Yellow Journalism : The Devil is in the Details

As a grumpy old man I occasionally find myself empathizing with Elijah as he faced the prophets of Baal. One of the surest ways to twist my tail is to point me at a newspaper article where the salient facts are buried and the salacious facts are trumpeted.

Come now, let us reason together. Everyone who thinks that a convicted felon should be able to expect a jail sentence, raise your hand. Everyone who thinks that a person who lies to get a service someone else paid for is a hero, nod your head. Everyone who thinks it is acceptable to steal $30,000 for a good cause, say "Amen".

I thought so.

Do not mistake my targets. I do not wish to imply that only the reporters in the liberal press are demon-inspired. However, in the January 26, 2011 article in the Akron Beacon Journal, Kelley Williams-Bolar leaves jail but public outcry escalates, the following two statements are separated by a single paragraph :

"A jail official confirmed that Williams-Bolar, 40, was released about 10 a.m., after serving nine days of a 10-day sentence for improperly enrolling her children in Copley-Fairlawn schools."

and

"On Jan. 18, Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail after a jury convicted her of two felony counts of tampering with records. She also was given two years of probation and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service."

So which statement is true?

Let's recap some facts.

1. Williams-Bolar lives in Akron in subsidized housing where the subsidy is dependent on the number of occupants
2. Williams-Bolar signed affidavits both stating that her children were residents of Akron (to obtain the subsidy) and Copley Twp. (to get taxpayer provided education)
3. Copley-Fairlawn Schools determined that the amount of tuition stolen from the district by the deceit was about $30,000
4. Williams-Bolar was given opportunity to repay the stolen tuition but refused

I count three (3) commandments of the Big Ten violated: the ones that have to do with coveting, lying, and stealing. However, because Williams-Bolar is black, people like the Rev. Al Pinhead see this as a case of racial oppression, and droves of others across the country have expressed solidarity with this criminal -- "A Change.org web-based petition seeking to reduce William-Bolar's sentence on appeal had collected almost 7,000 signatures by midafternoon. 'She has been robbed of the opportunity to elevate her life and the lives of her family through her own intelligence and hard work — the alleged "American Dream," ' the petition read in part."

Bullfeathers. Certainly anyone who seeks a better set of circumstances for her children will find sympathy in the population at large. However, the fact that a supposedly "Christian" nation throws the Ten Commandments under the bus whenever they conflict with self-delusional righteousness is an indication that the "Christianity" professed by the majority is nothing but the fraud its atheistic critics claim it to be.

Let us get some things straight. God is not the author of situation ethics. It is never right to do wrong. Sin is not measured by degree; the Bible is clear that if a person offends in one point of the Law, he has broken the whole thing. The problem is not that people sin. The problem is that people refuse to confess the sin and repent. What foolishness to raise money to appeal the conviction when a better purpose would be served by raising the money to repay her debt to the taxpayers she cheated.

It is not hard to visualize a situation in which a person makes a deliberate decision to sin in order to avoid an unpleasant alternative. I fully understand that kind of situation. To claim that something is a lesser evil, however, still leaves you with an evil. To claim that the lesser evil somehow is mitigated by the situation is to despise the sacrifice of Jesus for all of our sin. The bogus Christians will read this and start looking for some big stones, because it will irritate them as greatly as Stephen's audience was irritated.

The liberal press would have you try to serve both God and self. God would have you die to self and live for Jesus Christ. The outrage that has been expressed is only a symptom of the ignorance of righteousness within the general population. Don't be a chump. Stand up for the Ten Commandments, and don't let anybody tell you they no longer count.