work and the Christian faith expanded in all directions until it wrapped around this globe.

            So why do I believe we are in a cultural shift?  The pandemic has forced us to stop and re-evaluate our lives.  First, we lived within the geographical boundaries of our houses, then slowly expanded to our immediate neighbors, and grew into tight-knit pods of those with whom we live, eat, work, and play.  The boundaries were defined physically, but the human relationships defined the pods. 

We discovered that our faith family no longer was simply those who met once a week in a church sanctuary to worship together as we began worshipping with a global community through the internet.  

We redefined our definition of family as a pod.  Now a pod may have been a small group that maintained its connection through Zoom and then, thanks to masks and vaccinations, slowly became that close-knit pod meeting in person once more.  The faith community has evolved into a new culture, just as our families have.  

This brings me back to my vacation.  As we moved into the airports, we witnessed a culture shift.  Pods sat together.  Close inspection of the pods showed families, but also working teams, small groups such as a Christian school taking the seniors on a trip.  

The next step was to reach Disney World itself where I saw a new culture unfolding before my eyes.  I witnessed new family structures.  I watched parental roles shift.  I found hope.  I found compassion.  I found a world where Jesus’ commandment was being lived out each loving one another as they want to be loved.

“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.  –Matthew 7:12 from the Message translation

What proof did I have that our 21st century culture is living out the Golden Rule.  Well, the temperature on those days at Disney World averaged about 93 degrees.  We carried water bottles and all the travel blogs assured visitors would be able to get fresh water simply by asking.

            At one point, my friend asked a server for a glass of ice water–the reply was no, but she could go over to another line and ask for it over there.  Not wanting to disrupt that line, we found a spot around the corner and managed.  While sitting there, a young couple spotted us, came up and gave her a bottle of cold water.  They said they heard the server tell her no, so bought one for her, not knowing exactly where we had landed.  They sought us out, they paid it forward.  They loved as they wanted to be loved.

            The culture shifted.  There is a culture existing within a pandemic that does look out for one another.  There are young people being trained by parents and pods that are stepping forward to love one another as Jesus asks us to do.

            Today we are returning to life as we knew it pre-pandemic.  But I am confident that the pandemic did not suddenly, artificially impose a cultural shift.  As I walked the various parks, 

  • I saw generations loving one another.  (even using the circumstances to make the gender reveal)
  • I saw blended families loving one another.  
  • I saw multicultural families walking and laughing together.  
  • I saw mixed gender couples, even with children, walking freely among the masses without fear, without guilt.  
  • I saw strangers treating others as pod members standing in lines trying to manage fussy kids, and the newly-created friendships for the moment working together to make the vacation memorable.
  • I witnessed a cultural shift.

            How did this happen?  I firmly believe that the parables we have in the New Testament have taught us how to live God’s love for one another.  I believe that we have fathers who have discovered the value of being fully engaged in the teaching of Christian values to their families–another cultural shift.

            The fathers walking with their wives and the kids do not follow the stereotypes of fathers I grew to know.  The role of father is now as equal as that of the mothers.  The fathers carry the babies.  The fathers walk the kids to the restroom.  One father allowed his toddler daughter to put lipstick on him even though it missed and hit the cap.  Fathers play openly with the kids.

            Maybe my stereotypes are just mine, but I believe that when Jesus used the parables, he was trying to break stereotypes.  Jesus wanted us to see each other just as we see ourselves.  As I witnessed a shift in cultural stereotypes, I am reminded of the parable of the blind leading the blind:

“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.–Luke 6:39-42, NRSV  

Those days of walking around the various parks, watching the mingling of peoples, I found that my own stereotypes were making me blind to the cultural shifts that have continued to evolve even and maybe even assisted by a pandemic.

            In Matthew 15, the parable of the blind leading the blind is wrapped in the middle of another lesson from Jesus.  The restrictive laws for the Jewish diet were challenged when Jesus and his disciples broke some of the laws as they ate together.  The Jewish leaders were offended and challenged Jesus.  A cultural shift was needed, and it includes a warning for us yet today as we teach our next generation:

10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”  . . . 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” 16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

Today is Father’s Day, and as I have thought about the vacation and what I witnessed, I know that Jesus’ parables provide us with the very rules for establishing new cultural standards away from the name-calling, bullying, angry, hateful behaviors we have watched our pre-pandemic world had become.

            Maybe the pandemic slowed us down, forced us to reevaluate how we have been living, and showed us that we can raise our families to love one another and to love others outside our pod just as we want to live.  We must not continue leading by outdated laws, outdated stereotypes, instead we must be the leaders in our community showing those who are blind God’s love.  

We need to re-evaluate how we speak and act in front of our children–not just those in our homes, but to our community’s children.  We need to speak in words loaded with love, grace, and compassion.  We need to live our faith openly by our actions so future generations will model those same behaviors breaking stereotypes that restrict us from living in Christian community with each other.

Our culture is shifting, and God depends on us to teach one another in our families, in our pods, and across the globe the one commandment:  love one another as you want to be loved.

Even as Jesus led the ancient people in a cultural shift, we continue to use our Heavenly Father’s words to learn how to live out God’s one commandment through the parables.  In Proverbs, David goes on to clarify that a father’s–earthly and heavenly–instruction brings wisdom 

“Let your heart hold fast my words;
    keep my commandments, and live.
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
    from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
    love her, and she will guard you.  –Proverbs 4:4-6, NRSV

            As we end today, think about the way cultures have shifted since the scriptures began sharing the story of God’s faithful.  The words share our Heavenly Father’s wisdom, and our earthly fathers, mothers and more help us keep God-centered even as the culture evolves–we are all part of God’s world.  Please join me in prayer:

Dear Omnipotent Father,

Guide each of us to follow Jesus’ teachings

so the words of our mouths speak love

   to one another.

Open our eyes to the world around us

so we may see your love in action.

Let each of us grow in faith

so we may be the agents of change,

teaching our children to love one another.

Let us be the agents of change

working to expand your kingdom

even here on earth.  –Amen

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November 1, 2021 · 7:42 pm

Examining the Church Family 2021

Introduction

Last week we focused on the family of faith through a look at our parents–the mothers and the fathers.  Today, we are going to step away from the nucleus family and consider the aunts, uncles, and even cousins in our lives.  

Therefore, let’s begin getting to know our extended family.  Here is what I suspect you mentally picture (shared the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving artwork).  Admittedly this picture certainly does not reflect the true images most 21st Century family gatherings, in fact, a search for this picture shares some more contemporary versions.  These choices may more honestly show what happens around the table today (suggest googling the Rockwell image).

We have all grown up with very different versions of family and our holiday meals are ever evolving.  There is no formal definition or any way possible to provide all the variations of a huge family gathering.  Our mobile society and the dramatic changes our culture has absorbed cannot define family in one image.  Instead it is a myriad of images.  Check out this screen shot from a google search of this painting:

Each one of us can pull out family photos and sort through them to find images of family gatherings.  This time of year, the family reunions are beginning, along with summer barbecues or weekends at the lake that bring us all closer to those in our lives who have helped shape our faith journey.  Sometimes it can be for the negative and sometimes it is the positive.  Today, let’s consider who is our extended faith family even if it more than our aunts, uncles and cousins.  Then let’s think how we, too, are the aunts, uncles, and cousins of others.  Are we the extended faith family for others?

Before we begin, I suggest that you have your Bibles ready and some notetaking supplies.  Who knows, you may even want to draw out a family faith tree as we share this morning:

Let us pause, clear our minds, and begin with a prayer:

   Dear Heavenly Father, 

When you created man and woman,

      you began building faith families.

Today we know some have fond memories

     and some have painful memories of families.

Guide us to see the aunts, uncles and cousins

     who guide us in our faith journey.

Let us learn how to guide others

     along their journey, too.  

Open our hearts and minds

     to forgive, to thank, and to grow.  Amen.

The Message

The family who sits around our dinner tables are certainly the ones who have the most immediate influence on us.  We discussed the role of the nuclear family, our mothers and fathers, last week, today we expand that dinner table to those beyond the immediate household.  We consider our extended family including aunts, uncles and cousins who contributed to our faith journeys.

As I began reviewing scriptures, I was surprised to discover very few specific references to aunts, uncles, and cousins.  In fact, after googling “Biblical uncles” the first entry said there are only 19 references to uncles in the Bible.  Of course, I had to follow up with another google of “Biblical aunts” and learned from the same source that there are only three direct references to aunts.

The Old Testament references show how the tribal structure provided for the safety and the social welfare of families.  The very structure of the nuclear family shifted when someone needed protection or there was a death of a parent.  The influences of aunts, uncles, and cousins was an evolving process and not all influences were positive as the scriptures share the challenges families faced.  Still these ancient stories share the lessons in faith to guide us in our faith journeys.

Certainly, Genesis sets the groundwork for the stories of faith as it explains the origins of the family, but it also shows how human conflict can upset the relationships.  We recognize how temptations, greed and other sinful behaviors can disrupt one’s relationship with God.  Proverbs 11:29 puts it clearly:  

Those who bring trouble on their families inherit the wind.
    The fool will be a servant to the wise.  –NLT

The story about Jacob and his maternal uncle Laban is an example of a relationship with an uncle that began as a way to find safety and led to the creation of Jacob’s family:

12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.

13 When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!”   –Genesis 29:12-13, NRSV

The kinship is the framework for the story, but the faith model is that of Jacob, not the uncle.  Laban tricked Jacob into marrying the oldest daughter Leah after Jacob faithfully worked for him seven years to marry Rachel.  The story continues as Jacob agrees to work for Laban another seven years to have Rachel as a wife also.   

The extended family of faith may have set the stage for Jacob’s journey to continue, but the key message is his faith and reliance on God sustained him as he worked to have Rachel for a wife and also serves as the bridge for the ongoing story of the Israelites as God’s chosen ones.

Other Old Testament stories develop the faith journey of the Israelites.  One is the story of Joash and his uncle Jehoiada.  Jehoiada was one of the Levite priests who identified Joash as the age of seven to be the anointed king of the Israelites, protected him, trained him, and even found his wives as is summarized in 2 Chronicles 24:1-3: 

Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother was Zibiah from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest. 3 Jehoiada chose two wives for Joash, and he had sons and daughters.  –NLT

The story of Esther also shows how the family relationship can strengthen one’s resolve to remain true to God. Her biological family was Jewish; and when her parents died, her cousin Mordecai adopted her.  When it came time for the pagan king to find a queen, Mordecai positioned her to be among those from which the king would choose.  The king was pagan, and when he tried to destroy the Jewish people, Esther risked her life to intercede–which she did succeed in doing.

Shifting to the New Testament, the first reference in the gospel to extended family members, other than the genealogical list from Matthew, is the relationship of Mary to her kin Elizabeth.  We learn from the birth story that Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist the cousin to Jesus Christ.  

The support that Elizabeth provides Mary exemplifies the unconditional love that exists among members of an extended family.  There were no questions between these two women as to the peculiar nature of their pregnancies.  There was love.  There was trust.  Their faith in God gave them the strength to manage the circumstances of their two sons.

Scripture provides us examples of how the family of faith can guide and nurture us in our own faith journey.  I challenge each of you to stop for a moment and try listing those individuals in your life who guided you into your relationship with God and have influenced you to live your faith so that others witness it in your daily life.

My aunts and uncles included great-aunts and uncles and cousins who lived in close proximity:  my maternal grandparents lived about six miles away and my paternal grandparents left the farm about a mile and a half away moving into town eight miles away and my aunt and her family moved onto the farm.  A few other families whose farms were connected along the gravel roads between our farms became our ‘adopted’ cousins and also influenced my faith journey.

Most of these extended families were members of the Buell United Methodist Church or they attended church regularly in Montgomery or Bellflower.  This extended family demonstrated their faith in God by their habits, by the table grace before each meal, by the way they tilled the land and cared for the livestock, by the way they handled droughts, Army worms, financial difficulties, and relationships.  God was as much part of their daily life as the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.

As you stop and remember those in your extended family, whether blood kin or not, you realize the person you are is made up of the influences from these individuals.  You are connected to the family of faith not only by their faith in God, but also by their love and their actions.  You also realize that your faith journey continues and you have added in the pieces of others you value in your life.  You, too, have “adopted aunts, uncles, and cousins” who make up your family of faith.

When Paul began his missionary work, he met strangers who became his extended family as they became believers in Jesus Christ.  These people became the founders of the church working side by side with Paul and others who heard the good news.  Two of his disciples were Timothy and Titus.  

He taught them how to continue in ministry even while he sat in prison.  We, too, have had teachers in our lives who guided us into the individuals we are, but Paul’s words to Titus list the very behaviors we are to learn, to practice, and to teach faith to future generations.

Today, stop and evaluate your own faith and behaviors.  Ask yourself, “Am I living my life in a way that I, too, am teaching others about the value of God in my life?  Am I someone else’s faith aunt, uncle or cousin?”

Hear these words from Paul as he teaches Titus:

2 As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching. 2 Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience.

3 Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. . . .  4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, 5 to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

6 In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. 7 And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. 8 Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us . . .”  –NLT   

As summer begins, our kids get out of school, families begin to travel, and the CDC has allowed us to remove masks–if, you are fully vaccinated–especially while outside and away from crowds, we need to take some time to evaluate our faith journey.  What do we need to do to strengthen our own faith, but also, what do we need to do to guide others in their own faith journey?

Summer is a time of renewal and growth.  Take some time to read scripture, listen, and hear God speak to you.  Which of your faith family read scripture?  Which ones spoke to God?  Which aunts, uncle or cousin stepped out to serve one another?  Which ones, even outside your kinfolk, lived their faith openly making a difference in your life?

Use the coming season to strengthen your faith so you, too, live that others in your extended family may know Jesus Christ.

Join me in prayer:

Dear loving and guiding Father, 

Thank you for the stories and words of scripture

guiding us in the best ways to live a faith-filled life.

Thank you for the aunts, uncles and cousins

who have strengthened our own faith.

Thank you for those who have touched our lives

and made us the Christians we are by their example.

Speak to us so we, too, may help others

along their faith journeys.

Push us to answer your call to be disciples

doing all we can to share the good news

that Christ died to take away our sin

and lead us into a life eternal.  –Amen

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February 16, 2018 · 3:47 pm

Enough is Enough: School shootings

I just sent off a letter to the editor at the KC Star.  Sometimes I just have enough.  Even though I already posted once this morning, I turned to the electronic of the KC Star and could not stop thinking about what has happened in Florida.  I can’t let this slide.  I can’t say enough about how change is needed.  Therefore, here is one of my entries I am calling Enough is Enough.  Please share if you agree.

 

Seeing Florida mom Lori Alhadeff’s outrage pains me and justifiably so.  The raw emotion should trigger the entire country’s sense of enough is enough. She rightfully screamed into the camera and asked that our country fix a problem that cannot be ignored another day, another week, another month.   

As a retired teacher, I hear the news and cringe.  I know the faces of the students, and I know them personally.  I may have taught in the Midwest, but that does not lessen the outrage I feel as the long litany of school shootings continues.
Young people carrying guns in backpacks is simply unacceptable.  Young people in school must focus on preparing for the adult world being educated how to learn, how to question, how to create, how to dream.  Schools must be filled with teachers and administrators focused on teaching the individual to the best of that student’s ability.
Our society is out of time.
Stop reacting and start shifting the paradigm now.
Education has become a numbers game:  educating all students as a mass, not as indviduals.
Education must value the students each as an individual at all cost.  And yes, it will cost; but we must not allow the cost to slam the door shut on the country’s future.
Enough is enough!

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January 13, 2016 · 2:20 pm

Journalism’s Paradigm Shift?

Paradigms are long held beliefs that become truths in our lives.  This week I have been considering some of the paradigms that have been shattered, cracked, replaced, or altered.  One really disturbs me this week and that is the definition or JOURNALISM.

Trained as a journalist at the University of Missouri graduating in 1976 with a BJ in news ed, I am offended by what has evolved in the profession.  This week, I have become incensed enough to speak out.

Journalism is–now was–a profession that served as a watchdog for the public.  The journalist was trained to maintain objectivity, honesty, and fair play.  In the past 15 years, the profession has deteriorated.

This week one of the oldest programs in journalism sent its entire anchor team to attend the Golden Globes.  The amount of time and money this production commanded may seem appropriate but I disagree.

The emphasis professional journalists now place on following the Hollywood characters now places them into an entirely different career category.  The journalists are now part of the paparazzi.  Journalists are even being marketed as Hollywood personalities themselves becoming part of the story they are suppose to be covering.

The pride I had in earning my journalism degree from MU has now dwindled as I witness the deterioration of the profession.  At a time when the political parties are failing the constituents and the government is seldom a unifying factor for the people, journalism needs to serve as the fourth branch of the government once again.

The journalism profession must repair its image.  The journalists must check themselves that they are maintaining the Canons of Journalism rather than destroying the integrity of the profession.

During the Spanish-American War, the term yellow journalism described the less ethical  behaviors of journalists.  During early 20th century, many journalists formed the paradigm of journalism that established a trust between the public and the reporters.  Now, what does the public do?  Who can the public trust?  Can the profession rebuild its character and regain public trust?

A challenge:  Journalism schools must evaluate how thoroughly the canons are taught.  Checking sources must be required.  Professors and Editors must accept the responsibility to require veracity, check sources, and insist on quality final products.

I long to tout the journalism profession once again.  I need to find reasons to proudly declare myself as a trained journalist, a trained educator, and now a UMC local pastor.  These three professions can co-exist as long as the foundation is ethically maintained and the purpose is to maintain the democratic culture which birthed journalism.  The paradigm needs to be maintained even though the methods of communicating the news continue to improve so everybody has

The Canons of Journalism:  [Accessed on January 13, 2016 at http://ethics.iit.edu/ecodes/node/4457.%5D

American Society of Newspaper Editors (1923)

The primary function of newspapers is to communicate to the human race what its members do, feel and think. Journalism, therefore, demands of its practitioners the widest range of intelligence, or knowledge, and of experience, as well as natural and trained powers of observation and reasoning. To its opportunities as a chronicle are indissolubly linked its obligations as teacher and interpreter.

To the end of finding some means of codifying sound practice and just aspirations of American journalism, these canons are set forth:

I. RESPONSIBILITY: The right of a newspaper to attract and hold readers is restricted by nothing but considerations of public welfare. The use a newspaper makes of the share of public attention it gains serves to determine its sense of responsibility, which it shares with every member of its staff. A journalist who uses his power for any selfish or otherwise unworthy purpose is faithless to a high trust.

II. FREEDOM OF THE PRESS: Freedom of the press is to be guarded as a vital right of mankind. It is the unquestionable right to discuss whatever is not explicitly forbidden by law, including the wisdom of any restrictive statute.

III. INDEPENDENCE: Freedom from all obligations except that of fidelity to the public interest is vital.

1. Promotion of any private interest contrary to the general welfare, for whatever reason, is not compatible with honest journalism. So-called news communications from private sources should not be published without public notice of their source or else substantiation of their claims to value as news, both in form and substance.

2. Partisanship, in editorial comment which knowingly departs from the truth, does violence to the best spirit of American journalism; in the news columns it is subversive of a fundamental principle of the profession.

IV. SINCERITY, TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY: Good faith with the reader is the foundation of all journalism worthy of the name.

1. By every consideration of good faith a newspaper is constrained to be truthful. It is not to be excused for lack of thoroughness or accuracy within its control, or failure to obtain command of these essential qualifies.

2. Headlines should be fully warranted by the contents of the articles which they surmount.

V. IMPARTIALITY: Sound practice makes clear distinction between news reports and expressions of opinion. News reports should be free from opinion or bias of any kind.

1. This rule does not apply to so-called special articles unmistakably devoted to advocacy or characterized by a signature authorizing the writer’s own conclusions and interpretation.

VI. FAIR PLAY: A newspaper should not publish unofficial charges affecting reputation or moral character without opportunity given to the accused to be heard ; right practice demands the giving of such opportunity in all cases of serious accusation outside judicial proceedings.

1. A newspaper should not involve private rights or feeling without sure warrant of public right as distinguished from public curiosity.

2. It is the privilege, as it is the duty, of a newspaper to make prompt and complete correction of its own serious mistakes of fact or opinion, whatever their origin.

DECENCY: A newspaper cannot escape conviction of insincerity if while professing high moral purpose it supplies incentives to base conduct, such as are to be found in details of crime and vice, publication of which is not demonstrably for the general good- Lacking authority to enforce its canons the journalism here represented can but express the hope that deliberate pandering to vicious instincts will encounter effective public disapproval or yield to the influence of a preponderant professional condemnation.

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