Truth and consequences: An appeal for honest discourse

The most gut-wrenching book in the Bible is Jeremiah. The tears of God are nearly visible, and the moans of a brokenhearted God are almost audible on its pages.

So are Jeremiah’s anguished sobs as he witnesses the dismemberment of a nation, the crumbling of God-given institutions, the loss of a land and the abandonment of a way of life that had permitted justice to ring as a witness to all nations.

This, according to Jeremiah, is the fate of a people who lose their devotion to truth.

Much can be learned by scouring Jeremiah’s book for clues to Judah’s demise, but Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel placed his finger on one Hebrew word within its text that says it all. That word is sheqer, which means “falsehood,” and it appears 72 times in our Old Testament — with half those appearances located in Jeremiah.

“Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jeremiah 7:28) is Jeremiah’s summary of Judah’s life. Her worship is filled with “deceptive” words — comforting clichés that in the Hebrew text are literally termed “lies” (7:4) — spoken by “lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds” (23:26), who “steal from one another words supposedly from me” (23:30).

As for the people of Judah, “they are all adulterers, a band of traitors (who) bend their tongues like bows; they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth” (Jeremiah 9:2b-3). God’s disgust with crooked-speaking Judah is so deep that even prayers for her are forbidden: “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you” (7:16). Judah is doomed.

The correlation between veracity and being heard is not an artifact of antiquity. In 2020, Piers Brendon, keeper of the Churchill Archives and a Cambridge University instructor, published a history of the Great Depression, providing a panorama of the political culture in 1930s Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Russia and the United States on the eve of the greatest bloodbath the world has seen, World War II.

“Sacrificing veracity on the altar of ideology became the rule rather than the exception.”

Brendon states his unifying theme in his introduction — “the manipulation of perception and distortion of reality.”

“Propaganda became part of the air people breathed during the 1930s,” he states. “All the major occurrences of the day were the subject of organized deception. … The Depression years witnessed the dissemination of falsehood on a hitherto unprecedented scale … facts molded like plasticine into the approved shape, whether communist, Aryan, fascist or imperial.”

Sacrificing veracity on the altar of ideology became the rule rather than the exception.

Seventy-five million graves of World War II dead bear tragic witness that Jeremiah’s message was ignored in the 1930s, just as it was in the prophet’s day. The question being asked of us today is if our generation will respond differently. The forces at play currently do not suggest we are doing so.

The politics of lying

America has traveled far from the halcyon days of “I cannot tell a lie” George Washington. In my lifetime, we have heard Richard Nixon’s denials of Watergate involvement, Ronald Reagan’s inability to remember any shady dealing for Contra funding and Bill Clinton’s infamous comment, after months of lying about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, that truth “depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

Add to these instances the endless lies that came from the Lyndon Johnson White House about the status of the Vietnam War. Unsurprisingly, presidential candidate Jimmy Carter found it politically expedient to promise the American people: “I’ll never lie to you. I’ll never make a misleading statement.”

Cover-ups, lies and deception have a regrettably stout presence in our nation’s political history. Kurt Anderson argues “this post-truth, alternative facts moment” is not an “inexplicable or crazy new phenomenon” in America, but “the ultimate extrapolation and expression of attitudes and instincts” present from our earliest days. Date it as we will, its presence makes it impossible for trust between people and government to flourish — or to accuse the present president of being the initiator of double speak and truth-spinning.

But Donald Trump is the first president to use falsehood as his consistent mode of operation. Aware of this trait, the Washington Post, began fact-checking his statements upon his first inauguration in 2017. It documented 30,573 false or misleading claims made by him during that first term, a daily average of 21.

“’Fact-checkers’ have become a major and mandatory fixture of political journalism.”

The Toronto Star was a bit kinder in its tally. Its reporters found 5,276 false or misleading statements during his four years, averaging six lies per day. Their gravity ranged from braggadocios claims about the size of the crowd at his inauguration; to suggesting the use of ivermectin, a medicine for parasitic infections, as a COVID-19 cure; to claims of election fraud in his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. “Fact-checkers” have become a major and mandatory fixture of political journalism.

Nonetheless, in 2024, Trump — America’s first demonstrably and dependably dishonest Oval Office occupant — was elected again.

As the 21st century unfolded, the American electorate twice declared through their ballots that lying no longer needs to be hidden, nor is it an impeachable offense. It is just a disappointing pimple on the face of the favorite.

Most Trump voters surely knew their man had a truth problem and wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted your daughter to marry. But they trusted he was “right” on their selected issues — dismissing the possibility truthfulness might be the most fundamental issue for the leader of the free world.

However, in the new Trump value system, all voices except the president and his cadre are now the liars. Discrediting every objective truth-seeker and truth-teller as a peddler of “fake news” and enabler of yet another “hoax” has been a staple of this president. And if federal employees issue data that reflect negatively on his administration or fail to do his bidding, they will be fired.

“Compounding our truth predicament is the emergence of media outlets that lack professional journalistic standards.”

Moreover, any external opposition to the approved narrative is slimed with the charge of being a “leftist, biased opinion,” classifying the dissenter as an “obstructionist.” If social, monetary and political pressures do not compel the silence or compliance of the dissenter, the loudest voice or the biggest fist settles the dispute.

When situations arise where repeating a bald-faced lie until it sounds plausible proves ineffective, then a sickeningly familiar truth-decay process is put into play. Whatever facet of truth is problematic, costly or uncomfortable, Trump’s minions find an “expert” with a minority opinion or solution they then elevate, touting that opinion and new “expert” as of equal value with the established, verifiable standard.

Disregarding scientific evidence and discounting academic training effectively make an expert of anyone with an overdose of brassiness and internet access. The outlier thus becomes the new truth-teller, calling into question the accuracy if not the integrity of the inconvenient or costly consensus of credentialed voices.

In effect, however, truth has been supplanted. Doubt has been sown by the introduction of contrary “alternative” facts. The objectivity of truth has been impugned, handing relativity a win. Best of all for the dissemblers, this process legitimizes more profitable, easier paths to their goal. This is how global warming accords, international alliances, healthcare, civil rights and countless other enterprises can and have been gutted in Trump’s campaign of truth decay.

Compounding our truth predicament is the emergence of media outlets that lack professional journalistic standards and digital disinformation sown by international bad actors. Historians, however, may conclude the biggest whoppers were told, and the most severe damage done, when Trump twice swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The result of all these factors is that the “melting pot” of America is now a boiling cauldron of mistrust and disgust, hardly the “city set on a hill” so revered in our nation’s lore. Our devotion to truth has been lost to myriad manipulations for political and monetary gain. The sorrowful consequences of truth’s loss already are on stage.

Responding to lies

One instinctive reflex when confronting this threatening new world is to ask: “How did this overturning of a bedrock of our assumed national character happen?” And, of course, “What is possible and required of those who mourn the present situation?”

There are many learned and worthy responses to these questions, so I confine my comments to only the one crucial, Jeremiah-like, angle — a devotion to the truth.

It is significant but not of much comfort to know the loss of truth is not a uniquely American dilemma. The devolution of objective truth to a makeshift hodge-podge of interim axioms has been ascendant in Western thought for generations. Twenty-first century America is now experiencing the practical political jolt of this wider philosophical trend. Trump did not happen in a vacuum.

“Trump rose to power and remains in power because people who know of Jeremiah and who claim to know Jesus want him there.”

Enough Americans have twice voted for him to deny the recourse of saying his elevation is a fluke, a one-off error in national judgment. Having seen his first term, millions pressed the repeat button. Moreover, his most ardent political base is among church-going, Bible-toting, theologically conservative Christians. Trump rose to power and remains in power because people who know of Jeremiah and who claim to know Jesus want him there.

It is a wonderment they do not consider Trump’s low opinion of truth a disqualification. They have bent themselves into impossibly contorted pretzels excusing or explaining away his profanity, bankruptcies, racism, bullying, sexual assault conviction, mockery of the disabled, multiple marriages, 91 criminal indictments, biblical illiteracy, verbal violence and “maybe” born-again Christian status.

But the consistent trait of lying remains mostly ignored. Why?

The crux of the matter for many Trump supporters is their feeling that, in this moment of history, ideological and moral concerns must supersede their theological commitments.

For example, “Protecting the life of a pre-born child and protecting my child from secular, prayerless schools is more important than having a president who never lies.” Or, as frequently said: “We are electing a president, not a pastor. He needs to be tough and enact tough laws within a tough world!” Anxiety over the present leads them to support a less-than-virtuous politician — and to downplay the practice of honesty. Deceit and deal-making are regrettably necessary means to make America great again — that is, like it was 50 years ago.

A beginning place for conversation with this mindset may be within passages from the Bible. A frightening story found in the Acts of the Apostles is crucial in this regard.

In its fifth chapter, amid a swirl of astounding generosity within the infant church, one couple, Ananias and Saphira, sell some property and give a portion of the proceeds to the church. But they lead their fellow-believers to think they have given all the proceeds to the church. A divinely perceptive Apostle Peter interrogates Ananias about the sale and their gift, discovering the two have conspired to misrepresent the extent of their generosity. The story concludes with both husband and wife falling dead on the spot once their lying scheme is exposed.

This is an odd story. Certainly, it comes as a thunderbolt of judgment amid the preceding chapters of divine blessing. Suddenly, the feel-good flow of the narrative is shattered by the shock of two of their company being struck dead!? Why would you preserve this brutal moment in the records?

“The darkness of sinister secrecy now exists among a people sworn to walk in the light.”

The story of Ananias and Saphira is the early church’s open confession that people lied in that church, too — and paid for it. By including this story in their history, the early church wanted not only to tell the whole truth but also to state their belief that deceit was a capital offense; to deviate from the path of truth was literally a mortal sin. If the liars themselves are not struck dead, they nonetheless set loose the powers of death within the company.

The darkness of sinister secrecy now exists among a people sworn to walk in the light.

This imperative of honesty is a major theme of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. One might say Adam’s blame-shifting falsity about his apple-eating — “The woman, she made me do it” — was as intrinsic to his sin as was his disobedience. Moses’ Ten Commandments place “bearing false witness” within the Old Testament’s no-nos.

Dishonesty is thereby cast as a grave moral error, to be shunned just as severely as idolatry, theft, murder, etc. We are wise to remember the Ten Commandments were given to Israel as a corporate code of ethics. Honesty is mandated as a national requirement as well as a matter of personal ethics.

Notably running throughout the Old Testament are constant assurances that the Holy One does not lie or mislead. The repeated refrain within her Psalms — and her history — is gratitude that the God who does not lie is the one rescuing the Rock of Israel.

When one turns to the New Testament, Jesus tells us to let our “yes” mean yes and our “no” mean no. Tell the truth without hidden meanings and without vows to verify truthfulness.

Although he spoke many gracious, eye-opening words, Jesus directed his harshest words at the supposed “good people” of his day. He called them hypocrites. But what is a hypocrite if not someone who says one thing but does another? In other words, someone who lies. His admonition was to unify our words and our actions, to “act on my word” (Matthew 7:24-28), rather than see one’s life washed away like a foundationless house in a flood.

When soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, they “drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6) when he told them he was the man they sought. They were astonished and not prepared to deal with a man so honest he wouldn’t try to hide his identity, even when in mortal danger.

The Epistle to the Ephesians includes a well-known passage (6:10-17) about the Christian’s armor. Its first-named item is “the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” Most often “the truth” mentioned here is said to be the gospel itself. But what if “the truth” might be a reference to the honest speech and dealings with one another that are the cinch of everything else in our way of life? Without a belt of truth about one’s waist, one may be embarrassed to see their pants dangling at their ankles!

The writer is aware of “the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” but within the church “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:14-15) is the pattern that must prevail. “Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:25).

Finally, Revelation’s concluding paragraphs insist “all liars” will find their place alongside “the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, [and] the idolators” in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8).

“Lying … is the behavioral gateway drug that leads to destruction.”

This brief overview of scriptures regarding dishonesty is sufficient to conclude church people must not dismiss lying as a negligible indiscretion. Lying, as both history and Scripture attest, is the behavioral gateway drug that leads to destruction. We must remember and beware of the DNA, the invisible connection between lying and the devil, “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Tolerated falsehoods enable sin to flourish, and bountifully so if the liar is a leader of any institution, ecclesiastical or governmental. Falsehoods do not lead to freedom; only truth leads to freedom. “The truth shall make you free” is the testimony of the Lord who died to “make us free indeed.”

A truth agenda

Unfortunately, the social reality confronting us is that the voice of the church has seldom if ever been as ignored by Americans and their political leaders as today. To be sure, one conservative portion of the church, Trump’s loyalist core, currently has considerable influence in the White House. But they will most certainly be pitched to the curb as soon as they are no longer useful.

This larger situation leaves truth-cherishing believers with two faithful responses. First, to be persistent in opposing the fascist-oriented policies and practices of this administration, not allowing weariness to overcome them. And second, to seek above all else to be truth-seekers and truth-tellers.

The church must attain a reputation as truthful people. Our scandals, cover-ups, power-plays and sad chapters must be confessed, and amends must be made. If we would be reformers, we ourselves must always be reforming, doubling down on the power of truth to overcome falsehood.

Truthful people seek “truth in the inward parts” (Psalm 51:6). This pursuit may express itself in three primary ways.

First, long stares in a truth-speaking mirror or candid confrontations with a fellow pilgrim are essential if we are not to be self-deceived or repulsive in our witness.

Second, truthful people practice humility. Some Christians unfortunately become intellectually and spiritually lazy. Immaturely assuming their faith means they have “found the truth,” they cease to be seekers of any additional light and truth. Their assumption of being “right” precludes deep listening to contrary opinions or displaying the humility required of a disciple. And thereby, they perpetuate a reputation of arrogance rightly despised by the world.

Lest we be an opinionated people no longer listening to others, a holy “not-knowing” must be nurtured so that we might learn what the Spirit may be saying. A truth-seeking church speaks confessionally, not dogmatically; it is a lifelong learner.

Finally, truthful people eschew judgmentalism that precludes both reconciliation and unity that gives Christian faith credibility. Having a deserved disdain for the excesses and immaturity of a lying leader, it is difficult not to smear all his supporters with a similar greasy brush. Too easily, in speech and in attitude, all become “wicked,” “evil” or “destroyers of democracy.” Not surprisingly, this name-calling and dehumanizing is answered in kind, and it becomes profitless to ask who started talking trash first.

The imperative of this hour is to renounce such behavior, confessing the truth that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Roman 3:10). We must re-humanize one another in speech and attitude, being honest about the mire in which we are mutually stuck and honoring the truth of the image of God borne by every single one of us.

In today’s cultural upheavals and realignments, followers of Jesus cannot expect any force but the power of truth to be our sufficient shield, anchor and banner. In the world’s eyes, we are just one more of society’s baggage-laden institutions. We must earn our right to speak and be heard. If there is time before a Jeremiah-like judgment befalls us, being truth-people is our great hope and must be our earned identity — for Christ’s sake and for our neighbors’.

 

J. Daniel (Dan) Day is pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church (Salisbury St.) of Raleigh, N.C, whose cancer story is told in his 2024 book: At the River I Stand: Conversations with God about Dying and Living.

 

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