I admit to being carried along by the auto-accident-like atmosphere of the whole thing. It is very difficult once you get hooked on a news story like this one, which plays out way beyond its normal news cycle, to stop feeding into the media hype. It has become something horrific on the side of the road that we don't want to focus on, but can't seem to look away from.
Our "news" is now so far from anything newsworthy as to be unbelievable. We are no better than medieval mobs chasing a fellow villager and crying out for blood. We now do this for entertainment and sport! Now some of the jurors are fleeing Florida for their lives because the public's taste for blood has been fed by the media to the point where death threats have occurred for the jurors and the Anthonys alike.
What is needed now is Mercy. Jesus stopped the mob who was getting ready to stone the woman caught in adultery by reminding them that all sin. This trial and these people are real. They are not characters in a movie or a "reality" tv show. The same is true for any sensational news story that we hang onto--these are real people and they are crying out, as we all cry out, for God's tender mercies to be poured onto them like a healing balm.
Jesus came to heal and He came to cure. He expects us to do the same. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus showed his listeners that to participate in His healing ministry was more important than outwardly appearing religious and pious. Will we be stoning these sinners brought before us by our entertainment media, or will we be surrounding them in the soothing balm of Christ's love? To gather the strength necessary for such a mission, Jesus spent entire nights, hours and hours, in prayer. Perhaps it is time we turn away from our "entertainment" to the reality of God and His mercy and ask Him to come heal our broken world.
"Heal our broken world." Words to live by. 'We' broke it, ... not Him. Perhaps we should pray for the Grace to be able to heal the world 'we' messed up? It is a beautiful planet we have been blessed to live on and it sustains us ... if we live in balance and believe we are all one.
ReplyDeleteBoo on "sensationalizing" such stories.
"We broke it." Absolutely! We have messed up a lot of what God gave us--our relationships with each other being the primary thing, I think.
ReplyDeletewonderful post. i removed my posts on the anthony trial, and outcome. why? because i too was caught up in the media hype. people forget to turn to God when things get out of hand, and even fewer ask for His mercy to be bestowed upon the world.
ReplyDeleteif we'd all sit back, and think of exactly why Christ came to us, perhaps we'd remember that He has the greatest mercy of all.
If Christ Himself can show that woman mercy, why can't we? too many people are seeking vigilante justice against people that they believe have gotten away with something that normal people wouldn't do. yet, in so doing, they forget that what they are doing is a crime, and its no better than what the one they sought justice on allegedly did or didn't do.
we are so far removed from God in this day, and age that its sad. yet, as i posted on my blog last night, there is a sinner on death row that has repented for his crimes. this was a crime as i spoke of here, being a vigilante.
yet, where did he end up? on death row. he killed innocent people.
as he faces his death on wednesday, he has true remorese for his crimes.
can we not simply just sit back, take a breath, and focus on God, and His eternal mercy? if we all in this world would do so, then perhaps the world would not have strayed so far from God's love.
"can we not simply just sit back, take a breath, and focus on God, and His eternal mercy?"
ReplyDeleteI agree, Michele.
Jury duty isn't a lot of fun under any circumstance; putting trials on TV only makes it worse
ReplyDeleteI guess no one will put forward a bill saying *that*~!
ReplyDeleteEspecially not when the jury is sequestered and it is a murder trial. I served on a jury once and found it very fulfilling, but it was not a murder trial.
ReplyDeleteI agree that trials really shouldn't be televised.
Mercy is the key. I refused to watch the Anthony trial and avoided the news about it because it would have been a non-uplifting and distracting event for me. I agree with all who say that trials should not be televised. Justice was not done in the O.J. Simpson case because prosecutors were playing to the cameras.
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