Telling the Old Story in a New Way

From an Eastern Africa mission newsletter:

In today’s society, what matters is an image; a musk one can put on; the crowd a politician can gather using false promises of building castles in the sky for each of his electorate. So too do the preachers; the miracles one can perform; the money one can extort from the faithful. The quality of a product does not matter these days as long as manufacturer has shrewd advertisers and marketers. This is the world we are in; the world that greedy economy and distorted media industry are dominating and shaping the society.

A lingering question to the minds of those who have risen above a normal dust market person is; what should be done! If one has asked such a question, it means that the person has recognized the impact of unfavorable and inaccurate depiction of media images. Possibly that person, might have realized the role of media images in influencing public ideas and attitude in shaping behavior.

Dominicans are called to preach the Gospel in the midst of modern crisis. At the foundation of the Order in the 13thc, the church was in crisis too. The faithful were almost without pastoral care and preaching. We were founded furnished with the view to meeting the various needs of the society at the time. In the midst of
modern crisis, Dominicans are challenged to move assertively toward new ways of telling the same old story which we have loved so much, “the Gospel.” The media industry is using new communication technology which God has made available to advance their material benefits, and they are doing it so well, so committed and so
creative. Shouldn’t we be committed; creative and zealous not only assiduously studying the impact of media in behavior change, in the hope of reversing the course of action if not building immunity to the faithful, but also using the same communication technology to telling our beloved Old Story?