Truth under Fire

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As Evangelicals continue their unflinching support for Trump, Rudy Giuliani has at last said something that rings true with these “Christians.”  According to a Washington Post story 45’s lawyer declared, “Truth isn’t truth.”  This was regarding the Russia probe, something that would’ve led to the ouster of any real president by now.  We’re all used to Trump’s constant state of obfuscation after all these long months, and the former mayor of New York has just come clean—truth is what we want it to be, no more, no less.  It is a meaningless word, a chimera.  If the son of god in the White House has broken the law (and he has) then the truth is there’s no law to be broken.  Democracy is just a made-up word in the hands of the Republican Party.

Now, I don’t have much truck with politicians.  Leopards, according to a certain book, can’t change their spots.  Nevertheless, Evangelicals should object to Giuliani’s direct assault on their sacred text.  The Good Book, you see, is all about “the truth.”  But the truth isn’t the truth.  When it claims that Jesus died to atone for your sins, that can’t be the truth because the truth isn’t.  The only truth is what Trump personally wants.  And the GOP won’t lift a finger to stop him.  Long ago it was clear that the party of Lincoln had abandoned the will of the people they’re elected to lead, but if there were truth we’d see the deep, stinking muck of corruption everywhere within its doors.  At least you’d expect the neat and clean Christians to object.

A certain man about two millennia ago said, according to the Book, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  But Rudy says “Truth isn’t truth.”  The Beatles said they were more popular than Jesus and the public revolted.  Rudy says Trump has more authority than Jesus and the Evangelicals cheer.  The capacity for untruth has always been part of politics.  Most politicians know to lie discreetly, when fact-checking will reveal some ambiguity.  Now the gospel-truth is whatever comes from the unholy mouth of Trump.  There is no truth.  There are alternative facts.  There’s fake news.  Surely the Prince of Peace wouldn’t have cancelled a military parade.  Meanwhile someone once said “the truth will set you free.”  The great Giuliani has informed us, however, that there is no truth.  And if truth isn’t truth, there’s no hope of freedom.  At least according to a guy named Jesus, whoever he may be.  

3 thoughts on “Truth under Fire”

  1. Jeremiah Andrews

    Hey Steve,
    It truly troubles me that the concepts of Truth, Honesty, Values and Morals, have been relegated to the dustbin. I do not understand how the parties in power do not see the writing on the wall, but go about life, with their fingers in their ears singing LA LA LA LA I don’t hear anything, AND get away with it.
    I heard last night a young man on Brian Williams show late last night talk about how polarized the nation is and that we cannot even have basic conversations across the aisle, on college campuses and in society as a whole.
    Truth, as we were taught, does not exist any more. We live in a world of “he said, she said,” and alternative facts. You know, “I did nothing wrong, and my truth TRUMPS real truth. And what you see and what you read and what you hear is really NOT the truth at all.”

    Donald Trump is currently writing the Gospel of Truth as we speak. And his minions do not even see it in front of themselves. Which is terribly scary on the whole. If Trump is not removed from office, and sooner than later, the United States is going down the drain with him, because people are so oblivious and powerless, because a good chunk of them believe this man to their dying days. If truth dies, we die with it. And that’s the God’s honest Truth, as I see it.
    Jeremy

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    • Steve Wiggins

      These are scary times, Jeremy. Many of us are incredulous that so many Americans, many of them elected officials, refuse to see what’s happening here. It’s pretty obvious that Trump’s a criminal (he had a record before being nominated, even) and yet they rewrite the truth and the Fox crowd follows them. There has never been anything like this in American history—these are angry white men who want to subordinate women, gays, blacks, Hispanics, anyone who has gained basic human rights during the last century. The distressing part is that even with intelligence, military, and political opponents speaking out the Republican-controlled congress refuses to act.

      Making it even more outrageous is the fact, and it is an actual fact, that Trump was only elected because many of those who didn’t support him couldn’t be bothered to get out and vote. I remember the night of the election very well; there was certainty that Trump could not win. Many simply didn’t bother to go to the polls. One of the problems of democracy is there’s no way to take back a “I didn’t mean it” vote. Many who supported Trump are now his enemies but it’s too late. Too much rides on too fragile a system.

      At this point I pray hope is still in Pandora’s box.

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