Your Help! Potential Seminar/Sunday School coarse: Media Literacy from a Biblical Perspective

[Jazman]

This is something I've been thinking about doing and also picking at for some time. It may or may not happen in the next year or two at my church... if my uppers accept my proposal. For starters, I am not finished with it, and only have some basic outlines and bits and pieces that I might use. A few quick points.
- I've watched, listened to, perused numerous media literacy courses and I found them all worthwhile AND would personally be comfortable using them as a basis for an in-church study course, with maybe some religious / Bible material sprinkled in; that wouldn't bother me personally and would really welcome it (I consider all truth to be God's truth and I consider rigorous, trying-to-be-objective journalism media to be an aspect of His common grace to all). It's a subject I'm deeply interested in both as a consumer and as someone working in marketing/advertising etc.
- BUT my audience may not be so open to something like that... being in the grey zone between overtly religious/Biblical and something perceived as secular...(in other words, a lot of my audience are more dualistic than I am...)
- SO, my approach has been to try to build media discernment tools out from Biblical narratives / examples... and this is where your community help might help me!

So here are some of the 'tools' I'd like to explore: What is missing from most of them is a Bible story/narrative to anchor, guide or kick-off the discussion around the tool/concept/strategy (Everything here is up for revising, including these titles...) ? mark indicates missing Bible story/narrative

1. All Truth is God's Truth / common grace - ?

• Disposition of Seeking / Curiosity - ?

• Consume / Discern Together-Community - ?

• Assume the Best - ?

• Know our Biases - ?

• Know our Emotions - ?

• Know our tribe/in-group - ?

• Know more than 1 story: Monoculture vs multicultural The making/compilations... The 4 Gospels

• Know our power (group dynamics, herd mentality...Maybe the children of Israel in desert when Moses is away for 40days?

• Know our world (systems, philosophies, underlying principalities/powers- Apostle Paul at Mars Hill

• Discern Fact vs Opinion -?

• Questions vs Imperatives -?

• Nut-picking/cherry-picking -?

• Bad faith arguments / tactics -?

• Character matters, fruit of the Spirit vs just knowing right/doctrinal purity/head knowledge -?

Any suggestions, critique, questions are welcomed! Thanks

[Josh]

Perhaps you should be honest and tell your audience you want to teach a media literacy class, not disguise it as a “Bible study”.

[Jazman]

Well, that was the plan... but I can see, if you assume the worst, that the op may look like an attempt to disguise. I have spoken about this to a few other people and even have a basic proposal before leadership. In both those places, "medial literacy" is the main descriptor / part of the title, etc. But I think your caution is good to keep in mind. Thanks