The Power of Personal Interest Stories

In an episode of The Simpsons, entitled "Girly Edition," Lisa and Bart host a student-based news program called "Kids Newz." Lisa accidentally calls her brother an idiot while the camera is still live, which prompts her brother to try to one-up her. He does so by learning the art of the "personal interest story." The most memorable line given by his teacher, anchor Kent Brockman, is that the value of such stories is found in their ability "to pull heartstrings and cloud minds." Lisa attempts to expose the thin intellectual veneer to Bart's sappy sentimentality, but is voted town by the TV execs because she lacks Bart's "pizazz."

As always, The Simpsons provides brilliant satire of the contemporary social and political scene. Long ago, the American People discarded the objective news story with limited bias of Kronkite for the more subjective and sentimental reporting of Rather. In the same way, one politician's vague generalities concerning American needs has been necessarily supplanted by another's specific anecdotes of one American's needs. The same holds for Christianity, where "rags-to-riches" testimonies become a more popular medium for communicating the Gospel than actually sharing the Gospel accounts in the Word.

Lisa Simpson makes a piercing critique of such an approach. After doing an interest story on a war veteran, Bart makes a pitch for a day honoring such veterans, to which Lisa responds "That's why we have Veteran's Day!" When Bart responds that one may not be enough, Lisa again rejoins "That's why there's also Memorial Day!" Bart's last line of defense..."Maybe there should be three. That's Kids Newz. Cut!"

In order to buy into the power of the personal interest story, people are often asked to suspend the traditional skepticism that such ploys lack substance. Everybody loves to hear a tear-jerking story of "Mary Stewart", a 27 year old single mother of four beautiful children who sacrifices her evening dinner for her kids' morning breakfast and sells her winter clothing for their school books. To speak into the aftermath of such a story seems almost criminal. Instead, people bask in the angel-like glow of the next political savior. One is not allowed to ask what policies or trends led to poor Mary's downfall, or what policies or trends can be expected to lift her from the ashes and how they will accomplish such a feat. The cynic might also be motivated to ask "If Mary has so touched your heart, why do you not do anything to help her yourself?"

Contemporary society honors celebrities and causes over real philanthropy and substance. A quintessential example of this fact is found in John Edwards. He pleads the case of the poor to sympathetic supporters, while also living in a sprawling mansion with a cadre of servants. The true postmodern hates such hypocrisy. These stories should not be a means to an end, but their alteration should be the end pursued through more substantial means. For news reporting, this means honesty; for politicians, this means wise policies; for Christians, this means doctrinal consistency and pious practice.

The best Christian testimonies are not the dramatic ones, but the ones that focus upon Christ, whose objective work resulted in the subjective changes that come now--most importantly, eternal life. The quest for meaning doesn't result in truth; the knowledge of Truth imbues life with meaning. As Lisa Simpson would say, "Pizazz? What is that?"