The American Mass Communications Networks honors religion in the same manner which prompted Jesus to say “. . . this people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Mark 7:6). The prophet Isaiah much earlier reported that this same word was the indictment made by God (Isaiah 29:13).
The media reminds one of an incident in which, it was said, a religious procession led with the Crucifix passed along the streets of Paris.
Voltaire, the philosopher and Deist, who was not noted for religious practice, stood watching. As the Crucifix passed, Voltaire removed his hat. “I did not know you to be religious,” said a friend. Replied the skeptic Voltaire: “I am not. We salute but we do not speak.”
People in media shy away from any reference to religion. There is a general embarrassment in America about admitting publicly any relationship to God. For instance, if an athlete being interviewed mentions his or her relation to God, there is a nonplussed expression on the face of the media interviewer and then the subject is quickly changed.
It may be -- though one hesitates to say it -- that public figures, preachers and politicians in particular, have so wantonly exploited religion for personal gain and to cloak the most ungodly purposes that what ought to be the most precious aspect of life, proudly held, becomes a shame and a stench in society.
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