I stopped reading the daily newspaper years ago. The New York Times was too big; my urbanity would vanish as I clumsily crumpled on to the next page. The Daily News and New York Post were easier on the hands , but harder to handle in others ways. The Post became a local Enquirer, with bigger headline type, and the News was simply schizoid: they’d run an editorial against pornography and scatter pictures of nearly naked nubility throughout their pages.

Consequently, shortly after Pogo stopped appearing in the Post, I bid adieu to the tabloids and turned to the tube to find out whatever; I’m still not sure what for. National TV news is largely network editorial barely masquerading behind “information.” Nevertheless, it is easy to turn on or off, and I kind of liked Frank Reynolds.

But TV doesn’t have coupons. And lately there have been oodles of coupons in the newspaper; if I only use a few I save more than the paper cost. So I started to pick one up weekly on the way to visit my in-laws. On arrival my father-in–law would check the main section for the lottery numbers, I’d look through the local section to see what the merchants were offering, and Lang, one of our foster children, would cut coupons with operosity, careful not to stray from the dotted lines.

Now recently (I don’t know what got into me), I actually started to read the articles. Big mistake. Something is terribly wrong. The newspapers are speaking to someone, we must assume. But the thought of Joe Ave rage out there being able to thumb through the degradation found in a daily paper without having the urge to commit harakiri is frightening. What’s happened to us? Here’s a sampling of some of the articles that demonstrate the radical value shift we never voted on:

1. Headline: “Have no fear of trying lovers: Jong’s advice.”

The article is an attempt to calm the fears of some women that Erica “Fear of Flying” Jong might have become “a born-again virgin.” Jong authored a book that came to be known as “a bible of sexual liberation.” The fears got off the ground because of a modest statement she recently made. Well, the article certainly put those fears to bed  Jong, divorced from husband no. 3 and presently living with someone, says, “Ideally . . . a woman (should) go to college, have a period of sexual experimentation, have a number of boyfriends, be promiscuous if she needs to , get a head start on a career and then marry between the ages of29 to 33 and have her children . . . . I think they (women) need the experience of gadding about . . . having different boyfriends, maybe even living with a couple of different people before making a long-term commitment.” God counts this as criminal advice. In fact, biblically speaking, many of Jong’s ideas are capital crimes.

Now, we are not so naive that we are surprised to find a poor, meretricious woman like Ms. Jong promoting profligacy. But this advice was not found in Penthouse magazine, this was in the daily paper!

2. A feature article with two photos tells of Police Officer Jennifer McCormick, being arrested for pulling a gun in a dispute with a bartender. The paper played up the incident because last year this officer was named Joseph McCormick, but “it” had undergone a sex-change operation. The story tells us that “most cops supported her decision to have the surgery.” Who would want to disagree with “most cops?” The article failed to mention that God calls far less than what ms’ter McCormick did an abomination (Dt. 22:5) and worthy of death.

This is the kind of article that used to appear only in the sleaziest papers and Gore Vidal’s imagination. Today it’s just part of the “daily’s” fare. (Interestingly, in a recent case, a New York City policewoman was fired because she appeared in a pornographic magazine. The photos had been taken before she became a police officer. I guess she was unfortunate enough to be only moderately degenerate. If she had followed McCormick’s example, perhaps the brass would have “supported her decision.”)

3. Switching from the state of morality to the state of justice, (They do seem to rise and fall together, don’t they?) there was a story on page 4 about a savage who beheaded a four-year-old boy and confesses to having killed 164 other people , including his mother. A police chief said this guy makes “Charles Manson look like Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.” Why do we continue to think that God does not mean what He says?: The murderer shall surely be put to death (Num. 35:17). Otis Elwood O’Toole signed a confession to murder in October of 1983. Do you think we will see justice in this case by 1993? Or ever? Thank God there is a Tribunal where perfect justice shall be meted out.

4. But enough of this. Let’s look through the paper for some sort of religious news. Can’t they write about somebody who carries a Bible instead of a knife? What’s this over here? “Three cops rescued a 14-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and raped at knifepoint in Queens by a Bible-toting 300–pound state employee, police reported yesterday,” Oy vey.

Did you ever notice how the press never misses an opportunity to link the Bible and Christianity with any sort of reprehensible act? Well, in this article about a horrible rape, the Bible is mentioned at the beginning and the end. The second mention revealed that the Bible was merely found in the van in which the criminal was apprehended. But was it his van? Was it his Bible? Did he read it? “What does it matter,” they must have thought. “It was there. Let’s play it up.” So, with the public spirited help of these journalists, we now begin to discover the really dangerous element is in society! Bible–toters!, not Ms. Jong, Ms. McCormick, or Monster O’Toole.

5. “Ah, finally. The ‘Religion’ column. I can get away from these tortuous articles and see what’s up in New York’s religious community. What’s this? ‘Council has hard decision.’ My. Wonder what this is about? Oh NO! There’s no escape! ARGGH!”

The article turns out to be about the National Council of Churches wrangling over the application of Metropolitan Community Churches to become the 33rd member of the NCC. “The problem is that the . . . Metropolitan Community is mostly homosexual.” I suppose I should thank God that there is at least some opposition. Yet, “to many in the Council of Churches, justice, not sexual orientation, is the key issue.” HA! If justice were the issue they’d have no problem. God has told us what the justice is which He requires. See Leviticus 20:13. But, not surprisingly, the NCC does not take God or His word as the standard of justice (or anything else). For, the article tells us, “Churches, from Catholic to Calvinist, decided that homosexuality itself was not sinful.” Indeed?! Don’t you love the way they phrased it? “Churches . . . decided.”

Well, who can argue with so many religious leaders? And who dares to dissent from the opinion of most cops? And who could disagree with high-flying Erica? Where is another voice to be found? In the Bible? Don’t you remember? That’s the book that rapists read! Surely, all these “authorities” are right. After all, even Catholics and Calvinists believe God’s moral standards should be made “new and improved.” These apprehensions I feel must be bugaboos left over from my unenlightened superego. Why, anyone who wants the death penalty for Otis O’Toole is just as bad as he is. All we really need is love, sex and tolerance. What am I worried about? Don’t fight it. That’s the way the world is in 1985. Get with it. Right?

Of course not. But that’s the way millions are led to think each day as they pick up and read their “friendly” newspaper with “all the news the misfits print.” It’s probably better to be uninformed than to be so radically misinformed.

Yet, it’s incumbent upon us to offer more than criticism. What’s a person to do? Let me make some proposals:

1. That all who call themselves by the Name of Messiah follow the good advice of Dr. Lloyd-Jones: “Let us decide to spend less time in reading the newspapers and more time in reading the Bible” (God’s Ultimate Purpose, p. 207). And we ought to heed every jot and tittle that proceeds from the Mouth of God. 2. That we become aware of journalistic techniques that distort and pervert truth in order to further the socialistic, anti-moral, anti–family vision of the media moguls. One example of such reality re–shaping is the blackout of women’s voices that do not share the agenda of the National Organization for Women. Why does NOW (membership 120,000) get vast coverage while Concerned Women of America (approximate membership 300,000), the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (membership 250 ,000), the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (membership 600 ,000), B’nai B’rith (membership 500 ,000), Hadassah (membership 370,000), or Church Women United in the USA (membership 2,000,000)) get none? Even the Daughters of the American Revolution can boast nearly twice the membership of NOW. When was the last time you saw an article about them in the paper?

Newspaper editors necessarily censor some news in favor of other news . Do the articles in the paper you read serve to advance an unarticulated but discernible agenda? Be aware.

3. Read suspiciously. Unfortunately, journalistic mendacity is increasing and will continue to do as competition for market share increases. Sensationalistic reporting will also increase as newspaper after newspaper compromises by aiming low to get circulation high. Fortunately, recent surveys indicate that Americans have diminishing faith in news reports.

4. Read selectively. Just because it’s in the paper doesn’t mean it’s proper to read (Rom. 16:19; Phil. 4:8). 5. Let us teach our children well. The Psalmist could have been speaking about the newspapers when he said, “They will perish, but (the Lord) remains . . . . They will be discarded. But He remains the same, and His years will never end” (Ps. 102:26, 27). Our children must be explicitly taught to have complete confidence in God and His Word and little in man and his.

6. Vigorously seek to win men to the Lord and disciple them in the whole counsel of God. “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul . . . The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19:7, 8). We cannot expect a godly society without regenerated men and women. But, how can they believe unless they hear; how can they learn unless they are taught?

7. Be prepared to reconstruct, for we know that the Lord sees what is in our papers, and in our hearts. Surely we should tremble even as we serve (Romans 16:20).

The daily papers. They used to be different. Or am I a romantic? Is nostalgia appropriate when you’re only 32? I think my old decision not to buy the paper was probably a sound one. What I have to figure out now is, are the coupons worth it?

S.M. Schlissel, 1841-83rd St., Brooklyn N.Y. 11214, is pastor of Messiah’s Congregation in Brooklyn, and an elder of the Queens CRC.