Today’s Scripture Reading (February
11, 2015): Titus 2 & 3
As elections
approach in North American, so does the season for bending the truth. It might
seem that the idea of running a negative campaign is a recent development, but
it actually appears to have its roots in the early 1800’s. James Callender may
have been the first political hatchet man. He was hired by Thomas Jefferson as
Jefferson prepared to run a campaign against his former boss, John Adams. In
1801 he actually spent time in jail for sedition, or, more probably, for the
suspected bending of the truth for use against Adams in Jefferson’s political
campaign as he ran to replace Adams as the President of the United States. When
Callender emerged from jail, he felt that Jefferson owed him something.
Apparently Jefferson disagreed, and so Callendar turned on him by revealing that
the now newly elected President had been having an affair with one of his
slaves – Sally Hemings. Most people assumed that Callender’s accusation was
just another example of his willingness to bend the truth, but more recent discoveries
have shown that, at least on this point, Callender may have been actually
telling the whole, unbent truth.
But with
Callender, the sacred art of bending the truth, and often making elections more
about the partial lies that the candidate’s tell about each other than it is about
the real issues that need to be dealt with, began – and the practice continues
with a vengeance even today. And as a result some have wondered how politicians
do it – how is it that they seem to be able to lie so convincingly. The answer
to that question probably depends on three conditions that politicians must be convinced
of as they run their campaigns.
First, lie
is not quite the right word to use when considering the words that politicians
use. It is really a stretching or bending of the truth. In other words, there
is a very real truth that sits at the core of what the politicians are saying,
but the words are spun in a way that benefits the candidate. In other words,
what is said is often true, at least to a point, but it is the meaning that
they try to give to the truth that actually suffers. They seldom actually tell
a lie, and they can usually go back and support the core of their argument with
verifiable truth. Second, the policy or message of the candidate is often seen
as of the utmost importance. For example, one of the Democratic goals over the
past six years has been universal health care. And that issue was considered
important enough to make the bending of the truth worth the misleading truth
that the Democratic Party has been selling. But, as is usually the case, the
Republicans are not innocent in this. They have been doing their own bending of
the truth to support the campaign against universal health care. And lastly, it
really helps if you know that you are the good guys, and your opponent is evil
incarnate.
So Paul
writes to Titus and reminds him that he is not a politician. The cause may be
big enough, and the enemy really is evil incarnate, and yet that still is not a
good enough reason to bend the truth. No matter what the cause, slander is
never permissible – even in a political campaign - and there is never a reason big
enough to not be peaceable, considerate and gentle with each other. There is no
rationale that makes it okay for Christians to bend the truth – even if the
truth does nothing but harm us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Peter
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