Our country seems to have entered a new era where it is trying to see how it works for every part of society to be founded on falsehood. Consider these examples:
- False product reviews
- Fake news
- The Cancel Culture, shutting down all opposing voices
- Politicians who flat-out lie, over and over again
- Election fraud (either the false accusation of it or the actual occurrence of it)
- False accusations for political gain (Russian collusion, “impeachable” Ukrainian phone call, sexual predation by a Supreme Court nominee, etc.)
- Internet sites abounding in completely false information
- Polls that aren’t close to true
- Government agencies seemingly dedicated to producing and maintaining false narratives on false premises
You see, lying is power, and the thought now seems to be that lying gives one more power than truth-telling. Lying allows manipulation, and therefore control. True power comes from controlling what people think, and people are easily seduced by it. “The real power is power over men, not power over things” (Geo. Orwell, 1984, p. 215). It’s a misuse of personal power to exercise power over a situation or over others based on falseness.
“Too many people don’t know, or don’t want to know, what the truth is anymore.”[1] The problem is—and we all know it—that dishonesty is both demeaning and destructive.
The battle is for the mind. “Since God is truth, a contempt for truth is equally a contempt for God.”[2] If you want trouble, speak up; if you want big trouble, tell the truth. “In an age of relativity the practice of truth when it is costly is the only way to cause the world to take seriously our protestations concerning truth.”[3] The only way to preserve civil society is with the truth (Ex. 20.16). If we don’t win the battle for truth, all is lost.
[1] Frank Peretti, This Present Darkness, p. 35
[2] Gordon Clark, A Christian Philosophy of Education
[3] Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There, p. 169