News & Apathy
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Trinity Bubble. Unfortunately, it is not a giant hamster ball that we can get inside and roll around in, perhaps circling over the pond. (That would be awesome.) I’m not sure that would get too far in TWUSA budget meetings, but we can still hope.
For those who don’t know, the Trinity Bubble refers to the separation between Trinity and the rest of the world. We tend to know a lot of Trinity gossip – remember Todd Pettigrew’s blog entry in Macleans? The one that said Trinity wasn’t a real university because it had a confession of faith? Maybe it was just me, but those were exciting times! Which prof will lay a smack-down next? Which Trinity student will resort to swearing first? We get riled up over Trinity news, but tend to stay blissfully unaware of global news. Three whole days passed before I learned about the earthquake in Haiti last year. And perhaps my alienation from my home country is to blame, but I did not realize that midterm elections were happening until my friends’ facebook status were all abuzz with news of Republican victories in the House.
So while it’s a big generalization, I think there is a grain of truth in the Trinity Bubble. And I don’t think it’s hard to see why we tend to care much more about Trinity-related news items than global news items. Trinity is closer to us. (Big surprise there.) Those of us on campus are surrounded by it, all day, everyday. And we like it. At least, I do. It’s great to hear about friends getting accepted into the LLC, of Spartan victory, of the new Great Books program (actually, that one may just be me). These things are immediate and relevant to us. They affect our friends, our schooling, and the value of our future degrees.
Real world news, on the other hand, is distant. I haven’t done a whole lot of traveling, so it’s hard to conceptualize what is going on in other countries. But more significant than distance, global news is ubiquitous. There’s lots of it. I can log onto cnn.com and find out about dozens of tragic events. It’s hard to significantly care when everyday a new catastrophe emerges. It would be too emotionally exhausting to engage with every piece of news – one must pick and choose, screen certain things out. And if Trinity news makes it through the filter, so be it. Hence the Bubble.
The last Mars Hill issue was on apathy. So I’ve missed the deadline, but I’ll throw in my two cents. I have a problem with so many critiques of apathy. I’m told that students are apathetic about everything – every natural disaster and social problem under the sun cannot get us to care and do something. I think the reason for this is that we hear too much news. We can’t take it all in, we can’t process all the scores of people suffering, we are overwhelmed at the state of the world, and we sit back. News becomes old – no matter what happens, we’ve heard of something like it before. (Sidenote: September 11 was news that was new, and we still talk about it.)
So, what to do? Sit back (for a while). Breathe. I think it’s OK to escape the inundation of news, if only temporarily. Discover what you care about. Join a ministry, serve on a mission trip. Find your talents and desires. And then look at the world. You won’t be able to do everything. But that’s not exactly what God asks of us, is it?
As a Christian, my understanding of “news” has to be filtered through the Good News, which is the Gospel. If anything is not new in today’s world, it is the Gospel. We’ve heard it all before. So we have to make the Gospel relevant to our lives, to make sure that the good news for all men includes 21st century Canadians and Americans. My opinion: let the Gospel be the Gospel. Sit back and hear it with fresh ears. Read the New Testament. Hear Paul rejoicing at the mystery revealed in Christ. Read the creeds. Hear the church fighting to keep their message pure from heresy. My hunch is that the Gospel will sound new once again. And when it does, we can hear the world again. The “news” of the world will no longer sound urgent – we expect wars and rumors of wars, after all. But we will know that God cares for this hurting world, and we will understand his heart. And out of that, find out how you can help. Find people to love and serve and to whom you may show the goodness of God. Don’t be troubled by the news, but let the Good News transform you and guide your actions. I am convinced of this: that if we truly listen to and understand the Gospel, receiving it openly, we will no longer remain apathetic.
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