THE FINAL PAGE
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            Jon W. Quinn

                                                 EXPOSITORY FILES 2.3

    You could have knocked me over with a feather (but I am glad you  didn't)! Who would have thought it? In our culture, where many seem  obsessed with sporting events, who would have thought that in 1990  attendance at all US sporting events equaled 388 million. But attendance for the same year at religious events equaled 5.2 billion (yes, "billion" with a "b"). In 1992, 4 billion dollars was spent on sports, a huge sum to be sure, but much less than the 56.7 billion dollars spent or donated to religious concerns.

    So why does the local evening news devote 15 minutes to news and current events, 5 minutes to weather, 5 minutes to sports, and only touch upon religion when the story has to do with current events? Why is there so much media attention given to sports while so little is given to religion? Why are there so many more sports writers and telecasters than religious writers and reporters? Why are religious values so seldom mentioned on television shows, and when they are more often than not, they are ridiculed?.

    Is it because TV simply refuses to allow positive coverage of 
religious events, personalities and ideals? Certainly there are 
exceptions, but that's all they are; exceptions. The religious segment 
of our society dwarfs the homosexual segment, or the feminists 
segment, or the animal rights segment. You sure wouldn't know it by 
watching the media though.

    Freedom of speech and freedom of the press guarantees the right of those making the decisions in the media to be one-sided if they so choose, and they evidently have made the choice. It may not be responsible or honest, but it is their right. But where truth is scorned, freedom ultimately suffers. As Someone once said (Someone of whom the media knows little about), "Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

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