I saw a show on TV yesterday while getting ready for work about the "rigging" of some TV game shows early on in TV's history -- mid-50's I think it was.  Anyways, the show itself wasn't that shocking -- I mean nowadays we know that pretty much everything you see on TV is rigged, choreographed, or somehow otherwise manipulated -- but in those early years of TV America was still "on the honeymoon" so to speak, thinking that if you saw it on TV, it was true and real.

What really struck me was a statement made later on when they were discussing the legal ramifications being considered at the time:

[paraphrase] "[Whoever was to bring legal charges] were wary of bringing charges against [the TV producers] even after being presented with serious evidence of wrong-doing because of the stringent libel laws on the books."

Libel laws are, of course, laws protecting people and groups against slander and other "smearing" of character or reputation -- the legal equivalent of vicious gossip, you might say.

The most prevalent thing to pop out at me is the character of the people involved -- namely, those who had the power to bring charges.  Yes, here were producers of TV game shows deliberately deceiving the public -- something we today would consider something pretty minor simply due to it's common practice -- and the complaining parties produced considerable evidence of it, but those in power to bring charges respected the laws regarding slander or smearing of reputations, and as such wanted to be absolutely sure of wrong-doing before jumping in prematurely.

I thought about our current condition as a nation -- a place where Christians won't even consider a Christian minister for the office of President because of some distracting insignificance or another, or where people will file legal suits against others specifically to smear a reputation because they know that even if their suit is thrown out of court, that accusation will stick more in people's minds than the final verdict -- and honestly, I sort of mourned.

We're heading down a road, spiralling ever lower and lower, where we have to try and legislate morality because people can no longer be trusted to intrinsically know things like the cold-blooded murder of people (no matter how small) is wrong or that children are male and female and should be treated as such regardless of whether they want to go into the other gender's bathroom.  The ridiculous state of our moral fiber is absoutely appalling, and we see now that we're reaping the whirlwind of sitting too inactive for too long in our nation's neighborhoods and communities -- that's right, I didn't say in politics, which is mostly talking about this or that, but rather in our actual influence in our own neighborhoods.

I pray -- sincerely, genuinely, and whole-heartedly pray -- that we would begin to look for leaders based upon how they positively impact their neighborhoods and communities in the ways that God would want them to, instead of because "we like their economic packages" or "he seems to know a lot about foreign policy".

When are we going to learn that God can use a person in communication with and yielded to Him much more than a person who seems to at least superficially "have all the answers"?  When are we going to stop and remember that God has called us as Christians to appoint Godly leaders who look to Him first and imperfect humans second?

When are we, as the Bride of Christ, going to look to Him again for His thoughts as to who He would want us to have represent us to the nations of the world?

I pray the answer would be 'soon'.  But sadly, it's not going to happen.  Not unless we choose to realize those things in our own daily life and practice.  Change starts with each of us individually; revival starts with ONE heart.

In His service, and yours,
jason