News alert = prayer alert

Being a bit of a news junkie, I love a good story. But drawn as I am to news alerts, not every media report leaves me feeling uplifted in the way this verse from Proverbs suggests we should be: “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”

Like ping-pong balls in a wind tunnel, I think at times we all find ourselves bouncing from one subject to another—Iran, swine flu, the banking crisis, hurricanes, child trafficking, Somalian pirates, housing foreclosures, terror attacks, the death of a celebrity, North Korea; news alerts that stir up multiple emotions. Fear, anger, frustration, vulnerability, and just plain fascination can take hold of even the most levelheaded of us. And through BlackBerries and other portable media, we’re never far from the latest news update.

I certainly don’t want to ignore or hide from the issues of the day, but is it healthy to simply take in each news flash as if it were the final word? In my prayers for myself and the world, it’s occurred to me that neither being an open receptacle for sensational reports nor completely ignoring the news is healthy. Here are a few points that help order my prayer:

Begin with compassion

I’ve seen that concern for other people and societies can break the mesmeric pull to be overwhelmed by sensational or alarming stories. In that way, news alerts become prayer alerts.

This has been true as far back as Bible times. Jesus’ familiar parable tells of a Samaritan’s encounter with a traveler collapsed by the side of the road, an apparent crime victim. While others kept going, he stopped to help the traveler. Luke explains that the “Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him . . . .” Concern for his neighbor overrode whatever shock or fear or indifference the Samaritan may have felt, and he became actively involved in the man’s care.

As I see it, compassion for others naturally activates healthy prayer-filled engagement with the news. So I’ve prayed to gain the deeper spiritual view I’ve learned in Christian Science—a view that brings healing to whatever issue torments or simply distracts.

History’s first rough draft

Phil Graham, onetime publisher of The Washington Post, is said to have called journalism “the first rough draft of history.” As any writer knows, rarely is a rough draft considered the final word. And when one is moved by compassion to engage with the media, accounts that focus on the “first take” are not satisfying. In fact, I’m learning that until an understanding of the divine Good is brought to bear on news developments, the complete story hasn’t yet been told. For the news to be thoroughly and factually considered, the spiritual perspective must not be overlooked.

Legendary host Paul Harvey typically opened his US radio programs by saying, “You know what the news is. In a minute you’re going to hear the rest of the story.” For me, prayer is a critical tool to bring out “the rest of the story”—a spiritual take on the news. Part of that prayer is turning down the volume on the human mind’s slant—whether a riveting news alert or reaction to it—and tuning in to the power of true intelligence that heals and saves.

Such prayer accesses the Christ-message that assures us divine Love and grace are always and actively present; that God as Mind provides the spiritual facts to bring a healing perspective. I see it as the job of the Christ—not of news alerts or broadcasting companies or individuals—to fill each of us with the facts as God knows them. To tell the true story of the integrity, intelligence, innocence, beauty, and unlimited good that are the natural outpouring from God. Until the Christly perspective weighs in, the whole picture isn’t revealed.

Prayer can bring out the spiritual facts often buried under a sensational view of events. Reasoning from a solid and stable platform of knowing as the divine Mind knows, our prayer neutralizes feelings of helplessness, fear, negative fascination, or any other unhealthy reaction that can be stirred up by media tumult. One summer, about 15 years ago, I experienced just that.

Healthy engagement with the news

At the time, I felt the need to follow the Samaritan’s example and address my own fascination with media alerts. I was living in the US when an extreme heat wave became a major reporting event. Experts interviewed on the dangers of sun exposure predicted an increase in heat-related deaths. It seemed that everyone, including me, was shaken by these reports. I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but I felt pulled in to keep watching the reports—that is, until I received a call from a woman asking me for my prayer.

Her adult daughter was addicted to drugs, was homeless, and was apparently living on a beach far from her mom. The emphasis on the dangers of the excessive heat added another layer of fear to the mother’s mounting concern. Moved by her plight, I could see that I needed to detach myself from the television and pray.

I thought of Mary Baker Eddy’s compassionate statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family.” Sometimes, with the wish to be helpful, news media fill the airwaves with warnings and advice that generate fear. But the book also advises, “Instead of furnishing thought with fear, . . . correct this turbulent element of mortal mind by the influence of divine Love which casteth out fear.”

As I prayed, I turned away from the heat advisories, and realized that fear, not the weather, was the “turbulent element of mortal mind” that needed correction. I also saw that while I may not be able to change the weather, my prayer could help me understand more of how God’s love casts out fear generated by the news. Words from the following hymn brought out the constancy of that love (guiding and guarding everyone) and helped blot out my own fear stemming from reports I’d seen:

On a better track, I was able to ask myself, “So, what is the Christ saying about this situation?”

The rest of the story

Looking for more direction, I opened my Bible. There, marking a page, was a copy of a political cartoon from The Christian Science Monitor, dated April 15, 1963, by Guernsey LePelley. It depicted a submarine at the bottom of the ocean and was in response to the sinking of the nuclear submarine USS Thresher on April 10 in the Atlantic Ocean, with a loss of 129 sailors and civilians. Its caption read, “. . . even there . . . .”

I recognized immediately that the words were from one of David’s psalms: “O Lord, . . . If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”

I was touched by the compassion in both the cartoon and the verse, and realized more deeply that no one could find himself or herself outside of God’s love. I felt, tangibly, that because God’s love is immediate and everywhere, no one could be outside the range of its healing power—no matter where they were, no matter what they’d done. And regardless of what a news alert claimed.

Soon a cool front unexpectedly blew through the entire region, and health advisories evaporated from the headlines, quickly replaced by other news alerts. I also received word that the daughter of the woman I’d been praying for had been found and that a friend had offered her a place to stay. That helping hand—like the man in Jesus’ parable—marked a fresh start for her. She took steps to start a new life, leaving the drugs permanently behind.

Feeding prayer not curiosity

As the press has a moral and professional responsibility to accurately report events, the receiving public has its role to play. Taking in the news simply to feed curiosity is an indulgence that can contribute to lowering journalistic standards to the level of sensationalized gossip.

Mary Baker Eddy established the Monitor to counter public fascination with bad news and to raise the bar for journalism. With its objective “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” the Monitor seeks to show that straightforward, honest reporting offers a positive view of humanity and events (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353).

Such reporting exposes where spiritual insight is most needed. At the same time, it has the potential to move the reader from self-interest to selfless consideration of global needs—while broadening the focus of one’s daily prayer. To me, the Monitor’s staff naturally extends to its readers, when they are stirred to let their prayers and their lives tell the rest of the story. And that dated, but not out-of-date, cartoon had lifted and supported my prayer, while deepening my conviction of God’s immediacy.

Of course, the Monitor is not a stand-alone media tool. The Christian Science Bible Lesson, the Sentinel, and its monthly sister publication, The Christian Science Journal, as well as The Herald of Christian Science in various languages, can help develop a spiritual readiness to deal with the private and public hot topics of the day—covered by the Monitor and other news outlets. Tending the terrain of the human consciousness in this way provides a spiritual platform for responding to, and lifting society’s general way of thinking above, the shocks and pressures of the day’s events.

A news alert then naturally becomes a prayer alert. “The heavenly intent of earth’s shadows,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, “is to chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and happiness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 21).

Whatever the breaking news, each of us can listen in prayer for the Christ-message to find the rest of the story—the spiritual fact that God’s love and care embrace humanity, now. This will bring out the beautiful and good, the help and healing, right where the need is.

Michelle Nanouche writes from Saint Germain en Laye, France, where she is a Christian Science practitioner.

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