Paul offers some thoughts on how to navigate the endless wave of bad news. (A version of this piece was originally published at Contemporary Christianity; republished here with permission.)
One of the Oxford English Dictionary’s words of the year for 2020 was doomscrolling. Amid COVID outbreaks, perpetual lockdowns, and ever-changing social distancing rules, the term perfectly captured our compulsion to check our devices for the latest dose of bad news. Now, with a new president in the White House and another storm of crises brewing, it seems the word is making a comeback. Once again, we wake up to an avalanche of bad news stories.
But doomscrolling is no longer the word. We aren’t just scrolling through bad news—it’s crashing over us. So, I propose a new term for 2025: newsnami.
That’s exactly what it feels like. This year’s political earthquake in Washington has unleashed a tsunami of headlines, each more dizzying and bewildering than the last. Story after story leaves us feeling confused, helpless, and more fearful for the future than we have been in generations.
In response to this newsnami, there are some media outlets who have at least made some acknowledgement of their duty of care to their audiences. Over breakfast a few weeks back, I heard a discussion on Radio 4’s Today programme on this very topic. Sage advice was offered by guest experts: keep a gratitude journal; get out in nature; switch off the notifications. These are all helpful suggestions, and worth putting in place. But as a Christian, I am aware of my responsibility not to bury my head in the sand, but to confront the bad news of the world with the good news of Jesus.
And so, there must be some other way of dealing with our feelings of helplessness over Ukraine, or the climate crisis, or Gaza, or the cost of living, or DR Congo, or the devastating cuts to foreign aid, or growing political polarisation across the Western world… I could go on, but this list is chest tightening enough!
So, if disengaging isn’t the answer, what is?
Well, I want to suggest a counter-intuitive solution: Don’t ignore your helplessness at the state of the world, embrace it.
Because what if acknowledging our helplessness is the key to hope? After all, none of us in in control. Our only help, as the Psalmist reminds us, is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Acknowledging our limitations—our essential helplessness—is required if we are to do the good works God has prepared for us to do. We must begin by disavowing ourselves of any notion that we or our nation or our ideology is the saviour the world needs. The Saviour has already come, and he only asks that we play our part.
In my congregation, we have recently finished a teaching series on the theme of justice. For sixteen weeks we navigated the waves of the newsnami alongside the white waters of God’s justice. One of our guides on this journey has been the theologian Isabelle Hamley. In her book, Embracing Justice, she says this about our feelings of helplessness and even despair in the face of injustice:
“Acknowledging the complexity of doing justice in an interconnected world can lead to despair, but it is vital… It is an antidote against trying to turn ourselves into God.”
Her words remind us of a crucial truth: we were never meant to carry the weight of the world alone. Justice is God’s work—we are simply called to play our part.
So, as the newsnami continues to rage, we must choose our response. We can give in to the endless tide of doomscrolling. We can turn away, numbing ourselves with distraction. Or we can do something far more radical—we can face our helplessness and place it in the hands of the One who holds all things together.
Because our hope is not in presidents or prime ministers. It is not in policies or protests. Our hope is in the One who, at another time of disruption and uncertainty, reminded us of this essential truth:
“In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”