Refusing Good News

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

It has been reported for at least the last twelve hours that the city of Abdanan in Iran has fallen to the protesters and is no longer in the control of the Mullahs and the IRGC.  Sources as reliable as the Majority in the House Foreign Affairs Committee are reporting it and FoxNews has picked it up.  Smaller internet sources are reporting it.  But I cannot find a breath of it on any of the major news sites, foreign or domestic, other than Fox – not a hint, not a rumor report, nothing.  I get it, the reports are unconfirmed and typically the Mullahs let protesters have their way for a while before they crush them – but never in the history of the Islamic Republic have protesters seized a city – this is news.  And it is not being reported.

Moreover, this is good news.  I have no idea how this will end.  In the immortal words of Monty Python, the Mullahs aren’t dead yet.  But they are closer to dead than they have ever been since they took control of that nation decades ago.  Even if they survive, they are severely weakened, and the world is better off for it.  We need to pray for the people of Iran and we need to pray hard.  We need to thank God for the good that is happening as we do so.  And we need to focus on the good news.

Our media cannot stand good news right now.  If Superman flew into NYC and rescued a cat from a tree we’d get negative spin stories up to our eyeballs.  And we all know why.  But all this negativity is brain rot of a sort.  The Apostle Paul exhorts us to focus on the good, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  There is a reason he does so.

Thinking about this set me thinking about the Parable of the Sower and The Seed as told by Jesus.  It is one of the few parables where we have a record of Jesus actually breaking it down for His close followers.  And that explanation ends with a blessing, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.  For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”  Seeing the good news, focusing on the good news is a blessing.

There is much darkness in this world.  But our media seems unsatisfied with it and therefore tries to create darkness where there is light.  “They had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.”

And now I am sure the critics out there will tell me I am trying, offhandedly, to compare Trump to Christ.  What utter hogwash.  But I am trying to compare our legacy media to the Pharisees – the entrenched religious authority that failed to see new and very good thing that Jesus was doing.  There are no Pharisees around today, but legacy media is filling that role quite admirably.  When you do not see the good you just might end up in the dustbin of history.  Even a donkey can talk and give good news.  Sometimes we need to listen to the donkey.