America's "watchdog" raiding henhouse ...

America’s watchdog is asleep! No, wait -– it’s far worse than that.

Instead of warily standing guard, our nation’s once-courageous watchdog traitorously is helping un-American foxes raid our henhouse.

Sean Hannity rightly states 2008 is the year journalism died, and there’s a growing realization across America that mainstream media unfairly tilted the election to Mr. Obama.

Right-minded Americans, sickened of partisan bias on TV screens and front pages, want something done. “Let’s take back the media,” people say -- but how?

Let me tell you. But this is a long post, from a email exchange with a Godly editor of a successful Florida newspaper, so please bear with me.

The good news is that newspapers are in trouble. They were before Democrats purposely panicked the economy.

It’s not punishment for bad liberal behavior, though. Printed news is passé in this IT era. Readership and influence are dropping due to that alone, decreasing paid subscriptions and impacting advertising revenues.

Many will continue to practice their not-so-stealthful bias with online news sites. But, having been caught stacking the deck for liberal causes, public confidence and trust is waning even more, making a turnabout very unlikely.

The bad news may be that remaining print readership, for the most part, doesn’t readily have access to the Internet’s conservative content for balance and therefore will be further misled in voting booths. But that need not be the fate for the press.

I believe there still is a spot for print news at all levels for at least another decade. Think of it: spill coffee on or drop your newspaper, and no real harm done. Not so with a laptop, which doesn't afford the same "do-not-disturb" barrier as an opened paper in front of your face.

Leave your paper behind, and you're out only a couple of quarters. It's far more portable and affordable as a news source, good for almost any setting or weather. Besides, screen captures of websites just aren't the same as banner-wide clippings for scrapbooks and framed wall displays.

I further believe any secular newspaper, whether small weekly or metro daily, will prosper IF done God's way. I know this for a fact: Of the people who would regularly read and subscribe to a good paper, a great majority welcome Godly content.

They may not realize that fact, because they’ve yet to experience it. But they’ll soon wonder how they got along without such content all these years.

I also know from personal experience that troubled community newspapers are success stories waiting to happen -- when the editor/publisher dares to ask "what would Jesus do" (WWJD).

The big rags? Well, they hire from resumes of successful applicants, don’t they? Christians with money-making track records definitely will be hired and, one by one, increasingly tilt the balance at big-time editorial meetings.

For that reason, my heart's desire is to help Christians be successful at lower levels so God can call them up to media's "head table."

A newspaper that actually asks WWJD is considered beyond reproach. God honors such daring obedience with a glow of respect, even among detractors. As trust and respect grow, so does readership, paid circulation and ad revenues.

It's true: Money talks, and even heathen owners will listen, grudgingly allowing more Godly content in return for a better bottom line.

A better nose for news, however, is the essence of this issue.

“News” is anything that impacts readers. Who has more actual impact -- a civic club luncheon speaker or a revival evangelist? Yet the best life-changing sermon I ever heard still didn’t make it onto the front page with a photo. Great things often happen at youth group meetings, but hardly ever does an article recognize and reinforce such importance.

Secular newspapers long have worked hard to banish Godly news and make church events seen unimportant to everyday reality. That must change.

I decided, if given the chance, this former sports editor would include the Lord’s news. God thus called me to leave corporate communications and rescue a series of weekly papers by emulating the editor from Charles Sheldon’s “In His Steps” and ask WWJD long before it became a fad.

My front pages typically offered an interesting mix of spot news, civic watchfulness and uplifting features that saluted good behavior. When a ministry or Christian entity did something exemplary, it not only made print, it usually went out front. Pointed evangelical content also had the play spot on the editorial page, and I usually had ad-backed church pages that offered more than routine notices.

While God gave me a graphic mindset for attractive layout and Page One photos, I was nothing special: Any Christian editor can succeed just as well.

Why? Because whom God calls, He enables and blesses.

What America thus needs is an increasing number of Christians prayerfully running their papers moment by moment according to God's will, summoning the obedient courage to let Him call each shot. Our prayer should be for Him to call more into community journalism.

I see how a national association could help. As editor, I sure could have used some encouragement and support in the industry.

That's not to say God's help wasn't enough; it sure was. But in blazing a trail with only a fictional editor as an example, I would have liked to know such things as how far to push the envelope before triggering legal action and where to turn if sued. Even today, what does an editor do when the ACLU threatens a school board or city council?

What's more, there's strength in numbers, because Jesus is there where two or more editors/reporters/publishers are gathered in His name. In addition, I regret not finding ways to encourage other Christians to boldly run their newspapers God's way.

So I mocked up a "Christians in Media" (CIM) website at www.writeanswer.org to go with www.RightSite.US, started this blog and -- wham! -– up popped the devil! My gall bladder repeatedly hospitalized me last October and November. I almost died when my liver shut down and pancreas became infected after removal of a gall stone caused massive internal bleeding.

The last and worst attack kept me from our Candlelight Service, and the gall bladder was removed on Christmas Day in emergency surgery. During my recovery I tried to revive my websites and blog, but then it was my wife's turn in the hospital with two mini-strokes and a stubborn kidney infection.

Why tell of this? Because Christian editors need to know that Satan declares war on their obedience. You see, standing up for the Lord draws enemy fire. You likely will be hit, and it'll hurt.

Yet God is faithful to see you through. I don't regret paying any price for the causse of Christ.

Asking patience, I decided to wait upon the Lord and His timetable.

Then last Monday an email notice from Joe Walsh, a wonderful prayer warrior in California, invited me to join an online business network, Sta.rtUp.biz, which in turn urged me to sign up for Facebook, which put me back in contact with a heartening number of other Godly men I've served over the years.

Maybe the time is right, or at least getting closer, for a national association to help Christians succeed at secular newspapers, radio and TV stations. Print media’s survival is at stake. So is America’s future.

So what might God have put on your mind about a national association or how else to "take back mainstream media"? I welcome your comments below …

And they keep crunching in milk ...

Here's the car Obama wants for America ...

Check out the Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition to be unveiled in 2012! It's verrry liberal on fuel!

We Christians sure are dumb. Definitely a sandwich short of a picnic.

Ignorant? No, we know better. We apparently just aren't smart enough collectively for our times. At least not on our own.

And there's no excuse. Not really. Spiritual intelligence is readily available for the asking. But we've got to get smart God's way, not ours.

Fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. That's a major reason why our churches aren't as obedient and fruitful as they ought to be.

It's true: most Christians no longer "fear" the Lord. Jesus is considered an understanding pal, right? The Father is our good buddy, Who winks at our continual failings. And we can either take or leave the Holy Spirit's suggestions, depending on how well they fit into our busy schedule.

We especially are fear-less in prayer, mistaken treating it as heaven's delivery service. These days prayer's purpose is to get things from God -- right? -- not to know Him better and receive His wisdom and guidance.

We now live in a culture with absolutely no reverence of or respect for Almighty God. As a group, the collective church has forgotten who and what the Lord is. As His representatives, we don't practice the presence of the living God very well, do we?

Consider this: Glowing angels appear on a popular TV show to offer the Lord's words of comfort, and repeatedly the scripts have people show little or no surprise. In fact, the angels frequently are told to get lost.

Isaiah, though, cried out "Woe is me!" when he saw God's radiant holiness. The Bible is full of people who fall down as if dead upon encountering a form of God's presence.

So should we today. Right here and now. And we would if the Almighty was all that real to us throughout the week.

Every God-used person of the Bible walked in fear -- reverence and respect -- of God. It's a fact. Walked in fear. Walked in fear. You see the words over and over.

"Now fear the Lord and serve Him with all faithfulness," Joshua commanded God's people in Joshua 24:14 after telling them to "be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left."

By not staying in God's word, too many individuals and congregations have lost their reverence and respect of God and gone astray of His will.

So to walk in fear, we must conduct our daily lives in reverent awe of God and obedient respect of His word. That should be the motivation for our lives -- to do everything His way and thus want to please the Almighty more than ourselves, our employers, our families.

Should we shudder at the prospect of God's wrath and dread His punishment? Perhaps. More than being afraid of God putting His hand on us, though, we should fear having the Lord take away His hand of blessing and power. Everywhere there are churches that no longer have God's enabling hand. They meet and try their best to do things good in their own power in their own way, but the Lord just is not with them.

Oh that a bolt from the blue would strike nearby to keep us on the straight and narrow when we stray. Trouble is, too many straying Christians and congregations take the lack of that bolt as God's approval instead of His loving patience, which is longsuffering but has a limit.

We need to encourage one to walk in reverence and respect of Almighty God. We need to get into His word and stay there in prayer.

Perhaps it'll take a decisive turning point. Maybe it's time for you and your personal or church family to make a commitment and answer, as Joshua did, "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."