Guardians of the Soul: <The Guardians of the News> x The Rich Man and Rachel (Luke 16:14–31)

After a rare holiday, I finally went to the theater to enjoy <News Guardian>, and I was deeply moved after watching it. The lamentation is only due to the ignorant repetition of the same mistakes by humans. After I felt relieved for a while, I had a thought, why is this story a little familiar? Or because I heard a similar story recently? Reminds me of a biblical story.

In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the story commonly known as "The Rich Man and Rachel." A rich man who enjoyed all the glory in his life suffered a lot after his death, but in pain he saw that Abraham and a poor man (named Lazarus) who ate his "saliva" in his life actually enjoyed happiness after his death. Then the rich man asked Abraham to "return the sun" to warn his five surviving brothers after he was refused to send him back to the water. As a result Abraham replies "If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone is raised from the dead" (16:31).

Scholars generally agree that this story does not align with mainstream Judeo-Christian eschatological views, but rather with contemporary popular stories like today's "Journey to Hell". These stories often encourage good deeds and bad deeds after death. The version of Jesus may be his second creation, and the most shocking to contemporary audiences is that the rich man got a bad end. Because according to the "spiritual language" of the time, the rich should be blessed by God, and the beggars were cursed. Perhaps the most infuriating thing I've ever seen in "The News Guardian" is that the protagonist Gareth Jones died young, and the villain Walter Duranty was able to die at a very young age and retain his Pulitzer Prize. Similarly, the watchmen will also hold grievances for some teachers, flight attendants, journalists, medical staff, etc. in Hong Kong. They may just speak some words of conscience, or just express their stance (or not), and they have been excommunicated. On the surface, the wicked are victorious, and the loyal and the good will not end well.

Going back to the story of the rich man and Lassero, the point is not why Lassero can be blessed, but the rich man thinks that as long as his family learns the truth of despair - it turns out that being rich does not equal God's blessing - they will repent. The subtlety of Abraham's response is that the truth is already with you, but you choose not to adopt it and believe in a set of "spiritual fake news" that can comfort you, which is a "journey to hell" with good rewards. It's easier to make fake news today than it was in the 1930s. At that time, it was necessary to block news or even lock down the country. Today, it only needs to bury a large propaganda machine and rely on more people to make it louder. If it used to be freedom against dictatorship, today's problem has become freedom against freedom. This was the case in Gareth Jones' days, and it is today.

Therefore, neither the "News Keeper" nor the rich man and Rachel Road, they are not a binary opposition story. Not just a story of an ideal journalist fighting a dictatorship, not just a story of a man who hates the stinky wine and meat of Zhumen and longs for the rich to be punished (in fact, the scriptures do not say that the rich man did anything bad, nor does it say that Lasserul was a good man) . People should wake up and ask how bad the times are, and what kind of bad soil has they fallen on, so that truth and truth are rejected?

In the 1930s, just like today, there was an economic crisis in the West and new impetus was needed. Therefore, a set of arguments was extended to make the originally incompatible liberal socialism and the market economy cooperate. They even believed that Western civilization had come to an end, and the future of mankind was A set of totalitarian propaganda, asking people to sacrifice their ego to achieve totalitarianism. It is true that in some cases the group is more important than the individual, but it is a different matter if the group commands its members to sacrifice the ego. The former is ideal, the latter is politics. Therefore, what Duranty bows to is not the ideal future of mankind, but temporary political interests. The same goes for the rich man and Rachel, a story told against the Pharisees who were greedy for money (16:14–18). They themselves were the beneficiaries of Rome's "Jewish rule" policy, and the colonists exchanged living space for them to become complicit in the common prosperity of the empire. For the sake of politics and interests, it is only in your interest that one man die for the people, that the whole nation should not perish" (John 11:50) and that Pilate, who wanted to release Jesus, must crucify him. , otherwise "not a friend of Caesar" (John 19:12). They certainly have personal weaknesses, but they are also products of extreme times.

However, there were also people in the same era who made admirable choices without glorifying their behavior. Just like the "Lashru" in the story, which means "God helped", a very common name at the time, it was he, you and me. Listening to the Mosaic Law and the Prophets is not necessarily heroic, they are just living what they believe and should be something everyone can do. Just like Jones or those who have been oppressed recently in Hong Kong, they just mustered up the courage to face the ordinary people of the times, but they are remembered for their persistence.

It is not difficult to be faithful to what you believe in when the world is peaceful, but it is a questioning of the soul in extreme times. Whether it's <News Keeper> or The Rich Man and Rachel Road, it's just such a story, not a fairytale binary opposition that questions our lives. Perhaps all Hong Kong people today should be prepared to answer such questions. We are the guardians of our own souls.

Originally published in Times Forum

(Postscript: This article was written at the end of October, and the liquidation of some media reporters has already begun. On the day of publication, the arrest of Hong Kong and Taiwan reporters to crack down on investigative reporting. The work of guarding the soul has just begun.)