Some people read the newspaper with the Bible in their other hand, reading the Bible into the news, trying to make the times more significant. When the media becomes the lens through which you view the Scriptures, you’re bound to end up in some gun-running cult in a rural Texas town. On the other hand, the media plays an extremely important role in a Christian life. The news can’t be our lens for the Bible, but it can be a guide for our prayer. That’s one of the reasons I read Foreign Policy on a daily basis. For the last five years, Foreign Policy and The Fund for Peace have offered a Failed States Index. In no way is this list the absolute truth with regard to national stability, but it sure is helpful. (Read the FAQ here.)

The label “failed” remains a powerful way to describe those states that no longer serve their people. That harsh term sharpens the attention of policymakers and helps single out countries that should be of utmost concern. The threat of such state failure also focuses attention on the soon-to-crumble; it is those countries that need the most external help. … Failed states have two defining criteria: They deliver very low quantities and qualities of political goods to their citizens, and they have lost their monopoly on violence. Nation-states on the cusp of failure are either “weak” or “failing”—but not “failed.” “Collapsed” ought to be reserved for geographical expressions without governments, such as Somalia. [Disorder in the Ranks, ForeignPolicy.com]

You’ll be surprised to know that, in the midst of the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, and Michael Jackson, millions of lives are in danger every day. It is not the Christian’s responsibility to save the world. That role belongs solely to God. It is our responsibility, however, to intercede in prayer on behalf of those who do not know Christ. We pray with the news as our guide. I encourage you to read through the Failed States articles and learn more about what’s happening in the world.

If you want to know how to pray for President Bush, go here.

That inner-struggle is played out in the question on evil and responses by both presidential candidates. In this case I find Obama’s response much more founded on Christian beliefs than McCain’s.

WARREN: Does evil exist? And if it does, do we ignore it? Do we negotiate with it? Do we contain it? Do we defeat it?

OBAMA: Evil does exist. I mean, I think we see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. I think it has to be confronted. It has to be confronted squarely, and one of the things that I strongly believe is that, now, we are not going to, as individuals, be able to erase evil from the world. That is God’s task, but we can be soldiers in that process, and we can confront it when we see it.

Now, the one thing that I think is very important is for to us have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil, because a lot of evil’s been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil.

[WARREN: In the name of good.]

In the name of good, and I think, you know, one thing that’s very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think that our intentions are good, doesn’t always mean that we’re going to be doing good.

Now here’s John McCain’s response to Warren’s question:

MCCAIN: Defeat it. A couple of points. One, if I’m president of the United States, my friends, if I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get bin Laden and bring him to justice. I will do that. And I know how to do that. I will get that done. (APPLAUSE). No one, no one should be allowed to take thousands of American — innocent American lives.

Of course, evil must be defeated. My friends, we are facing the transcended challenge of the 21st century — radical Islamic extremism.

Not long ago in Baghdad, al Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled, and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace and, by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn’t evil, you have to tell me what is. And we’re going to defeat this evil. And the central battleground according to David Petraeus and Osama bin Laden is the battle, is Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and Iraq and we are winning and succeeding and our troops will come home with honor and with victory and not in defeat. And that’s what’s happening.

And we have — and we face this threat throughout the world. It’s not just in Iraq. It’s not just in Afghanistan. Our intelligence people tell us al Qaeda continues to try to establish cells here in the United States of America. My friends, we must face this challenge. We can face this challenge. And we must totally defeat it, and we’re in a long struggle. But when I’m around, the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform, I have no doubt, none.

What really stands out to me is Obama’s assertion that America can do evil, whereas McCain focuses almost wholly on Islam and “those people over there.” Obama brings up humility, and false righteousness in an effort to battle evil, reminding us that evil has been perpetrated in the name of good. McCain wholeheartedly guarantees that he will hunt down Osama bin Laden if he has to chase him to the gates of hell. There’s a huge gap between the worldviews of Obama and McCain. In this case I think Obama gave the more intelligent, thoughtful, and Christian response.

What frustrates me most is how unethical all of journalism seems to have gotten. Our daily news channels offer mostly opinion and very little unbiased reporting. I know it’s not possible to report news completely unbiased, but it seems like nobody’s even trying. More and more it feels like every channel is pandering to its “own” audience. It’s disappointing to see journalism in this state- it’s almost to the point that it was in the days of sensationalism, when the media was responsible for helping start wars to increase sales. Disgusting.

In the meantime, I read a very interesting and relatively unbiased article on The Fall of Conservativism by George Packer of The New Yorker. It’s worth reading, even though it’s long. Packer gives a history of the social trends of conservativisim and liberalism over the last 50 or 60 years.

We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the United Buddhist Church. This is a role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolutions impossible but refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments. I’m convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. …

I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good will all over America today. I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, “You’re too arrogant! And if you don’t change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I’ll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn’t even know my name. Be still and know that I’m God.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., “Why I Am Opposed to the Vietnam War”

Look, I’d love to see a lot of tourists visit the city and bring money into the town, but what I’d like to see more is demolition, renovation, and rebuilding. Good Lord people, eight months later and New Orleans East looks like the perfect scene for a horror flick. Devoid of life, flashing stop lights, empty. It disturbs me so much that when the time comes to evacuate, I’m considering taking the long route across the Causeway to I-12 instead of staying on I-10 East all the way to Alabama. (Trust me, it’s a long way to get to the same place.) Last night NBC Nightly News had a small story on Filmore Avenue, which was my preferred route to get from NOBTS to Metairie. From what I gather, nobody has even gotten to that part of town. And there’s no chance they’ve cleaned up Ponchatrain/West End Blvd. where last I saw, they’d built a mountain out of old oaks and oak mulch on the neutral ground.

Progress. I’ve seen more progress in Iraq than in New Orleans. (No, I don’t blame Bush for this. I blame Nagin, Blanco, and New Orleans for this.) My friend Howie tells me that a firm from Tyler, Texas offered to pay New Orleans for each flooded/junked car they removed from the city. Instead, Nagin and his people declined and are now taking bids to see who they have to pay the least for removing the cars. And the cars are still there, last I checked.

This is the city I’m moving back to. My family thinks I’m crazy. I watch the news and I wonder if maybe I am. I got an email from my mentor, who recently brought his family back to New Orleans, and in it I felt undertones of frustration. The attitude he seemed to be telling me about: “They won’t change. They never change. Nothing will make them change.” I’ve felt that in my heart too. It’s a hard thing to watch. And I move back June 1st. Less than two weeks.

So here we are. Saturday. I didn’t vote because I don’t have a clue who to vote for. All I know is that Nagin wants a Chocolate (read: Black) City, and Landrieu is old school (read: the corrupt folks), and both seem to be completely out of touch with reality. In particular, Nagin seems to be the most clueless. I guess what it comes down to is that today really isn’t the first day of the rest of New Orleans’ life. It’s just another day in a very insane life. And here I sit wondering if it’s a city that wants redemption. That wants rebuilding. That wants anything. I wonder if maybe New Orleans just wants to party itself out, and die a pitiful death.

Two weeks.

[Update]: I guess I’ll be spending the next four years in the Chocolate City.  Anybody see the remake of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?  I wonder if he’ll bring in oompa loompas to rebuild.