Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
“Keeping watch” as we watch the news
I began to ask myself, “What’s behind a compulsive need for news?”
Over the past few years I’d become something of a newshound. I was spending a lot more time watching television news, and news alerts were pinging on my phone, demanding, “Stop everything and read me now!” I was afraid that if I missed something—if I wasn’t fully informed at all times—I would somehow be more vulnerable to danger and evil. It felt almost like an addiction, so I began to ask myself, “What’s behind a compulsive need for news?”
I realized that it is not unusual to think that knowing more about the problems of the world is a form of self-protection, in that the more we know about a problem, the less likely we are to be ambushed by it. Is that really true? Are we more in control of a situation if we know all about potential pitfalls? Many of us have found that we’re not—that the hunger for a constant stream of human information leads only to more fear and confusion.

September 6, 2021 issue
View IssueEditorial
-
A new birth after hard times
John Quincy Adams III
Keeping Watch
-
“Keeping watch” as we watch the news
Julie Ward
-
Love’s realm, reign, and provision
Rachael Knight
How I found Christian Science
-
My path, once dark, is filled with light
R. Elliott Reinert
Poetry
-
A little child shall lead them
Carol Barker
Kids
-
God can help with the scary things
Jenny Sawyer
Healings
-
Freed from anxiety and insomnia
Emma Bekker
-
Prayer for country brings healing
Kathleen Mitchener
-
Bleeding stopped
Holly Bolon
Bible Lens
-
Substance
September 6–12, 2021
From our readers
-
Letters & Conversations
Kate Gibson Oswald, Anne Hughes