How to read the news
Do you read your newspaper from the back or from the front? I definitely go to the sport section first, perhaps for the comfort of triviality.
A brief and thought-provoking post from Michael Horton challenges Christians to see reading the news as loving their neighbours:
In this era between Christ’s two comings, God sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If He shows His common grace toward all people and a common interest in all affairs, these issues should concern us for more than merely practical reasons. We share with non-Christians in the same joys and disappointments of temporal life.
I've never really thought of it like that. This seems much better than knowing what's going on in an effort to stay 'relevant' (which with that starting point is self-defeating), or responding to everything by trying to cram it in to our framework of understanding (which I am tempted to do a lot).
I barely watch TV news at all, mostly for the reasons demonstrated by Charlie Brooker's brilliant parody (which contains swearing)