Tipping Point
By Hal Lindsey
A new advertisement touting NBC newsman Lester Holt tells us a great deal about the precarious state of our nation and the world.
NBCUniversal is a massive media conglomerate owned by the even larger telecommunications giant, Comcast. When such a large entity launches a national advertising campaign, they first study the public mood. They use focus groups and polling to see what people are thinking and how they are feeling. They’re especially interested in people’s fears.
The Holt ad says, “When emotions are high, when fear overwhelms facts, when things are at a tipping point…. We have an anchor.”
If you were sitting in the pew of a Bible-believing church last week — or a hundred years ago — you would not have been surprised to hear those words in a sermon calling on people to turn to Jesus. But until recently, it would have been inconceivable to hear such words about a TV newsman.
The ad tells us even more about Lester Holt, “our anchor.” He’s “an anchor that calms, an anchor that steadies, an anchor when we need one most. An anchor for America.”
It’s a clever play on words. Back in the 1960s, Walter Cronkite became the person most associated with the term “anchorman.” But when they called Walter an “anchor,” no one meant that he kept America tethered to the solid ground beneath stormy seas. He was merely the leading member of a team of broadcast journalists.
In the ad, NBC presents Lester Holt as something far more than a journalist. They don’t just describe him as a reliable purveyor of truth. They portray him as the calm to our fears and a balm to our souls. Obviously, he cannot be those things. No matter how talented, no mere human being can be or do what they claim. Even though the ad comes across as deeply serious, its claims are nonsense.
Why would NBC present Mr. Holt in such impossible terms? Because America desperately needs all the things they claim he fulfills. We desperately need truth from a completely reliable source. Emotions really are high. Fear is indeed overwhelming facts. We are truly at a tipping point. And do we need an anchor? Do we ever!
We need an anchor because our society has systematically removed the Anchor we once held to — God and His morality. Most of our leaders still use religious sounding words, even during profanity-laced speeches. They often speak of “prayer.” But New York Representative Jerry Nadler expressed the prevailing view when he said, “What any religious tradition describes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.”
The context of that conversation shows that the religious tradition he meant was the Judeo-Christian tradition. That’s the tradition upon which American freedoms were founded. He and others have separated the ship of state from its anchor, leaving us adrift in stormy waters.
But as America rides the end-time currents past the tipping point, we who know the Lord have a great opportunity. We have the message the world needs. And our message was not made-up by an advertising firm. Our message is Jesus, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
