DOES BINDI IRWIN HAVE A BOYFRIEND?

Several headlines caught my attention as I was digesting the daily news.

1. Does Bindi Irwin Have a Boyfriend?
2. Miley Cyrus Finally Opens Up About Liam Hemsworth Split: "I Was So Scared of Ever Being Alone"
3. Jessica Simpson Goes Makeup-Free For Date Night
4. Amber Rose Stuns In Before And After Pregnancy Photos
5. Kim Kardashian Reveals Her Favorite Thing About Baby North
6. Katie Holmes Rocks Short Skirt, New Haircut At Z100's Jingle Ball In NYC
7. Jamie Lynn Spears Shares Holiday Photo of Shirtless Fiance, Grown Up Daughter Maddie: See the Cute Pic
8. Peyton Manning's Wife Gave Him A Pep Talk When His Injury Wasn't Healing And He Thought He Was Toast
9. Blake Lively's Dream Christmas Present Would 'Bankrupt' Ryan Reynolds
10. Milan Lucic gets into altercation outside bar

What qualifies these stories as worthy news?  I am not interested in Bindi's boyfriend or Miley's split or Jessica going without makeup.  I have no idea who Amber Rose or Blake Lively or Milan Lucic are.  Kim Kardashian has too much publicity.  Katie Holmes can wear what she wants to wear.  I don't care to read about it.  Peyton and his wife should keep their discussions private.  I find such coverage to be a waste of time to read, to print, or to make national news.

Technological innovations are great.  It is nice to see events around the world as they occur or in minutes after they happen.  It isn't necessary to continually cover the story 24/7 though.  When an event like the school shooting in Denver happens, we see it on every news broadcast and for days, we hear reports and more reports when there is nothing new to report.  This happens until the next big event occurs.  

News Agencies should also report the facts.  One of the most frustrating events after Hurricane Katrina was the coverage of New Orleans as though the storm only hit New Orleans.  New Orleans was flooded but Katrina hit Mississippi.  I was there.  I know.  I recently took a cab for an appointment.  The cab driver thought it happened in New Orleans.  We have news sources now that report news from a slanted view point.  It is clear that slant news channels are greatly influencing American opinion. Repetition is the motherhood of learning some say.  Certainly, some news channels have different shows with different hosts but they all seem to have the same theme.  The other name for this is propaganda.   I don't know about you, but when I have eaten the same meal three times in a row, I am sick of it and don't care to have it for awhile.

Christians seem to think there is a war on Christmas (nothing new) and they feel they are being prosecuted, persecuted, and personified as the big bad wolf.  Wake up and smell the coffee.  You say that America is a city set on a hill.  You say this is a Christian nation.  Yet, you see this country as your right to dictate how people live, what people think, and what people do.  Our ancestors took this land away from the natives who lived here way before us.  Christianity called them savages and heathens and forced them to convert with a gun in their face.  We made promises we did not keep and we gave them diseases that killed them.  

Christianity took Winter Solstice and turned it into Christmas.  Yule, Christmas trees, gift giving, Christmas Carols, and big meals originated in pagan festivals but today are considered Christian symbols of Christmas.  Read a story recently circulated about a man waiting in line behind a woman at a cash register.  She was speaking in a foreign language.  When she finished talking on the phone, the man told her that this is the United States and we speak English here.  If she wanted to speak Spanish, she should go back to Mexico where she came from.  The woman replied I was speaking Navajo.  If you want to speak English, you should go back to England where you came from.  

A letter to the editor in our local paper printed a letter from a Christian who suggested if we didn't like Christmas, we shouldn't celebrate it.  We should get a day of our own.  The writer suggested April 1.  The Celtic and the ancient Huns and the Vikings may say the same to us, get another day.  We had this time as our Winter Solstice celebration long before you turned it into Christmas.

I am a Christian and I don't feel like I am being persecuted or that there is war or Christmas nor do I feel I must be an "fundamentalist" or an "evangelical" to be a Christian.  I don't have to be a liberal.  I am a follower of Christ.  There are far greater problems in our country other than Bindi's boyfriend or what Katie wore or why Miley broke up with her boyfriend.  There are far greater issues than a war on Christmas.  We need to face the tasks of being the home of the brave and the land of freedom and equality.  

I would like to think we are all smarter than Rush Limbaugh or Bill ORiley or Rachel Maddow.  I would hope that we can see through the propaganda and see that we have a responsibility to clean up our lives as individuals and as a nation before we can ever expect to be the leader of the free world.  Spying like what has been revealed this year does not promote us as a nation who is worthy to be called the greatest nation on earth.  Calling each other liberals, right-wingers, marxists, or any other name does not qualify us as leaders.  It seems to me, that is more  childish than being responsible and accountable for our actions.

If there is anything we should do this time of year is change our ways of thinking, our ways of doing, and our ways of faith.  Remember the greatest of all is love. 

Think about it.

Roy