WWUTT 1615 Q&A with Brian and Megan Basham

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Does a Christian have a responsibility to know what's going on in the news? How do we know who to trust with the news that we listen to?

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And how can we honor the Lord with our entertainment choices? The answers when we

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Understand the Text. This is

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When we Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of God. Because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. On the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners, and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

00:51

Yes. We really only have time for one question today. Only one. So this question comes from Susanna in New York.

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She says, Dear Gabe and Becky, I used to be very up on the news. I would read it every morning or listen to it on TV while I was working.

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But over the last couple of years, everything got so depressing and things got so crazy. I didn't know what to believe anymore, and I just quit listening.

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As a Christian, am I responsible to know what's happening in current events? And when it comes to listening to the news, how do

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I know whom to trust? And we've talked about some of these things on the program before and even given some recommendations on different news sources that you can check out and you can trust these sources.

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Yes. But we have somebody that's going to help us answer this question and think about these things a little more deeply today.

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Two people. Two people. That's right. We have Brian and Megan Basham. Yes. How are you guys? We're good.

01:45

Excellent. How are you? Doing good. We're cold in Texas, which is kind of weird. Weird, right?

01:52

And where are you guys out of? Five kids and a new baby. Yes. Yeah, that's right. Yep. And where are you out of?

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Charlotte. Well, you know, exurbs of Charlotte. So we're kind of, we're out in the country a little bit now, but in the

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Charlotte Metro, you'd say. Okay. Exurbs of Charlotte. Is that how you said that? Exurbs.

02:09

Oh, exurbs. Okay. As opposed to suburbs, it's exurbs. I like it. Got it. Got it. It's a little further than the suburbs.

02:15

Nice. That's right. Just so you know, I keep a dictionary around when Megan talks. I always have to refer to it.

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I love it. Now, these are names that you may be familiar with and maybe not. We have mentioned

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Brian before as he hosts World Watch News, which is part of World Magazine.

02:36

How's that connected with World Magazine? Yeah. So World, you've probably heard of for a long time. That's a magazine that started back in the 80s.

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We just launched this in 2020 and everybody was shut down and they decided to launch this for kids.

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So it's basically a news show designed for high schoolers, but in all honesty, we've got kids.

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We just got a picture today of a one -year -old sitting next to his older brother and sister watching the show.

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That's cute. Yeah. And it's for everybody. We get 90 -year -olds writing in as well telling us they watch.

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So it's nice. It's like a nice balance of world news. It's politics. It's what's happening in the rest of the world.

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We talk about wars. We talk about all these different topics. But we also talk about salad -eating contests between man and rabbit.

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That was a big story this week, the salad -eating contest with the rabbit. So who won?

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The person. The rabbit wasn't really that interested in the salad. Because I think of rabbits, you know, eating all the time and they eat a lot of lettuce.

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It seemed like a good idea, I think, when they thought up the contest and the execution was not as strong.

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It happens. Now, our kids in the morning, so we homeschool our children and they would wake up and watch a devotional with Paul Washer as he was going through his

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Proverbs series. And then they would watch Brian Basham with World Watch News. So you've been in our home pretty regularly.

04:05

Yeah. That's awesome. I love hearing that. It's fun. We get a lot of pictures in. I love seeing the kids lined up all along the way.

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It's so cute. Megan, you used to have an entertainment beat with the...

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It's World's audio program. The name slips my... Yeah, it's the podcast. So it's the World and Everything in it podcast.

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That's right. Yeah. I mean, really now that company is World News Group. Okay. So it does a lot of digital prints,

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World Watch, podcasts. So they've got a lot of products now. Yeah. So I started following you online and then you recommended

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Brian's show. And then we were like, oh, this is great, having a news show that our kids can watch. Because we were even wondering, how do we take the things that are happening in the news and kind of bring it down to our kids' level that they understand and even weed out some of the bad stuff.

04:52

Yeah. So that became a favorite for us in the home. And then, I mean, we just discovered this journalism power couple,

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Brian and Megan Basham. Yes. But since then, Megan, you've gone from World now to working at The Daily Wire.

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Yes. So I've been there. I started at the very beginning of May in 2021, so not quite a year yet coming up on that.

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And it's been really a different transition. There's a lot of Christians who work there, but it's not a

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Christian news organization like World was. You would say, I mean, it's obviously politically conservative, but we have

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Catholic hosts on our podcast who are well -known. Ben Shapiro is kind of our flagship podcast celebrity, and he's

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Jewish. You know, it's a very ecumenical, secular, you would say, media outlet, even though obviously they're well aware of my church lady tendencies and indulgence.

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But it's been different, though, coming from World, where, I mean, it was just a purely Christian environment.

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So it's just a different kind of reporting, but still getting to really follow those obsessions and indulge those interests.

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Now, is this how the two of you all met, because you had a shared interest in journalism? Nope, nothing to do with that.

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We were in a skit, a Christmas skit at our church, and we were cast together. And the potion, who was it?

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The Princess and the Potion Seller. So at Christmas this year, it was a church in Phoenix, we were living in Phoenix at the time, and I was a fairly new

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Christian and had just started going back to church and just looking to get involved in what they would at Christmas do.

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You'd almost call it like a renaissance fair type thing. They would open up the campus, it was a big church, at Christmas and have booths and skits, and they needed a lot of volunteers and participants.

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So yeah, we were put in a skit together. Yeah, he didn't learn his lines. He was really tough to work with.

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And Megan is a perfectionist and did not like my inability to memorize. He was always ad -libbing.

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I'm like, learn your lines! He got your attention. Yeah, and that kind of defines our marriage.

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I am a very learn your lines person, and he is an ad -libber. I think that's about like us.

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Yeah, pretty much. I ad -lib myself through everything. It has to be by the book.

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The recipe cannot say a dab or a dash. I'm like, how much is a dash?

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I need to measure this. Like, it's either too much or too little. I am 100 % there.

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One of the biggest spikes we ever got is he tried to make me go through the exit door of the Costco. Into Costco.

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You're not supposed to go in that way. Yep. Yeah, she'll ask me for my recipes, stuff that I'll make, and she'll go, now, how did you make this?

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And then I'm like, never mind. She's like, I don't know. I threw a bunch of stuff in a pot, and this is what came out. And I think

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I added this and maybe a little bit of this. But then this time, I was out of this, so I substituted.

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I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Just put cheese in it. There you go. That's right.

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So then the two of you being in journalism together, like, how did all of that come about?

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Was that both your shared desire? It just kind of happened that you both had a love for journalism? Well, actually,

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I had got my degree in it, but I didn't go into it until I was in my 30s.

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I was 33, and I was doing some jobs at... He was a stockbroker. Yeah.

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And I hated it. And I was on the phone all day long, and I just despised it. And I always regretted not going into it and went back to it.

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Right after 30. Yeah, we were right about the same time we both started to get in. But she started writing these movie reviews, and World just reached out to her.

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So it was completely coincidental. Providential. That we ended up there.

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Now, you used to work for... Wasn't it a local television station before you got picked up at World? Yeah, yeah.

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So we moved all around the country with it. And now you kind of do that. You keep moving until you get to the city that you want to get to. Keep moving up, moving up.

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Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So I was a meteorologist for several years, and then I switched to news in the last several years before I made the move over to World.

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Now, I understand you were a boat captain at one point, too. Isn't that right? I was a jungle cruise skipper.

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I was one summer. You know what I mean? Yeah. But you tell the same bad jokes over and over and over again, all day long, every day.

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Yeah. So I hear this about the jungle cruise skippers at Disney World. You're supposed to have these bad puns.

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And that's like part of the attraction. So can you give us a sample of these bad puns?

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We used to have stuff like when people are waiting in line and they make announcements.

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Like, ladies and gentlemen, we have an announcement. The person who lost the stack of $100 bills with a red rubber band.

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Good news. We found your rubber band. You know, stuff like that. I don't really remember a whole lot of the jokes.

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But they used to hide. Our managers would hide in the brush all along the ride, and you had to stick to the script.

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And if you didn't, you would get in trouble. So somebody gets hired to hide in the weeds and make sure you're doing your job?

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I don't know if they were hired to do it or if they just took it upon themselves. But they definitely made sure that we got straight from the script.

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That's the best thing that I've ever done. It's all been downhill since the 1990s.

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I understand. I worked at a mine. Where were you?

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Yeah, driving a 6010 haul truck. Oh, that is cool. Yeah, it was a

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Tonka toy. It was awesome. When I talk about my wife having a strong will, I say, hey, this woman used to drive a dump truck.

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You know what kind of woman I'm married to. You're good at backing up. That's a skill. Yeah, she's good.

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Only backing up. She can't go forward, but she's really good at backing up. I can't do trailers still.

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It was an all -connected Euclid, so it was not separate.

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I'm not gifted with trailers. I understand. I felt bad. I was embarrassed as a man, too.

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I was trying to back a trailer up in our old house, and my next door neighbor was just watching, watching, watching.

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Then he's like, hey, would you like some help with that? I did. I did want some help with that. He did it the first time, and then

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I did it the second time. I learned from it. I was embarrassed, and he was just watching it go down. You have to turn it backwards, and I just don't know how much.

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I get it. It's a skill. It's definitely a skill. Now, you guys are parents, of course.

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You have children. Talk about your family a little bit. Two girls. It took us a while.

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We had some trouble having kids, so it took us a while to get them. It's funny. My parents were on the very young side, and we're kind of on the other side.

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We are really grateful for our seven -year -old and our 12 -year -old, two daughters.

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Those are good ages. We don't say that about Megan, but I'm grandpa dad. That feels like something. It took so long before they came around.

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Now, you talked about meeting each other in church, so you knew the Lord before you met one another. How did you come to faith?

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I did as a youngster. I was probably in fifth grade when

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I made that decision, and then I got baptized when I was in high school. I was at a camp when

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I made the official decision to do that. Megan came by it much, much later.

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It's funny. Sometimes you feel like if you come to the Lord that young, you don't truly understand what it is you're being saved from.

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Being married to Megan, it's... I'm glad I could do that for you.

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I didn't mean to get you in trouble with that question. No, I'm just praying for the end of time.

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It's funny. I grew up in a Christian home, but I was very much not a believer myself.

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If you follow me on social media, I've talked about this. I'm not exactly secretive, but I had some really tough years.

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I went to college in Arizona, first University of Arizona. Because of my not being a

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Christian and having some tough years, they asked me to leave the University of Arizona. I ended up taking a couple years off, and then

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I went to Arizona State. Without getting into a lot of nitty -gritty details, my life was really a mess.

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I partied a lot and just really lost. I've written about this, and you can probably still find a copy somewhere out there.

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It was at the now defunct Weekly Standard. I wrote about it, and I think the Washington Examiner ended up republishing it.

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When I was about 24, you look around at your life, and you just made a wreck of it.

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I was back in school, and I was doing an English Lit class where we were going through the original

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Vulgate cycle of Lancelot. I was reading Lancelot's story. There were these moments where he is this sort of golden child.

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He's born physically healthy. He has outward attractiveness.

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He is a knight. He has all of these things, and he's squandering it on just loose living, you might say, and messing around with Guinevere, doing things he shouldn't be doing.

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We're talking about an ancient text here, and these monks keep coming out, these hermits, and are confronting him about it.

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It sounds weird, but I was reading it, and it got to me. I feel myself so much, and the story is weird.

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It's the story of Lancelot. I think I was in a place where I was just recognizing, too, that the knowledge that I had in my youth was still there.

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I always want to tell parents who are maybe going through a season like that that, look, it says when they're old, they won't depart from it.

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At least for me, thank God, truly, that the knowledge was there because when I was really lost and broken,

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I remembered it. I just cried out. I'm like, Lord, help. I distinctly remember getting down.

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I think it was dramatic enough that I got down on my knees, and I was like, Lord, please help me. Shortly after that,

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I started going back to church, and I came in contact with, I don't even remember how

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I picked it up, but just continuing to search John MacArthur's The Vanishing Conscience. This will get pretty deep in the weeds, but there's a very therapeutic culture in the church about addressing sin.

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There can be so much, and you need to address it in a lot of therapeutic, psychological ways.

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I came across John MacArthur's book, The Vanishing Conscience, and it just didn't do that at all. It's like, this is sin.

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Stop sinning. I don't know why that was such a revelation to me. You don't really go to John MacArthur to get therapy.

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It was like, that just clicked, and it was like a turning point from then on.

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I was probably about 24 at that point. I went back to church, and this will be my last mouth -running -on story, but I kind of went, okay,

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I got to go back to church, Lord. I got to get involved. I need a new group of community, new friends.

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I remember sitting in my truck out in front of the church prayer. I'm going to go to this college career group, but God, they're not nice to me.

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I'm not going back. I didn't even know that. I went in, and within four or five months, we had met, and a couple months later, we were engaged.

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They were pretty nice there. That's not too far from our story.

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Becky had gone through her rebellious phase, and it was right after coming out of that, we met one another shortly after you were baptized.

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Are you the bad girl too? Yeah. Back to the strong -willed that we were talking about before we started recording.

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Yeah, that was me. She was the strong -willed child. I made a joke.

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You married a husband who's never been through any of that. I know, right? Yeah, I had my own sort of rebellious streak, but it was similar to something that you said,

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Megan. In Psalm 119, it says, though I take my life into my own hands, I will not forget your law.

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Even though I was going about my own rebellious streak, some of those principles that my parents had instilled in me would still come back and keep me from going way worse than I could have gone.

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For the most part, when anybody looked at me, I was the straight -laced guy. Gabe's always the good guy.

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I knew whenever I started getting to know you that I didn't think that I was good enough for you, so I prayed for someone like you.

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Because I wasn't good enough. It doesn't take long to realize you're better than him, though, does it? Touché.

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Only because of Jesus. Do you help him with the, when we understand the text, do you guys sift through that together?

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Sometimes, yeah. I'll throw scripts at her, because sometimes it'll be that she has a thought that really summarizes the point a lot better than I do.

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I land the plane. Yeah, she knows how to land the plane, right. So, between the two of us, you probably can't tell, but I do most of the talking.

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It's not obvious at all. So, she'll help me just, you know, as I'm trying to keep those videos even at either two minutes or a minute and a half, she knows how to summarize that a little bit better.

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And I think even making the point more relatable than I was making it. I might have been too heady in my theology or something, and she knows how to bring it down.

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I'm definitely more on a kid level. I'm like, okay, this is too big. You know, like, you need to summarize that word.

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As you heard, I get that. I do sometimes. I'll read, she's like, well, can you read this?

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I'm like, okay, well, so I don't know what this word is. How could you see? She's like, well, but that's the right word.

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I'm like, that's fine. Except for that my vocabulary is okay, but I don't know what it is. But it's, but it's, but it's fun.

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I always ask her, you know, for years, she wrote, like, she would write all my resume letters and like, she essentially worked as my agent for like a good chunk of the time.

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She even negotiated contract one time. It's awesome. It is awesome. So she's better at that type of stuff.

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But it's, it's, it's, it's just funny and kind of the different things that you guys do for each other. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely.

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With the kind of church that you attend, then you have a pretty, well, I've just used the word expository.

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So a church that's very devoted to the scriptures. You guys remain committed to that.

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In the meantime, you're, you're having to cover the, all the wickedness that's going on in the world with the, with the jobs that you do sharing the news with somebody else.

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Yeah. And not so much now, but before. Yeah, it's funny. It's funny for all those years. And when

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I was in, in the secular news, it was, what's interesting is, is the, is the way you can attack it, you know, kind of getting the freedom, like being in a place that gives you the freedom to treat it.

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Like for us, we, we always have the Bible as the biblical backstop to everything that we, that we produce at Worldwatch.

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And that, you know, nothing we can say can violate what the Bible says. And so when we tell a story about something, you know, when

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I was in a, when I was in a secular world, they, they very much had, you know, they were, they were, for instance, very pro -abortion.

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And, and some other things, you know what I mean? And, and it's nice to be at a place where you're like, okay, when you do a story about abortion, it's very clear what, what the right angle.

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Where we stand, right. Yeah. On abortion, yeah. And so, and so there's a freedom to that, but, but for me, it's, you know, there's also a delicacy to it in the terms of the age group that we're dealing with.

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So. Yeah. It's kind of a new challenge, but, but it's nice to be able to come with it. And it was, it was interesting being in a secular world, you know, knowing, having your faith and being firm in your faith and the way that you approach these stories.

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And, you know, you'd have these meetings and they're, you know, the majority of the people are over here. You're over here and there might be one or two people.

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Most of the people who are over here with you won't say anything. And they didn't, you know, because you're nervous because people lose their jobs or they don't move up or whatever, because people know where they stand.

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And, and it was, and that was kind of, I, and for me, it was always like, I'm going to say the thing that I believe because it's going to affect the way they attack the story.

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They no longer can just come at the story. Oh yeah. And go, this is, this is our point of view because I'm going to question it and I'm going to make them defend it in the meeting.

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And they go, okay, we can't just say that because there's people that think differently or Brian's going to harass us.

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And so I kind of missed that aspect of it because I do think you need Christians out in the world.

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I'm fighting the fight there as well. But I would be honest with you. I really enjoy what I do and having the freedom to just do it from one, one perspective alone.

22:34

Sure. Now, let me ask this question of you, Megan, because you're a little different in the news that you report, though.

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You have done some great religion stories, as you mentioned there. One that just came out earlier this week about, well, briefly summarize that story.

22:48

So I don't mess it up. But the the different evangelical leaders who have given a platform to Francis Collins, director of the

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National Institute of Health. Give us the gist of that story. Right. So, I mean, essentially, the gist of that story is that National Institutes of Health director

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Francis Collins, you don't know his name. You know, somebody who works right under him, Anthony Fauci.

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So he leveraged a lot of very elite establishment friendships.

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He had in the evangelical world to come in and use their platforms to sort of push some debatable

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COVID policy and some things that were outright misinformation. Like the idea that the lab leak theory was conspiracy.

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We now know that not only is it not conspiracy, it is the likely explanation for where COVID came from.

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It's not 100 percent, but it's likely. So he leveraged those relationships to be sort of I don't think it's going too far out on a limb to say the sole source of sound information for all of these ministries and churches.

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And he was very specific, saying, I'm exhorting you pastors to convince your people to get vaccinated, to teach them that wearing masks is how you love your neighbor, how you show your love for Jesus, not to meet.

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I mean, he was pretty even sneering at churches that were choosing to meet sooner than he thought.

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Stay home. Don't go to church. Yeah. And then you dig into Francis Collins background and you frankly find that this is not a man that any

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Christian ministry or church should be looking to as a source of good information.

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So he is very pro stem cell research, fetal tissue research. It's very hard to argue someone with that position is for life.

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He's funded in his role at the NIH and pretty appalling research and experimentation at the

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University of Pittsburgh that involves harvesting organs from full turned babies.

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Wow. Grafting. I don't know how graphic you want me to be. But yeah, graphing infant scalps onto lab rats.

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He declares himself an LGBT ally and advocate and has funneled money into trans research on minors that included giving opposite sex hormones to children as young as eight mastectomies to girls as young as 13.

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And, you know, I've heard some pushback of people going, well, maybe he didn't specifically know that was going on. I go,

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I don't know every element of what he knew, but I know that his public statements at least right align with that ideology.

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So when you start to look at that, you go, I can't understand for the life of me why churches and ministers would think that this is a good person to rely on for information.

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And it was guys like Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, Rick Warren. All of these guys were platforming

25:33

Francis Collins, who's pushing the COVID narrative that we've been hearing for the last two years. Same stuff you hear from Anthony Fauci was coming from Francis Collins.

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Exactly. I mean, and to be super blunt about it, Rick Warren just straight out presented him and said, this is a man of integrity, a man you can trust.

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And that is how he was presented to their audiences. So it wasn't like, here's a perspective you might consider.

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Let's hear him out and we'll weigh and sift through the information. It was not that. It was this is a man of integrity, a man you can trust.

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Let's listen to him about what we should do. Again, when you start to look at the source of that information, you go, this is not a man of integrity, certainly not pro -life.

26:14

Yeah. Now that, that really brings us back to the question that we started with.

26:19

So this gal from New York who has emailed us has said that she she doesn't even know who to trust anymore when it comes to looking for the kind of news that is going to give us, you know, the information we need.

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We know the facts of what's going on in the world. But when it comes to many of the evangelical leaders that are out there, you can't even trust what they're putting in front of you when they're bringing and platforming a guy like and like, well,

26:44

Anthony Fauci, but Francis Collins. So let's let's talk about let's pick apart her question a little bit.

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So, first of all, she says, as a Christian, am I responsible to know what's happening in current events?

26:57

Do we have a responsibility as Christians to know what's going on in the world? What would be your opinions about that?

27:03

What is your opinion about that? I didn't know questions beforehand at all.

27:12

To a certain extent, I wouldn't be legalistic about it. Look, we're all in different stages of life.

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We have different responsibilities. We have different tasks set for us. So if you're someone who's a busy mom of five children,

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I don't necessarily say, yes, you must be up on everything. You know, you're busy.

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But I do think this and I go, look, we're to be as wise as serpents, innocent as doves.

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And it's hard to be wise as serpents if you're not sifting through this information to some degree. And also just in terms of, you know, guiding public policy and being a good citizen, you need to know enough to make those kind of informed decisions.

27:51

You need to know who am I empowering here about the local school board? What kind of books are they putting in front of the children?

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Just things like that. So to the extent that, you know, you know this information so that you're able to be a force for light and be salt in the world.

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I think, you know, don't you don't need to overdo it. You don't need to make it your whole life like some of us do. But I do think there's a certain responsibility there to be that wise as serpents.

28:18

Yeah. And, you know, you've got you have to be careful about making it your idol. I know you get people talk about that as well.

28:24

And I know. So what happens when you do that is you get so involved with it that you spend all your time looking, thinking, fighting with people and so on and so forth.

28:38

That's part of your job, as long as we separate the times. But I do think that but I do think it's wise to keep up with it.

28:47

And especially, I think, to an area you need to really talk about is if you have children.

28:53

Right. And your children are consuming this information, these stories, and they're hearing bits and pieces.

28:58

And now in this day and age, they're hearing a lot of bits and pieces that they didn't used to talk about and a lot that's been forced down their throat.

29:05

And if you don't understand, sometimes I think what's happening in the world, you have no idea about that.

29:11

And I don't have to talk about that or you know what I mean. And I think it helps you to to prepare if you know what's going on, to prepare for those questions.

29:19

So I think it's I think it's wise. I don't think it's wise to spend too much time doing it. But I do think it's wise to keep up.

29:26

Well, yeah, you can get really discouraged and then you become a worrier. You just become anxious about everything when you're just listening to the news constantly.

29:34

And I've had to I mean, as a pastor, I've had to counsel somebody on that. I think you're watching the news too much.

29:40

They do those cliffhangers of, you know, like this is breaking news. And then, you know, stay tuned for more.

29:46

You don't get the resolution from it. I mean, I need the whole story, like just sum it up for me.

29:53

And those kind of stories, I'm good. But but when it's a cliffhanger, I'm like, oh,

29:58

I can't just don't leave me here. You need to be the master at writing the cliffhangers. I don't you know, it's funny, though, is that I don't like those.

30:07

I like I feel guilty doing it. And a lot of times the story like the back half of the story is boring and dumb. And you're like, I sat around for that.

30:14

Yes. Well, news news is a business. And if they can keep you in fear and clamoring for more, then you come back and watch the stories the next day.

30:24

But they never give you a resolution of the stories the day before. It's just more things to be afraid of. So when

30:30

I love their tagline that addresses. So what's great about their news program is they end it every day with your tagline.

30:36

Whatever. Remember, whatever the news, the purpose of the Lord will stand. Yes, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that.

30:43

And that's that's really that really helps do that. And I especially think, you know, if you look over these last couple of years, you know, I saw people respond to this covid stuff like people, close people that I've known my whole life.

30:54

They responded in a and I understand it was scary, but in such a fearful way that it just it caught me off guard.

31:01

And I think that part of that was that what they were consuming, how much they were consuming, what they were being told about it.

31:07

And I just and I see that and that it is so easy to let that just affect you in so many ways negatively.

31:16

And so I just so yes, I still say keep up with it, but don't don't drown yourself in it.

31:22

Yeah, it's the it's the word of Christ in Matthew six. Do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.

31:27

We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that we need will be added as well.

31:34

So think about the last part then of that question where she says, when it comes to listening to the news, how do

31:40

I know whom to trust? How can we look for those sources that are trustworthy and believe what they say?

31:47

Well, you know, it's funny. Just today I felt I had a little illustration before I knew I was getting this question of that.

31:52

I mean, I can give you an example that and hopefully it's not too self -serving. But one of the things

31:58

I did with this Francis Collins story was very careful to document everything and link to everything so that you can research it yourself.

32:06

You can take a look at that or specific about the quotes, what people said, when they said it, the context of what they said it.

32:12

And then I saw an essay out this morning from The New York Times from David Brooks.

32:19

I know what story you're talking about. Yes, it was. I can't remember the title. It was something about the dissenters trying to save evangelicalism from itself.

32:27

It's behind a paywall now. You could read it for free at first. But yeah, now you can't. Don't pay for it.

32:36

But I happen to know some of the inside details of a situation that was in that story.

32:42

I knew exactly what happened. And one of the examples that he gave, and it was a very vague example.

32:48

He sort of said young reporters were not able to pitch stories to Trumpist editors.

32:54

Well, if you notice, no names of reporters, no names of editors, no description of the story.

33:01

It was a very generalized idea. And I go, I don't know what anyone said. What do you define as Trumpist?

33:07

So one of the things that I would look for as far as the hallmark of good reporting is look for hard details.

33:13

If they're not there, wonder why they're not. Going back to the old school, who, what, when, where, why and how.

33:21

The basic questions. Don't forget those. Those are the building blocks.

33:28

Even your sports disciplines go back to the basics. Sure. I didn't do sports.

33:35

Publications with a good record who cover stories. I also tend to. If you're familiar with Molly Hemingway, she's now the editor of The Federalist.

33:45

I saw that. Yeah, we were we did a journalism fellowship many years ago at the beginning of our careers.

33:52

I went a different way. I kind of did the stay at home thing. And but it was fun to watch Molly rise. You see her everywhere now.

33:58

But I felt like I learned something from just watching her, which was what I tend to term.

34:04

Well, now, hang on a minute. Journalism. So. No, that's conspiracy theory or that couldn't happen.

34:13

Molly would go, well, now, hang on a minute. Could there be something to this or is there another angle on this that we haven't considered?

34:20

And that's part of why I started consuming The Federalist a lot when I wanted to know,

34:26

OK, what's the other perspective on this story? I would go to an outlet where I knew that there was someone who wasn't just going to go along with the herd.

34:34

That if everybody who's respectable says that this is not possible. I'm like, if she says it, too, then

34:40

I trust her because she will think about it for a minute before she just agrees to. So as not to be embarrassed with the respectable crowd.

34:47

Yeah. And I would say whatever you're watching, reading, listening to that one, don't just listen to one because sometimes people get it wrong.

34:58

Right. Yeah. Right. And that that that, you know, they always say when you're listening to the pastor, OK, listen to the pastor and then go look in your

35:05

Bible to make sure that it is true. Right. Right. I think that being good Bereans. What's that?

35:11

Being good Bereans like in Acts chapter 17. Right. Yes. Yes, exactly. And so I would say the same of your news.

35:18

Right. So even if I trust world quite a bit, whether it's

35:24

World Watch or the world and everything in it, digital or digital outlet as well. I think all of those have been exceptional a lot of the times.

35:32

But again, if I saw it there, I would still look in several other places just just because I you want to see what you want to see.

35:39

You got a full picture of what happened, the idea and that you're that you're not missing elements or somebody's not getting something.

35:45

And that actually brings up one other little more detail that I would say, you know, check for those sort of journalistic ethics.

35:52

If changes are made, they should be noted. If you see that a story that has changed and they got it wrong because we do, we sometimes get things wrong.

36:00

We all make mistakes. If you're not willing to acknowledge if that's a news outlet or a journalist or a media person who isn't willing to say, oops,

36:09

I made a mistake there. And instead, they just ignore it or sweep it under the rug. That's, you know, it's not an outlet that you're going to put a lot of faith in.

36:17

Yeah, true. Not that I'm speaking of anything specific. Yeah. So so I will get specific.

36:23

So when the when the gospel coalition changes a story, but they don't acknowledge the change or even apologize for the error that they made.

36:32

Yes, I'm calling you out, TGC. But then there's probably a reason to question their ethics and what it is that they're doing in their reporting.

36:39

Well, and I have to say, it's been sadly pretty rampant in Christian journalism.

36:45

I mean, in that Francis Collins story, I noted that Ed Stetzer, as an editor of Christianity Today, had a story where he labeled that lab leak theory a conspiracy theory.

36:56

Oh, yes. Right. We've heard it from all of them. Yeah. It just took it off and it went away and it disappeared.

37:02

And it was fortunately cached by the Wayback Machine. So I was still able to get access to it.

37:07

But I'm like, that's not how you do it. You don't just make articles disappear. That is how Ed Stetzer does it.

37:12

I mean, you see that he only keeps 70 tweets or something like that on at a time.

37:18

So, yeah. Anyway. All right. Well, I'm not going to ran on that. No. I almost went there with you.

37:28

Now, Megan, you mentioned something about being a stay at home mom. So your dynamic together,

37:34

Brian, you go to work and Megan, you stay home and cover those stories. Is that kind of how it works in the

37:40

Basham home? Yeah, he always jokes because he's like, if people saw how you work, like, I'm in my pajamas and bed.

37:47

So it's not a real like, you know, power force type of thing happening. We always laugh because we so for my business, we move around the country all the time.

37:55

We always move in houses and we get so excited about moving to a new place. And I'm like, yes, the bedroom looks different and different.

38:09

So he typically works from home now in the morning. And that's been a weird transition for me since he started at Worldwatch, because before he went to the news station in the morning and I had the house to myself.

38:22

And now it's a little like, huh, you're still here, huh? So, yeah, so we kind of split the house in the mornings and then he goes to the studio in the afternoon to film and I'll do, you know, pick up, kid, pick up, kid, drop off, that sort of thing.

38:39

Now, both of you could probably respond to this. Megan, the religion stories that you do, that's kind of like they let you do that at the

38:46

Daily Wire. I asked before I was hired there, they said, you know, we're hiring you.

38:54

You have an entertainment background, a culture background. And I said, you know, I'm very interested in still covering those things, but I am dying to cover some of them.

39:02

Will I have leeway to do that? And they said, yes. So I'm like, all right, then I can take this.

39:08

So being somebody that is more your experience is more in the realm of covering entertainment like movies and television and things.

39:15

So even when it comes to us as Christians, knowing what are the right news outlets that we should be listening to.

39:23

How about when it comes to entertainment? How do we know what kind of entertainment is good for us as Christians and what kind of stuff we should really kind of stay away from?

39:33

Brian's giving her a look here. I've been dealing with that question for 20 years and I still have sort of a very fuzzy answer, which is, look, it's one of the where the line is for you is, you know, that's you and the

39:45

Holy Spirit. There are certain lines that I go, all right, Game of Thrones. No, you know. Yeah, that's right. Other lines you go,

39:52

I don't know. What are the nudgings of the Holy Spirit there for you?

39:59

What are the lines? You know, is it hearing a bad word? Is it, you know, some things I tend to be very hawkish on sexual content and I have a long sort of feel on why that is, whereas I'm not as hawkish on violent violence.

40:12

Right. Bother me as much. Yeah. Part of that is, is I don't watch a gunfight and feel inspired to go participate in a gunfight.

40:20

So it doesn't inspire, you know, sin within my heart the same way that a sex scene might.

40:26

So that's kind of how I weigh that is how is that inspiring sin in you? And so part of my work in doing that is

40:34

I, and I don't do it as much now at Daily Wire. I did it a lot more at World, but you would watch these things and go, also, what, what are the themes here?

40:41

Are these themes that are reflecting deep, eternal truth? Are they undermining that?

40:47

Because what would be interesting is sometimes you would have secular entertainment that would still highlight real biblical truth in a surprising way.

40:55

And to give you one example, the PBS, maybe it was BBC series Broadchurch from the

41:01

UK. I watched that and I went, it was fascinating to me how that series brought out some really biblical ideas.

41:10

And I don't know if they did it on purpose or not. So I like, I enjoy sort of sifting through that kind of entertainment.

41:17

And on the other side, when it's really bad, I'll save you. You know, then I'm just, I'm saving you a buck.

41:22

Right. I'm like, it's terrible. Now, Brian, what was with the look that you gave when, when that question was first asked?

41:31

Oh, no. Just so, so over the course of a year. So, so you have people who, who read her reviews, but there's people that have different feelings about what people as a

41:41

Christian should watch or not watch. Okay. And, and you literally could pick any movie, maybe at a hundred people, 99 people say there's nothing wrong.

41:49

There's nothing to see here. There's nothing, I mean, not nothing to see, like, there's nothing bad. It should be totally fine. And there'll be the one person who's like,

41:55

I can't believe you're covering this. This is evil. And it's like, what's, what's the movie with all the, with all the toys?

42:04

Is this Toy Story? Toy Story. You don't know Toy Story, Brian? Come on. I know. I thought it was,

42:10

I was like, I knew the toy part, but I wasn't positive it was Toy Story. So, you know, there's nothing there, at least

42:19

I can't think back. Actually, there was, it turned out in the last one and I missed it when I reviewed it. The most recent

42:25

Toy Story, I'm like, I really enjoyed the idea of Forky. He didn't watch this.

42:30

Yeah, right. If you remember Forky, that you are what your creator tells you you are.

42:35

You're not trash because you feel like trash. Your creator says you're this, so you're this. Yeah. I enjoyed that theme.

42:42

I totally missed that. And, you know, that's a whole other story. But GLAAD and some other

42:48

LGBT organizations have hands deep into some of these studios. Oh, yeah. I missed the two moms at the front and I got letters.

42:56

I'm sorry. And it was completely unintentional. I don't know if I blinked at that moment and I just missed it.

43:02

So, yeah. But that's, but that's it. So, so it didn't matter what she's going to write about. She's going to get lit up.

43:09

Or how she covers it or what she says, you know, and and so that's why. And so that's why it's been a struggle.

43:15

And she and that's the ultimate question that she's been asked year after year after year. Is either why do you do this?

43:23

How could you do this? Or why did you cover this movie or TV show or whatever?

43:28

And it's a legitimate question in all honesty. It is. No, it is. Yeah. But it's just hard to, you know, how do you answer it exactly?

43:34

I think the majority of those questions we get to the program are really like, is this sin? Is this not sin?

43:40

It's a lot of Christian Liberty sorts of things. How would you answer it? I'm actually pretty rigid on we don't talk about our entertainment choices.

43:48

So even with our, even with TV and movies, with music, if you want to have a private chat about it, like, like you yourself might feel convicted over what you're watching or listening to.

44:01

Then we can talk about, you know, if you're feeling convicted. There's probably something there. You might need to think about cutting that out.

44:07

Right. But we don't want, I don't want to lead anybody astray, especially my position as a pastor.

44:12

So I don't even wear brand names or any sort of clothing like that because, and that's a personal conviction.

44:18

That's not going to be a thing that I recommend that everybody do. But you'll certainly hear me say that a movie or a

44:25

TV show is stupid and you should never, ever watch it. We'll give a thumbs down.

44:31

Yes, definitely. But I don't, I don't recommend things because like you said, Megan, there could be 99 people that love it.

44:38

That one person who disagrees. And am I causing that one person to stumble over something that in their conscience they've been convinced is wrong.

44:46

So it's just better. Those things are so subjective. It's just better not to make a platform out of that at all.

44:51

For me, anyway. Some people can tolerate the swearing. Some people can't. Some people can tolerate smoking.

44:57

Some people, you know, they're like, oh, I want a cigarette now. And, you know, and then they're like, we talked about a couple of weeks ago that my friend, when she watches and reads like the romance novels, like Pride and Prejudice and stuff like that, or like the

45:13

Hallmark movies. Was Pride and Prejudice a romance novel? Yes. I wouldn't think of that as a romance. I dare you ask that.

45:21

Okay, moving on because I'm not getting on that one. I'm thinking of romance novels as like, yeah, the smut.

45:29

No, no, no, no. Like PG romance novels.

45:34

Okay. But like Hallmark and stuff like that, that makes her have higher expectations of her husband that he's not able to meet.

45:44

And so there's there. I mean, it just depends on what your struggle is with.

45:50

And then you shouldn't put that in front of you, you know, ask friends. Yeah.

45:56

I brought that up in talks before about Corinne where I went for me and a man would never see this as a temptation.

46:03

But those romantic comedies where they have these fabulous jobs with beautiful homes and exotic places.

46:09

Oh, yes. Beautiful clothes. I go, it would create like a discontent. And I went, you would not think of that type of movie.

46:16

Yeah, being a temptation. But I like it. It made me feel discontent with my life. And I'm like, so those are ones

46:22

I have to watch. Yeah. But you can watch a Swiffer commercial and feel that way. Oh, yeah. The happy mom using her mop and like, man,

46:31

I need that mop. Yeah. Just needed my life put together that way so I could get out the

46:36

Swiffer. Well, Brian and Megan, I sure appreciate you taking some time out today and being willing to visit with us and helping us even think through some of these news choices and entertainment choices.

46:49

Brian is known on World Watch News as the Big Bash. Does Megan ever get called the

46:54

Little Bash? No. I mean, no. And she does far more bashing than I ever do.

47:05

Well, thank you guys so much. And we pray for you both. We thank you for the work that you do as Christians in this realm.

47:11

We know that it must be really difficult and all the kinds of challenges that you have to face. But I sure appreciate you helping us think through these things, how we think as Christians in the world.

47:20

Thank you. Thanks for having us. Let's finish up with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for Brian and Megan and the work that they are doing in the news and helping us to think about these things as Christians.

47:32

Give us the mind of Christ, as we read about in 1 Corinthians 2 and in Philippians 2. And there in Philippians 2, it says that we are to shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life.

47:44

So we think with Christ -mindedness, and we are also holding out the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world so that they may know it is only in Christ that we are forgiven our sins.

47:56

We have fellowship with God and the promise of eternal life in a perfect kingdom that is to come.

48:03

Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the grave so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

48:11

It is through the glorious good news of the gospel that we look at the world and interact with the world as Christians.

48:18

Help us to do this wisely. Wise as serpents and innocent as doves, as Megan had said earlier in the interview.

48:26

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your goodness toward us every day. And may we live for you each day.

48:32

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

48:37

There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

48:46

Find a good, gospel -teaching, Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more