Gathering news on the Sabbath

Status
Not open for further replies.
I can't speak for secular media (Fox News, New York Times, etc.) because I don't know on them.

However, I cannot imagine those gathering for groups such as ICC and VoM to not be doing a work of necessity.
 
When I worked in the local television news business, it always seemed to me that the community could have gotten along just fine without the regularly scheduled Sunday newscasts. However, the structure of things was that the community also depended on television news for emergency information in the case of natural disasters, crime alerts and especially severe weather. So I acknowledged that a skeleton staff would have to be around to keep tabs on such things, call in help if needed and produce emergency news reports.

This makes things interesting. For a theoretical newsroom with sabbatarian convictions (I never encountered one), I would think the presence of the skeleton staff would make it tempting to use the time to get non-emergency work done also if it might be helpful later in the week. At some point, getting videotape of some non-emergency but important Sunday event, for use on later newscasts, would start to seem like a "necessity." Is it?

It gets tricky in a non-Sabbath society, where others schedule newsworthy events on Sundays. The biblical Sabbath laws required community-wide compliance. Applying this in a community that doesn't observe the Sabbath creates messy questions.
 
Consistent sabbatarians shouldn't read Monday newspapers, as they are prepared on Sundays.

Hadn't thought about that. Back when we took a paper, we'd often get Sunday's paper on Saturday night. We didn't get Sunday delivery, but I never thought about Monday's set-up/lay out being on Sunday.
 
Tornado, flood and hurricane alerts might come in handy on the same day. Also, missing child reports and or news of rapists loose in a community.

Much news helps public safety.
 
Consistent sabbatarians shouldn't read Monday newspapers, as they are prepared on Sundays.

A lot of consistent Sabbatarians don't get a newspaper on a Monday, whereas a lot do.

I get a newspaper on a Monday, maybe being slightly less consistent in some people's opinions.

But in a Christian society some important news would need to be gathered and transmitted on Sunday and Monday. There would be stripped-down Monday newspapers, probably about a page in length :lol:

I don't bother listening to the news on Sunday or get Sunday newspapers unless I hear that a tidal wave or earthquake is about to hit Scotland.
 
It always help to keep in focus what God's Law commands.

Sabbath is a day to "cease" from the ordinary labors and recreation of the rest of the week in order to prioritize the worship of God.

In that way, the day is made "holy." It is part of the fourth commandment which requires one to do their work six days, rest one, and in that to remember creation and redemption.

"Mercy" and "necessity" are established as part of the command.

But that is not through the prism of our own convenience, but, rather, through that of whether the labor itself is necessary to be done at that time. As difficult as it is to accept, God is not saying that necessary means that it is necessary because one might lose that job, because that is the convenience of the employer, and does not make it "necessary."

Think of it this way- if an employer commanded you to steal money from people as part of your job, you would not be justified in stealing because, after all, you had to have the job. We may think this way, but, by faith, God will still provide for you. It is possible you will have to suffer in doing right, sometimes. Suffering to obey God (maybe even losing a job) just might happen, and suffering having done right is not anathema to the Christian life. It's part of it, though that may not be "popular" with our fleshly appraisal.

There might be some instances where a news gather has real need to do some labor on the sabbath. The difficulties compound however because it also affects their corporate worship. Let's say, hypothetically, someone who works at the "severe weather" news desk, and that is substantially all they do is gather news for weather emergencies. And this, the job requires them to do every sabbath, in that position.

I don't think it absolves that person from the responsibility to corporately worship, serve in the Church, be accountable in the Church... nor does it absolve the person from a command to rest (sabbath). So, the person who works Sunday in this hypothetical, might have Monday off- and still has an ongoing need to worship God corporately and accountably. All that doesn't just disappear because of the overarching priority (hypothetical) of the employer's requirement that they work every Sunday.

At best, I think, even if the work is absolutely necessary on Sunday, it ought be temporary.... because it creates a situation that I think is untenable over the long haul for the believer. Exactly where that point occurs is not subject to quick and easy defintion- but it goes for medical professionals, law enforcement- all.

Every believer needs to be ready to both lose the temporal "benefits" and to live "by faith," and that includes earning a living.

It's one of the most difficult truths out there.

A Christian has a duty to "sabbath," to not ordinarily abstain from corporate worship, as well as labor. Actually, this is a command for all creatures.

The fact that we are so prone to invent imagined excuses to justify our disobedience to a Holy omniscient Creator God is but another indication of how much we need a Savior, and how sweetly we ought be driven back in repentance toward the excellencies of His chastisement and forgiveness.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top