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Commentary
REFLECTIONS: Focus on good news! Bishop Woodie W. White, Nov 5, 2009
Bishop Woodie White
By Bishop Woodie W. White UMR Columnist
“There’s good news tonight!” That’s the way a popular radio commentator began his nightly program when I was a boy.
While I was too young at the time to know the difference between good news and bad, I looked forward to hearing that promising phrase and distinctive voice. It seemed to lift the spirits of my parents, and I recall hearing them talk with other adults about the program. Even my little boy world seemed brighter.
Times have apparently changed. It appears to me that too many news commentators and analysts delight more in announcing bad news than good. Even when events being reported are, in fact, good or favorable, some reporters seem to give it a negative perspective or provide a possible negative consequence.
Good news seems undesirable. In fact, perhaps for some, good news is bad news!
It is true not just in the world of journalism, of course. There are individuals for whom good news seems an aversion. These core pessimists seem to delight in sharing and spreading news of a negative character.
I know a few people like that. It is predictable. Their greeting is always followed by some bad news. Whatever the other possibilities of the event or circumstances, they are certain to see only the negative aspects. Such people exhaust me!
There are even some in the church who have become perpetual bad news-bearers. They find a place in the congregation, conference and the general church. They fail to see any positive dimensions in church life or ministry. Every flaw in individuals, in programs or in strategy is magnified and made permanent.
What is troubling about such persons is their seeming to feed on bad news. It seems to nourish something within.
To be a bearer of good news is not to ignore or even minimize the bad things that happen in the world and to people. We all know that poverty, prejudice, crime, violence, selfishness—the litany goes on—still exists. But these need not shape the character of individuals, national life or even the life of a congregation or denomination. Instead, they can indeed become that which drives it, to turn bad situations into good ones.
Perhaps there needs to be a little more balance in news reports. To be sure, it is important to be informed of the events that reveal flaws of leaders, nations and individuals. These must be addressed forcefully and effectively. Our desired end is the common good, freedom, justice and fairness for all. We must correct all that would dehumanize or seek to destroy our common humanity and desire for community.
But it is the good in people and the good of people that makes the world a better place. To overlook or minimize this good, as evidenced in deeds or works, is to forget who we are as a people and the children of a God. Not a bad God, but a good God!
In the midst of all the bad news, however, there is good. There are those who make war, yet there are those who work for peace. In a society too divided by class and color, there are many seeking common ground. In a nation where there is too much disparity between rich and poor, there are those striving to bridge the gap, so that none will be without the promises of nation and Creator.
And while too many youth seem to be caught in a cycle of crime and violence, most are not!
To tell the truth, one need not distort it! To see the bad in the world is not to be blind to the good. Indeed, those of us in the tradition of the Christian faith, call our message, the Good News! Centuries ago, it was concluded that what the world needs to hear is Good News, not bad! I suppose, that is the heart of the message of that old spiritual, “Ain’t That Good News?”
Perhaps that old radio commentator was more right than he realized when he announced, “There’s good news tonight!”
Retired Bishop White is the denomination’s Endorsing Agent for Chaplain Ministries and bishop-in-residence at Candler School of Theology.
Bishop Woodie White
