Following up on yesterday’s blog about how Lady Gaga and some others in the media manufacture instances of Christian outrage for marketing purposes, commenter Kenneth had a valid point when he wrote about the “outrage industry” (good term) in which people on both sides of any argument profit financially by stirring up anger and fanning the flames. And, yes, the media (including the blogosphere) also rides the conflict gravy train. Conflict resolution is not really in the perceived interest of professional agitators on the left or the right — but, in reality, it’s in all our our common interest to, as the poem says, “listen to others, even (those we consider) the dull and ignorant,” to respect our differing perspectives without demonizing one another and to reject manufactured conflict.

If even Captain Kirk and the Klingon leader Kang can learn not to be manipulated by forces that draw power from conflict, there’s certainly hope for the rest of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huBN0E4qOZA

More thoughts on this tomorrow.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11