Our Critique Infested Society

James 3:5-8, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

In Pastor Jack Hyles' helpful book titled, “How to Treat Different Types of Church Members,” in chapter 13, he makes these very truthful statements about our broken American culture:

7. Do not live in unplanned situations. Idle time is one of the great causes for unnecessary and unwise reaction. Just sitting around and talking with nothing planned leads to differences, arguments, fusses and reactionary conversation.

One of the great problems of our society is that it is built on critique. It is falsely assumed by many that the ability to critique someone is a sign of strength. Nothing could be farther from the truth! To attack the strong is not a sign of strength. To do nothing but critique those who do something is certainly not a sign of strength. 

The time was, for example, when the local sports writer was a cheerleader for the local team. He has now become the Devil's advocate and is considered somewhat of a successful sports writer if he can criticize the coach. 

Men who have never carried a football, thrown a pass, kicked a field goal or made a tackle seem to know more about coaching than men who have coached for a lifetime. The pew critiques the pulpit. The student critiques the teacher, and the press critiques everybody! 

One can hardly listen to a radio station without finding movie critics, restaurant critics and a bevy of other self-styled experts whose only talent is criticizing talent, whose only strength is criticizing strength, whose only accomplishment is shooting at those who have accomplished.

God, give us men who act, not men who react! Give us men with the character to determine their behavior and who decide their own course of action!

Dr. Hyles is so right! We live in a reactionary society. We live in a critical society in the United States. Everybody's a critic. The mainstream newsmedia is largely to blame. Most people are familiar with the ongoing Lindsay Clancy saga. Of the 12 jurors in Duxbury, Massachusetts, one held out, voting guilty, which offended everyone, including the judge. The media are so rotten that they dug into the court files and told the world that the man was charged with abusing his girlfriend several years ago (but the charges were dismissed).

But there's more, the rotten media made sure to slander him further by telling the world that he is presently being evicted for not paying his rent. They are assassinating his character in a malicious attempt to discredit him as a juror, because he thinks Lindsay Clancy is guilty, as I also do. I dread the corrupt dung-spreading mainstream newsmedia.