Can you be neutral? Can you listen to both sides before reaching a decision? Can you be objective when every friend and family member and church member, work associate,—EVERYONE is on the same side? And they expect you to join them? Can you RESERVE JUDGMENT?
Most cannot. But here is a Biblical principle that will provide some guidance:
“Do not be partial to the poor or give preference to the rich. Judge your neighbor fairly.” Leviticus 19:15.
Most of us think we would never automatically favor someone based on their poverty or wealth. Yet everyone does it. American liberals are “partial to the poor,” and American conservatives “give preference to the rich”—or at least the gainfully employed members of the middle-class. When a defendant enters court with a certain look, or vibe, certain clothing or tattoo choices, liberal jurors may immediately assume he has had a tough life and look for ways to excuse his failures—while conservative jurors may assume he has made a lifetime of bad choices and it’s time for him to face the music. Both are wrong: YOU MUST RESERVE JUDGMENT UNTIL YOU SEE THE EVIDENCE.
This is also true in the area of journalism. Reporters must not “be partial to the poor” or “give preference to the rich.” Yet they do both constantly. Many news outlets have all but given up the pretense of telling both sides of the story. Instead, they tell only the side they prefer. Liberal news outlets (nearly all traditional newspapers and broadcasts) have a left-leaning bias, causing them to tell stories in ways that make the poor and downtrodden look like victims of “society’s failures,” as if the poor are children who bear no responsibility for their actions. Conservative news outlets, by contrast, tell the same stories in a manner that make the poor and downtrodden look like evil-hearted criminals who can never be reformed and should be locked up forever.
Both are wrong. But we cannot change journalism. What we can do is RESERVE JUDGMENT and listen to news reports from both sides. That is the only way to ensure that we are neither favoring the poor nor the rich, but are “judging our neighbors fairly.”
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