Posted September 22, 2026
In 2009, the Obama White House tried to exclude Fox News from the news organizations permitted to interview the administrator of its program to help in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. When the other networks agreed that none of their reporters would participate unless Fox News was included, the administration backed down.
Now the situation seems to be reversed: Fox News’ Washington Bureau Chief has announced that its reporters “will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president.” (The “pool” refers to the press corps that travels with the US president.) This comes after President Trump stated Friday that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, prompting them to sue the administration for what they called a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
In a Monday post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump called his move “an assault on FAKE NEWS” which he said has “grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America.” The other White House television pool members, including ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News joined Fox News in pushing back on the administration’s media ban, stating, “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
You likely view this story in the same way you already viewed Mr. Trump and the news media. Whatever your opinion, I’ll not try to change it today.
Rather, I’d like to think with you about the way humans deal with experiences we don’t like, whatever their source. When the media disappoints us, we can try to ignore their reporting. When the president of the United States disappoints us, we can try to ignore what is reported about him.
But when God disappoints us, it’s hard to ignore God.
For Christians, God is our Father, the object of our worship, the One whose word we study and to whom we pray, the Lord we trust and serve. However, when he doesn’t do what we want or does what we don’t want, it’s human nature to “punish” him by doubting his character or even his reality.
Such doubts are recorded throughout the Bible because they are expressive of human nature.
Here’s the problem: When we let our doubts keep us from following Christ fully, we exempt ourselves from the One who alone is “the truth” (John 14:6). This is like refusing to go to a doctor because we have questions about the medical profession. In both cases, our doubts become self-validating: if we won’t trust our problem to the Great Physician or his human representative, they cannot help and heal us. We will then blame them for not doing what we did not allow them to do.
We should absolutely ask the hard questions of faith, as Jesus did himself (Matthew 27:46). But as we bring our doubts to our Lord, we should bring ourselves with them.
Then, if we do whatever he tells us to do, we find that his word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). We hear “a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). We discover that we need “fear no evil” even in the “valley of the shadow of death,” because the One we have trusted to be our shepherd is “with” us (Psalm 23:4).
This is what Kierkegaard called the “leap of faith,” not into the dark but into the light.
According to tradition, Matthew was martyred on September 21 and so is remembered on that day on Western liturgical calendars. I’ve often said that Peter is my favorite apostle since we seem to share the same life motto: “If in doubt, talk.” Humor (or not) aside, I’m also glad “Doubting” Thomas was among the twelve, since I have had so many doubts myself over the years.
But if there was one apostle I have tried to emulate the most, it was Matthew.
His scribal capacities, likely necessary for his work as a tax collector, made him an excellent scholar with regard to recording Jesus’ teachings. As a result, we have more of our Lord’s actual words in Matthew than in any other Gospel. In fact, more than half of the words and verses that make up his Gospel are the “red letter” words of our Lord. Matthew was also clearly a cultural apologist, using the cultural authorities of Judaism such as Old Testament citations and messianic credentials to persuade his Jewish readers to trust in Christ as their Lord.
But here’s where he and I part company: Matthew only had to leave his tax collectors’ booth once to follow Jesus (Matthew 9:9). I have to leave mine every day.
Br. Jack Crowley of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston pointed this out:
Like Saint Matthew, we also all have our own little tax booths. Some situation that comes between us and Christ. Some barrier we stay seated behind and watch as our lives go by. We tell ourselves one day I will get up out of this. One day I will fully follow Christ with all my heart.
Every day of our lives, we must get up out of our own tax booth. This is hard. It’s always tempting to stay seated in the status quo. Yet throughout Scripture, the status quo rarely survives an encounter with Christ.
The good news is that Jesus will help us follow Jesus. If we ask the Spirit to “fill” and control us each day (Ephesians 5:18), he will always answer our prayer as he conforms us to the character of our Savior (Romans 8:29).
In this sense, as Br. Crowley noted,
“We must get comfortable with depending on Jesus, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel. The alternative is a life built solely on self-reliance. A life stuck behind the tax booth of our own selves.”
Do you want to leave your “booth” behind today?
“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” —Paul Tillich
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