Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist) and Mansfield, Texas.If you read a printed newspaper which is delivered each day to your home, that makes two of us. In the entire country, apparently. Today's New York Times tells us what we already knew—news in print is in serious trouble. When I pick up my Dallas Morning News I have to hunt for it, as it has lost so much heft it nearly disappears in the lawn.
At least we still have a local newspaper in print. According to the Times, by the end of 2010 all the nation's two-newspaper markets will become one-newspaper markets, and a major American city will have no prominent local paper. Daily print circulation has dropped from 62 million to 49 million, while online readership has risen to nearly 75 million Americans. Advertising revenues have dropped 25 percent in the last two years; stock prices of most newspaper publishers have dropped more than 90 percent.
Papers are printing fewer pages and fewer articles, while many have eliminated entire sections. Bureaus in foreign capitals and Washington have closed. Film critics and book reviewers have been jettisoned. The Christian Science Monitor will print its last daily edition on March 27, becoming primarily an online operation with a printed weekly paper. Many papers are considering whether to charge for online content, something The Wall Street Journal already does.
I'm partly to blame. When I started writing this daily devotional based on the morning's news, I subscribed to the home editions of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today in addition to The Dallas Morning News. Janet soon grew tired of the mountains of newsprint arriving on our lawn. Our trash bins overflowed with the stuff. I quickly shifted to online editions for my morning reading. The demise of the newspaper industry has been hastened, but Janet is much happier. I chose wisely.
I feel impoverished if I don't read the day's papers each morning. If only I were as concerned about reading the word of God each day. "Love letters from home," St. Augustine called the Scriptures. I need to know what my Father has written to me, more than I need to know anything else on earth.
C. S. Lewis reminds us: "Enemy-occupied territory—that's what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage." I need dispatches from home as though my soul depended on them, because it does. J. I. Packer called the Bible, "God preaching." Have you heard your Father's voice yet today?
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