4 Ways Mass Media Attempts to Eclipse God

The world is doing everything it can to eclipse God. This effort has been underway since the fall. When we look at the pathologies of our culture, we should not assume this battle is unique to our time. Nevertheless, our culture has distinctive characteristics in the struggle for truth, and we should be aware of them. Mass media has been a significant battleground for a few centuries, and we must be mindful of it for two reasons. First, we should not fall prey to the tactics at play, and second, we should expose these efforts to others with the light of the truth.

As mentioned, the battle for truth did not begin with mass media. This truth is critical to remember as we start to assess it. If we do not keep the ongoing history of this battle in mind, we will be prone to either despair or presumption. A great cloud of witnesses surrounds us who were once engaged in the struggle themselves. Satan has been blinding the eyes of this world for ages, but mass media does seem to have given that blindness a megaphone.

How do we define mass media today? It has certainly changed since the latter half of the twentieth century, when almost everything was filtered through networks or other media executives. These filters included which programs were permitted and when they could be viewed. Now, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney, while offering more viewing options, still control what content is allowed. And as we will see in a moment, what is approved usually must fit three criteria contrary to the Word of God.

Social media and platforms like YouTube have indeed opened the opportunity for more voices to speak. Still, the algorithms of these platforms were not designed to promote truth—even secular thinkers recognize this fact. Instead, they encourage spectacle, controversy, and anything else that will keep viewers on their platforms. The result is that the saner voices and those concerned with ultimate truth and the Word of God are often algorithmically relegated to the back corners. Even these platforms open to a broader panel of voices still act as gatekeepers in ways both direct (removing content) and indirect (using algorithms that support their bottom line).

This extremely brief analysis shows that the new mass media is more varied than it used to be, but it still tends toward the same values as the old mass media. How does it, then, work to eclipse God? In the realm of the news, even if they present the facts of a situation unbiasedly, Carl F. H. Henry points out, “Their loud and vigorous competition for audience interest tends to focus on secular issues alone as being important. All communications media forced upon their followers a mood of perpetual crisis in the sociopolitical sphere rather than the ethico-spiritual realm.” This first means of eclipse emphasizes secular issues as the most pressing. It is as if gaining the world is more important than losing your soul.

Even when news is unbiased in presenting the facts of a story, it is always biased in what stories it shows you. It is constantly making decisions on what is newsworthy and what is not. These decisions are not worldview-neutral choices. Bias is always there, even if it is underlying.

Carl F. H. Henry points out three more unbiblical underlying values that accompany most programs, which we continually stream into our homes, whether news or entertainment. The first is “a constant indecision about spiritual realities.” The media resists truth claims about God. This indecision tends not to be a passive opinion that points to a lack of knowledge of God; instead, it is an active view that assumes anything other than indecision on these matters is unacceptable. Second is “their deference to moral relativism and spiritual vagabondage.” Since we cannot “know” God, all moral and religious claims are relative and should never be taken as absolute truths. Finally, there is “their obvious accommodation of the materialist and sex-centered view of life.” In the absence of spiritual truth, materialism, and sex become the highest aim. Personal peace and affluence are the goals of life, and neither is complete without unlimited sexual autonomy. We experience this view of life virtually every time we begin to stream a TV show or movie. Even if it is “clean,” these underlying themes still hold sway.

According to scripture, even if they do not realize that their eyes are blinded, all of this is an attempt to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This attempt to suppress does not mean truth never finds its way through. The people controlling the media are made in the image of God, and even in their attempts to suppress it, the truth will occasionally find its way through. But despite all of that, “The media lend themselves to dignifying sham gods, spurious values, and pseudo-truth.”

What are we to do with this information? First, guard your heart, and second, find ways to speak the truth. We need the light to shine. The Word of God is the only rock upon which we can find sure footing. We must be standing on it ourselves, and we must let the world know that what they are standing upon is sinking sand, and when the rains fall, and the winds blow, their house will not stand, and great will be its fall.

Malcolm Muggeridge once said that the media are “not the cause of, but the expression of contemporary vacuity.” Mass media is not the enemy; it is a tool. Nor are the people who control it our adversaries. On the contrary, some Christians hold stations there, pushing back by shining the light, and we should pray for their work.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers that darken minds and seek to suppress the truth of God. Carl F. H. Henry reminds us that, in the age of mass media, as in any other age, “the church’s main mission is to overcome the eclipse of God…Only a recovery of the truth of the Word of God can therefore still the wayward winds that these media accommodate.” The light behind the eclipse is always superior to the entity attempting to block it. The Word of God will never return void.

-D. Eaton