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"Only the facts, Ma'am!"

By Carl Shank • March 22, 2025
"Only the facts. Ma'am!" I recall that phrase said over and over again on TV as a kid watching the old TV series, "Dragnet." Dragnet was an American crime drama television series starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan which ran for four seasons, from January 12, 1967, to April 16, 1970. This very famous and dour saying was Jack Webb's cryptic remark to interviewed witnesses of a crime. He did not want superfluous or extraneous or personal opinions to cloud the real "facts" of the crime or situation at hand. A current public radio program claims that they are following "only the facts," that they report only factual events as they really took place. They claim to be free of bias and not "progressively oriented" in their reporting. Consequently, a recent show on abortion offered the scientific "fact" of an unborn baby, or fetus, achieving "life status" at so many weeks of gestation. This was said in response to a conservative caller who phoned in citing other "evidence," including the Bible's take on conception, as the beginning of life. The public radio station claimed that the caller was wrong and cited "scientific facts" about the "real" beginning of life. This is an instance and example of what modern society, especially anti-Christian society, considers as "factual" and therefore worth reporting and worth our time. There are actually three problems with what are called "facts" today even when claiming to be fair and unbiased. The definition of what is "factual" has shifted, first of all, over time and history. Hillsdale College publishes speeches in a format called "Imprimis" ( https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/ ) This very conservative institution offers excellent and gifted speakers who go against the tide of "progressivism" in the country. While they and their invited speakers are often dismissed and ignored by most public and social media today, they offer another look at American culture that is Constitutionally based. One of those speakers noted that in the court system today, progressive constitutional thinking has replaced and overtaken original constitutional mandates. This can actually be traced in the history of the court system. "Facts" seen as such years ago are now replaced by "real" facts, modern facts, today's facts. This is part of the problem of a public radio station purporting to only report the "facts" of a situation today. In the second place, reporters and journalists today have been schooled and educated by liberal elite to discard "old" ways of thinking, especially conservatively based thinking, and report things as they "see" them. And this is the problem. How we process what we see is often, whether consciously or unconsciously, biased in favor of a liberal, anti-Christian way of thinking and seeing. Rather than admit such presuppositional flavoring to "factual" reporting, the modern way is seen as the "only" way to see and process everything. Scientific reasoning, crafted by liberal theologians and philosophers of the Enlightenment, has replaced and driven out any hint of truthful reporting that takes into account biblical truth. And, of course, "religious" truth has been replaced by "scientific" truth, as if humanity's way of reasoning trumps God's revelation. Third, American individualism, copying the French Revolution, has defined American "freedom" today. This requires some explanation. Os Guinness in his Last Call for Liberty: How America's Genius for Freedom has Become Its Greatest Threat (InterVarsity Press, 2018), has carefully cited historical "facts" that link the 1789 French Revolution and the American Left — "The former struggled for "liberté" and "egalité" the latter for "liberation" and "social justice." The former won through violent revolution, whereas the latter seeks to win through a cultural revolution, after which the elite imposes its will through administrative and bureaucratic procedures (regulative bodies and the law courts). And both are characterized by their reliance on the state, their open hostility toward religion, their radical separation of religion and public life, their attempt to control language in order to control reality (French and Soviet "Newspeak," "doublespeak," and American "political correctness"), their unashamed espousal of power, their egalitarian appeal to envy rather than liberty, and their naive utopianism that the removal of repression will mean fulfillment of freedom." (51) He says that American has rejected its covenantal/constitutional heritage of freedom as a republic surrendering to those supoposedly "democratic" forces that redefine our "facts" and our heritage. "Only the facts, Ma'am!" has taken on a new meaning, a new way of thinking and processing, and an anti-Christian, anti-biblical, anti-religious cast that we cannot even see or take into account in our reporting of the "facts."
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Dec 10, 2025

Week #49 — Day 4

Having Enough


Q. 104. What do we pray for in the fourth petition?

A. In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray, that of God’s

free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy his

blessing with them.

Matt. 6:11; Prov. 30:8-9; Gen. 28:20; 1 Tim. 4:4-5.

“Give us this day our daily bread”


“We pray but for bread, "Give us our daily bread;" we do not pray for superfluities, nor for quails or venison—but for bread which may support life. Though we have not so much as others—so full a crop—so rich an estate—yet if we have the staff of bread to keep us from falling, let us be content. "If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." 1 Timothy 6:8. Most people are herein faulty. Though they pray that God would give them bread, as much as he sees expedient for them—yet they are not content with his allowance—but greedily covet more, and with the daughters of the horse-leech, cry, "Give, give." Proverbs 30:15. This is a vice naturally engrafted in us.”(Thomas Watson, The Lord’s Prayer)


Having enough. What is “enough?” It is not usually what we think of as “enough.” Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount — Matthew 6:30-33 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” To eat, to drink, clothes to wear are defined by Jesus as “enough.” And God will supply our every need.


Our problem is that we want “more.” And much of the “more” is simply covetousness. Watson says of this sin of covetousness — “Therefore covetousness is called a radical vice. "The root of all evil." 1 Tim 6:10. [Oh cursed hunger for gold, to what do you not drive the hearts of men?] The Greek word for covetousness, signifies an inordinate desire of getting. Covetousness is not only in getting riches unjustly—but in loving them inordinately, which is a key that opens the door to all sin.” He elaborates citing covetousness as spawning theft, treason, murder, apostasy, perjury and idolatry. The Catechism writers talk about God giving us a “competent portion.” Finding out what that means for you and your life is the key to your “daily bread.”


A Puritan Prayer —

“MY FATHER,

If thy mercy had bounds, where would be my refuge from just wrath?

But thy love in Christ is without measure.

Thus, I present myself to thee

with sins of commission and omission,

against thee, my Father,

against thee, adorable Redeemer,

against thee and thy strivings, O Holy Spirit,

against the dictates of my conscience,

against the precepts of thy Word,

against my neighbours and myself.

Enter not into judgment with me,

For I plead no righteousness of my own, and have no cloak for iniquity.

Pardon my day dark with evil.

This night I renew my penitence.

Every morning I vow to love thee more fervently,

to serve thee more sincerely,

to be more devoted in my life,

to be wholly thine;

Yet I soon stumble, backslide,

and have to confess my weakness, misery and sin.

But I bless thee

that the finished work of Jesus needs no addition from my doings,

that his oblation is sufficient satisfaction for my sins.

If future days be mine, help me to amend my life,

to hate and abhor evil,

to flee the sins I confess.

Make me more resolute, more watchful, more prayerful.

Let no evil fruit spring from evil seeds my hands have sown;

Let no neighbour be hardened in vanity and folly

by my want of circumspection.

If this day I have been ashamed of Christ and his Word, or have shown

unkindness, malice, envy, lack of love, unadvised speech, hasty temper,

let it be no stumbling block to others, or dishonour to thy Name.

O help me to set an upright example that will ever rebuke vice,

allure to goodness,

and evidence that lovely are the ways of Christ.”


Excerpt From

The Valley of Vision

Edited by Arthur Bennett



"We must unquestionably receive its [the Bible's] statements of fact,  bow before its enunciation of duty, tremble before its threatenings, 
and rest upon its promises." – B.B. Warfield

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