A realtor friend of mine stopped me outside the restaurant where we meet with our Chamber of Commerce group weekly and said, “Can I ask you a question? Why does Trump get a free pass from his political base ( many of them Christians, I think he meant), when it comes to his moral behavior and telling the truth? Why isn’t he held to the same standard as everyone else when it comes to telling the truth?” Good question, as a historian I know that truth has been a tricky commodity to handle over the course of our national lifetime. “Truth is” (sorry, I just couldn’t resist), often the first casualty in the quest for a selfish agenda, twisted ambition, or the pernicious pursuit of power. And no one, after all, really wants to hear the truth when it comes in conflict with my perceived right to behave badly.
In a recent op ed piece, I came across a new release by Jordan Peterson, ( 12 Rules for Life) who according to a British journalist who slashed away at him in an interview, had the audacity to quote the Old Testament favorably as the basis for his argument. The fact that he served at one time on the faculty at Harvard is the kind of thing that makes you sit up and take notice. His crime against humanity was, he dared to tell the truth; the truth about our need for bravery, the truth about the real challenges to free speech, and one that works for all of us– the truth about how to live. Peggy Noonan picked up on this last one and noted,
Deeper in (the book) you understand the reasons he might be targeted for annihilation. First he is an intellectual who shows a warm, scholarly respect for the stories and insights into human behavior– the meaning of things in the Old and New Testaments (He’d like more attention paid to the Old.) Their stories exist for a reason, he says, and have lasted for a reason: They are powerful indicators of reality, and their great figures point to pathways. He respects the great thinkers of the west and the Christian tradition… Grasping at political ideology is not the answer when your life goes wrong… Don’t reorganize the state until you have ordered your own experience. Have some humility. If you cannot bring peace to your household, how dare you try to rule a city (WSJ 01.27.2018).
And then there’s this. When pastors, educators, or counselors agree to hear the problems of their own constituents, they find themselves on the wrong end of rebuke– chastised for telling their clients nothing more or less than the truth. Dr. Charles Swindoll recently noted,
Suddenly I became the verbal punching bag… I have had counselees screen at me, curse, stomp out of the room, and share with me a piece of their mind they couldn’t afford to lose. Some wait until later and write me one of those flaming missiles that burn your eyes when you read it. And what did I do to deserve that treatment? I told the truth. I simply carried a message as tactfully and well-timed as possible, but it was rejected– at least for a while.
So, what’s the answer to all of this? Not sure, but I do know this. Truth matters. It matters to God and it must matter to me, and to you. When sharing it, I should be mindful of its author and His end-game for its use– that it may free others from bondage, ignorance, or a life of useless fixation on a world and its values that are passing away. If I’m receiving it, I must remember that its delivery no way implies perfection in the human messenger but demands that I consider the counsel or correction as a nudge from someone more wiser than myself and its credibility ultimately hangs upon the Sovereign God of the universe– And He will always tell us the truth.
Marching forward
MJC
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