Editorial April 14, 2003 Issue

Watching world news with prayer

Editor

As a recent New York Times article commented, watching war has become, for many, "the ultimate in reality television" (The New York Times, March 25, 2003, p. E1). Television has brought us to the point where the viewer feels almost as close to the action as the soldiers who are fighting the war. On a recent live newscast over an international TV channel, a reporter in Iraq crawled on his stomach up to where a combat infantryman was in position and relayed questions from a news anchor in the United States. A viewer can even see the pilot's eye view from the cockpit of a fighter plane, recorded while the plane is engaged in combat. And thanks to the new plan of "embedding" reporters with various military units, the military forces, the media, and the viewer have almost become one.

Certainly a force that can move mountains can also stop wars, arrest hostilities, break through walls of hatred, and bring peace and justice to the world.

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