Hard facts?

We want a good news article rather than a Christian meditation when we are in the mood for "hard facts" rather than speculative religion. Unfortunately, on closer inspection, our preconceived notions aren't always borne out.

We now know the United Nations overstated the AIDS epidemic by six million people. What was a fact for me on November 18th was no longer a fact when I woke up on November 19th.

On the same day, I read that "the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa" is in Somalia, but has gone uncovered by media. U.N. spokesman Eric Laroche says: "If this were happening in Darfur, there would be a big fuss. But Somalia has been a forgotten emergency for years." What that tells me about "hard facts" is that news bureaus decide for us which happenings in the world are more important than others.

It was a "hard fact" that human embryonic stem cells had been created by cloning --- until last year when Korean researcher Hwang Woo Suk admitted faking his results.

Then there are the "hard facts" Chalabi's Iraqi exiles and defectors fed to our credulous journalists a few years ago.

Speaking of which, remember the "hard facts" about the D.C. sniper served up by The New York Times' Jayson Blair? Desperation to survive in a shrinking newspaper market may tend to spawn facts that are less than hard.

So, a little caution is in order in drawing hard and fast distinctions between "hard" news and "soft" Christian reflections. Bible truth is valuable unto eternal life. Newspaper news is valuable in a less consequential way --- when it is even true.