Editor's Note Yes, I’m biased By Darcy L. Fargo

January 29, 2025

“There’s no such thing as unbiased journalism.”

I say that any time someone complains to me, a newspaper person, about biases in media.

I always use the same example:
“Whether you say, ‘Columbus discovered America,’ ‘Columbus invaded America,’ or ‘Columbus encountered America,’ they all mean something different and have different connotations. Language is biased.”

Our words matter. Our language matters.

In Church circles, I often hear the phrase, sometimes attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”

I agree that it’s important that we live according to Gospel values and show with our actions that Christ is at the center of our lives, but I think the words are almost always necessary (I’m tempted to say ‘words are always necessary,’ but I’m sure there’s some exception).

Words are how we share with others what God has done in our lives. It’s how we teach others about Christ and about how he was crucified and died, and how he rose from the dead and saved us from sin and death. It’s how we talk about God’s love.

It’s easy to feel like we don’t have the right words to share Jesus and to share our faith with others. I’m a word nerd, and my career has been focused on words and language, and I feel that way.

God’s given me a couple opportunities to talk about Him with people who aren’t people of faith in the last couple of weeks.

I still feel awkward and inadequate as I’m talking, and I’m not sure if anything I said had any impact, but I keep finding that the Holy Spirit gives me the words.

And at least those words are biased toward Jesus.