Truth Matters
Image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay.
Daily life in the 21st century is textured and complex, jammed with a vast array of events, opportunities, people, actions, choices and challenges. Among the complexities we face are competing claims about what is true. Numerous times each day, someone urges us to believe his version of reality, to accept her statement about what is true. Sometimes it’s interpersonal: gossip from a neighbor, appeals from advertisers, or a child’s avowal of innocence. In other instances, it’s political, as with claims about vaccines, climate change, election fraud and immigration. There is no escape from the tidal wave of truth claims that engulf us daily. If we can not ignore the many claims, then what can we do about them? How do we know what the truth is?
Before digging in, let’s sort out terms. We who strive to live in faithful relationship with God, can reasonably think about—and use—the word “truth” in two broad ways: (1) as we embrace and speak about the foundational cornerstones of our religious faith, notably who God and Jesus are, and (2) as we accept, synthesize and incorporate facts about people and events in the world around us. The first is about eternal truth, while the second is about accurate descriptions of what is transpiring. Both types of truth are involved in shaping our daily decisions and actions. Both types of truth matter immensely.
In the New Testament, we frequently encounter the first way of speaking about truth, especially in the Fourth Gospel and the letters of Paul, as those writers seek to persuade readers of the eternal truth of God’s son, Jesus Christ. The second usage is less conspicuous but is definitely part of the narrative. On several occasions Jesus made it clear that the truth about specific situations is not trivial, but matters greatly; the God whom we worship, the Creator and sustainer of the universe, is always anchored in truth, having no tolerance for lies and falsehoods.
(When Pontius Pilate and Jesus confronted each other, Pilate asked the crucial question that hounds each of us, “What is truth?” [John 18:38a] The Gospel writer records no answer, leaving it up to our imagination whether the question was about the truth of faith or the truth of facts, or perhaps a merging of both, blurring the distinction.)
This article focuses on the second way of employing the word: obtaining the facts about every situation, especially the difficult ones. I believe that people who seek peace and justice must determine the factual basis for our choices and actions, because we can only be effective peacemakers and peacebuilders if we know the facts. I believe that witnessing faithfully to God’s love for the world requires us to make our best effort to determine what is true about the world. I believe that fearlessly digging for the truth is a key component of living with integrity.
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In the year since the last US presidential election, we have been repeatedly assaulted by a cacophony of claims about a rigged election, illegal voters, massive fraud, crooked election officials, biased media, and so on. Although thousands of people have searched diligently for facts that might verify such claims—including lawyers, judges, election officials and journalists—nothing of substance has been found, and courts have rejected numerous lawsuits as having no truth or merit. Despite these setbacks, the wild, unsupported election claims live on, stubbornly refusing to go away.
Determining the truth became far more difficult during the Trump era, as the President and his close associates continually displayed an utter disregard for truth. In the aftermath of his 2016 election, the Oxford Dictionary declared “post-truth” its word of the year, primarily because of President-elect Trump. Two days after his January 2017 inauguration, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway brazenly announced that the White House would rely on “alternative facts.”
The war on truth is raging all around us, fueled by people and institutions that expect to benefit by shoving falsehoods down our throats. Spreading misinformation and disinformation is the chosen vocation of thousands, and we ignore that reality at our peril.
Peacemakers have a moral obligation to seek the truth, regardless of where the path goes. That means listening carefully to competing claims about voting and the election, sifting through the contending views and positions. If you are only listening to one side of the debate, you can not sort out the truth claims. Seeking the truth also means pushing back against truth claims that are obviously inaccurate, especially claims based solely on accusations, bias, hearsay, unsupported claims, inventions and imagination.
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Questions arise: How do we sort out the competing claims about truth, so that we can be the people God has called us to be? Where can we turn for information that we can be certain is reliable? How do we decide whom to believe? How do we know what we know?
The simple answer is this: dig for evidence. Do not accept a statement as true just because your friend said it, or because you got a Facebook post about it, or because you read it on a random website. Dig into every claim and every assertion. Look for multiple verifications of things you hear. If something sounds weird or implausible, do extra digging before you consider it true.
We instinctively know this in many situations. If someone gives us a harsh report about our child’s behavior, we make every effort to determine the truth of the situation before accepting or rejecting the veracity of the report. If there are competing stories about the actions of a person in our neighborhood, we will try to dig into those stories before reaching a judgment, because we want our actions to be based on truth.
In criminal cases, our legal system demands unbiased jurors, an impartial judge and balanced rules in the courtroom, because we want truth to prevail. We know that witnesses will contradict each other, and that conflicting narratives will be put forward, so it is vitally important to sort things out before rendering a verdict of guilt or innocence. The same approach should be made to every truth claim that comes to us.
Let’s lay out some axioms. Every person has biases, or points of view. Anyone who speaks to you or writes to you is doing so with the hope and expectation that you believe it, that is, that you accept his/her view of the truth. That is even the case with this article—I want you to believe that what I am saying is true. Each person’s viewpoints shape how situations are perceived and thus how the truth is understood. Every news organization makes decisions about what to report and what to omit. We must make a concerted effort to listen to multiple perspectives before determining what is true. We must also be aware of the source of the statements we listen to, so we can evaluate for bias.
A claim is not inherently true just because it appeared in a tweet or an email or a web page. We have known for a long time that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media help to promulgate falsehoods. (The people who run them have known it for a long time, too.) But no media should be given a free pass about truth. Every statement of fact must be able to withstand scrutiny or else be rejected.
If a friend tells you that a certain horse medication is useful in treating COVID-19, it is essential that you do some research before you accept that statement as true. The goal is not to prove that someone is intentionally lying or misleading you. Rather the goal is to find out if the claims are valid or false, so that your choices and actions are constructive, appropriate and effective.
If I tell you that the recent election “audit” in Maricopa County, AZ, found no evidence of election fraud, it would be important for you to delve into the truth of that claim before repeating it or acting on it. Likewise, if I tell you that it found extensive evidence of election fraud, it would also be important for you to look into the truth of that claim.
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We each have a responsibility to dig for confirmation of facts before believing what we hear. How should we undertake this complex challenge?
Remember the axioms above, which can be summarized as: everyone has a lens or a bias.
Ask: who put this statement out? Who is behind this claim?
Investigate what other sources, especially trusted sources, have to say. Look for multiple confirmations, seek alternate views, consider the evidence, weigh everything.
Spend time reading opinions (and listening to networks) that do not generally support your perspectives. Although this is hard, I consider it crucial to the task, not optional.
Dueling fact claims will persist in some matters, such as whether a given person resisted arrest, or whether a specific election “reform” bill is beneficial to democracy. Such things require hard work from us before we can be confident about what the truth is. Many other matters are so straightforward, so laden with overwhelming evidence, that they cannot reasonably be said to admit differing opinions. Examples include whether COVID-19 vaccines have caused large numbers of deaths (they have not) or if the world’s climate has been undergoing major changes (it has).
To summarize, discerning what is true about the world and society and government is an essential task for every human, especially every human who strives to live with integrity and be a builder of just and peaceful societies.
May we always live with an unwavering commitment to hear the truth, know the truth and speak the truth, and may we always be willing to accept responsibility to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads.