Valuing Truth
Hard to watch the events of this past week. My heart breaks for it all.
It's made me reflect on what it means—for us, and for me—to be a person who values truth.
Truth is a hard thing to value. I've thought about that a lot, not least because my vocation makes a lot of truth claims, and also carries the temptation of fudging the truth sometimes. There are a lot of ways for preachers to play fast and loose with the truth, and any preacher that's not *really* aware of the dangers of the rhetorical toolbox we carry around is like somebody carrying a pistol without knowing where the safety is.
The rhetorical toolbox has some useful but mischievous tools, you know. Overstatement. Understatement. Telling stories that evoke emotion. Selecting data that matches your narrative, and culling that which detracts. The art of knowing your crowd well enough to see how far you can push and when you'd best pull back a smidge. Knowing what coals of passion lie smoldering, just needing somebody to give them a little oxygen to make them come alive. It's powerful stuff. And dangerous.
Of course, I'm not just a speaker, but a listener, too. I don't just use rhetoric—I'm on the receiving end of a lot of it too. There are folks who want to use me, and who point all those tools squarely in my direction. Some of them don't seem to be that conscientious about what their rhetoric does. Imagine a long-time gun instructor showing up at the shooting range only to find a reckless crowd passing around loaded weapons pointing every-which direction. No safeties on, everything loaded, people carrying four or five weapons in each hand. Pistols lay on the tables, easily within reach of the kids wandering around while the adults laugh with each other, oblivious. They are clearly enjoying the power in their hands, everybody's having a great time. But what do you think that instructor thinks—feels— in that situation?
I'm just saying that when it comes to the way we use rhetoric—a powerful tool for both the honest and dishonest—I feel a lot like that guy. (And yes, for those paying attention, this story too is rhetoric. See how easy it is?)
We need to be a lot more conscientious with how we both use rhetoric and also much more savvy with how we consume it. But we need to recognize that it's hard work. That's what I meant when I wrote above that I've thinking about what it means to be a person who values truth. It's one thing to say something is a *value*, but values constantly ask back, "Really? How much am I really worth to you? What are you willing to do, to give?"
Valuing the truth when I have to mic (or keyboard), means I have to think carefully about whether what I'm saying is strictly true, or whether I'm shading the truth. Even if what I'm saying is ultimately in the service of the truth, I have to ask whether I'm asking people to skip steps, or take shortcuts. I have to ask how much I'm relying on people's trust and what kind of trust habits I'm encouraging or discouraging in them. If I'm only telling one side of a story, I have to ask whether the people in my crowd are really aware of the other side...do they know the best reasons to take the other side? Am I representing the other side fairly? Before I pass on information, I have to ask whether my sources are really solid or not; why do I trust them and should/would other people?
On the other side, being someone who demonstrates that I value truth in the way I receive rhetoric is hard work, too. Most of what we have pointed at us is meant to get us stirred up, to inflame us. It's hard work to filter out when people are really fairly representing their opponents (spoiler alert: they aren't) or to figure out which sets of facts are really accurate. When I'm paying attention, I find that a lot of people assume that we won't do any work—they feel like they can pass on untrue things with true impunity, knowing they won't *really* be held accountable. What they really know is a powerful pair of vulnerabilities: many of us are willing to accept facts we want to be true, and we move on to the next controversy quickly. Think about how dangerous those two are. Mercy!
As a result, people with powerful platforms feel (know) that their audience is willing to believe something that may or may not be true, and that they next week they won't really care about how it panned out. They don't believe we are willing to put in the work of really evaluating what they say and they don't think we'll really care about the particulars by next week anyways. To be clear, they think that about *me*. Some days, they're right. It's hard work, after all. Some days I frankly don't value truth as much as I say I do, and when somebody shows me a shortcut, I take it.
My friends, it is really, *really* important that we cultivate a sincere valuing of the truth. It just has to become more important to us if we're going to have a solid functioning society.
We haven't adapted well to the changes in the world, where everyone has these mass communication opportunities. In the old world, a small number of people had access to a small number of podiums. A small number of people decided what got printed and published. Now, everybody is a mass communicator. Everybody is a publisher. And while we've bought into the idea that everybody should have those opportunities, we've been really slow to recognize that it also means everybody has the responsibilities that come with those opportunities.
There are some good things about the democratization of communication, I think, but only if we're *much* more discerning about how we consume the flood that is coming at us. We haven't kept up with the disciplines of truth, as either speakers or hearers. And we're in trouble because of it.
My friends, I implore you: let's commit ourselves to honoring, treasuring and valuing truth.
Let's commit to doing the hard work of weighing claims and facts, to not taking shortcuts when people make claims that we'd *like* to be true or when they push facts that match up with the narrative that is belongs to *our side*.
Let's commit to returning to the art of persuasion, attentively considering the best arguments of our opponents. Let us reject the rhetoric of inflammation, that locks our attention into the aspects of the opposition we find most ridiculous.
Let's lengthen our memories a bit, and stop listening to people who recklessly make a habit of passing on misinformation.
We got here by being lazy, and it was foolish. To heal requires our collective repentance, and a commitment to put in the work to build something different.
May God give us the courage, wisdom, and strength to become people of truth.
