Truth in Politics: "...with liberty and justice for all?"

““What is truth?” Pilate asked.” John 18:38

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.” US District Courts administer the following oath to witnesses, “You do affirm that all the testimony you are about to give in the case now before the court will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; this you do affirm under the pains and penalties of perjury?” The meaning is clear. When you make statements, tell the truth – the whole truth. Do not lie. Do not withhold information. If you lie or withhold information there are legal penalties to pay for deceiving the public and attempting to perpetrate a miscarriage of justice. As we say in the Pledge of Allegiance, we live in a nation that was predicated on the premise of “…liberty and justice for all.” Clearly, as Americans we acknowledge that truth is essential for justice and liberty to triumph.

We require and expect our citizenry to tell the truth in public matters of consequence or face penalties for not doing so. So, where along the political way did we stray from requiring and expecting candidates for public office to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? It is a sad indictment of the American political system that we must now rely upon ‘fact checkers’ to assess a political candidate’s ability to tell the truth. One of the most popular ‘fact checkers’, PolitiFact, identifies itself as a project of the Tampa Bay Times and its partners to help the American public find the truth in politics. They rate the consistency of public officials on a Flip-O-Meter using three ratings: No Flip, Half Flip and Full Flop. If this was not enough, PolitiFact’s Truth-O-Meter rates factual claims.

According to the PolitiFact web site, “PolitiFact writers and editors spend considerable time researching and deliberating on our rulings. We always try to get the original statement in its full context rather than an edited form that appeared in news stories. We then divide the statement into individual claims that we check separately. When possible, we go to original sources to verify the claims. We look for original government reports rather than news stories. We interview impartial experts. We then decide which of our six rulings should apply: True – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing; Mostly True – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information; Half True – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context; Mostly False – The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression; False – The statement is not accurate; Pants on Fire – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.”

The Truth-O-Meter attests to the growing confusion between opinion and fact in American politics. Perhaps definitions would be appropriate. A fact is something that has occurred or is actually the case. Facts are verifiable. Opinions, however, are beliefs or judgments that rest on grounds insufficient to prove. Opinions are open to debate or dispute. Generating public opinion through lies is malicious since telling a lie again and again does not make it true. So why do political candidates lie, spin, and tell half-truths? Because, if convincing enough, lies and half-truths successfully mislead people into believing they are really true. When lies are blindly accepted as truth, liberty and justice are the casualties.

Some assert that truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder, and facts are secondary to successfully generating favorable political opinions to win elections. Because we, the people, value liberty and justice, we do not judge our citizenry by personal opinion. We evaluate facts that lead to truth. We should judge our political candidates the same way. Telling a lie three times does not make it the truth, no matter how much we want to believe the lie. Political candidates are not above the law and we should expect them to uphold the tenets upon which this nation was established. It is time to hold our political candidates and parties to the same standard as we do our citizenry in telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth if we truly believe the United States is still a nation “…with liberty and justice for all.”

The Truth Will Set You Free

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32 (NIV)

In May 1976, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner (as Emily Lattella) exchanged the following during a Saturday Night Live skit:

Emily Lattella: What's all this fuss I keep hearing about violins on television? Why don't parents want their kids to see violins on television? I thought the Leonard Bernstein concerts were just lovely, now, if they only show violins on television after ten o'clock at night, the little babies will all be asleep and they won't learn any music appreciation. They'll learn to play guitars, and bongo drums and go to Africa and join these rock and roll outfits and they won't drink milk! I think there should be more violins on television and less game shows. It's terrible the way...

Chevy Chase: Um, Miss Lattella, that’s violence on television. Not violins.

Emily Lattella: Oh, well, that’s different. Never mind.

            Passionate, yes. Based upon fact? Hardly. On the eve of the Republican and Democratic conventions, Emily Lattella’s rant reminds me of the state of today’s politics -- riddled with faulty premises, immaterial data, irrelevant assumptions, and illogical conclusions. Like Lattella, what we think isn’t always what’s factual. While Lattella’s harangue stemmed from a simple semantic misunderstanding, today’s political spin-doctors purposely twist (or ignore) inconvenient truths to produce a favorable opinion within the public. In 2005, comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term ‘truthiness’ and defined it as “what you want to be true, not what is true.” Truthiness preys on the propensity for people to be attracted, like moths to a flame, to ideas and political positions with which they already agree – regardless of the facts. Truthiness results in people suspending their critical thinking in favor of what Irving Janis termed ‘groupthink’ in 1972. Janis advanced three preconditions for groupthink:

-- high group cohesiveness;

-- structural faults (insulation, lack of impartial leadership, absence of norms requiring practical procedures, and the sameness of members’ ideology and social backgrounds);

-- situational context (stressful external threats, recent failures, excessive decision-making difficulties, and moral dilemmas).

Powerful people and dominant interests committed to securing political outcomes use all tactics, fair and foul, to achieve their ends – including truthiness and groupthink. Genuine truth is the ultimate enemy of truthiness and groupthink.  Groupthink and truthiness are evident in many of today’s high-stake political issues, particularly those dealing with equality (racial, marriage, gender), church and state (prayer in schools, state religion, and the role of the church in politics), and human dignity/rights (health care, poverty, class divides). In the current political climate, truth is often sacrificed on the altar of partisan influence. When we cannot or do not recognize truthiness and groupthink at play in the public debates, we fall prey to the spin-doctors of all political persuasions who employ them so skillfully.

It would be helpful to engage in critical thinking and thereby identify where truthiness and groupthink are polluting the political landscape. So, in coming weeks, check back for a series of articles illuminating the relevant history and facts surrounding key issues of equality, church and state, and human dignity/rights.

Perhaps our misunderstandings are simply based upon semantics and, like Emily Lattella, we can say, “Oh, well, that’s different. Never mind.” However, perhaps there are other forces at work intent on generating misunderstanding for parochial gain. In either case, the truth shall set you free. Stay tuned…

Just Rollin' Along

I saw a picture recently of an old roller-skate key and took a slide down memory lane, remembering the hours I spent rolling through my neighborhood, clacking over the cracks in sidewalks, jumping curbs, and (not trivially) learning how to stop without damage to myself or property. I laughed (and garnered a quizzical look from my wife) as I recalled futilely trying to tighten the skates over the rubber soles of my high-top Converse All-Stars. As I grew, my need for larger shoes grew too. So, I learned how to use that other part of the skate key to loosen and tighten the nut and bolt that held the two parts together. It made me smile to recollect all I learned about myself, my neighborhood, and life by rolling around in those skates. Good memories.

I had a next-door neighbor who also got roller-skates about the same time I did. He kept his skates in the box, only taking them out to polish them. I never saw him using them. I would stop by and ask him to go skating, but he said he didn’t want to scratch them up. When I returned after exploring the neighborhood, he would be on his porch polishing his skates; very proud of owning them but never using them for their intended purpose. At the time, it made me sad for him. I wondered if he was too scared to put them on and start rolling around, or if he was just content staying on his front porch and polishing them, giving off the impression he was a skater.

Religion is a lot like that pair of roller-skates.  We can learn to use it as intended – practicing daily -- or we can keep it closed up in a box where we can claim possession of it and polish it when we want without risking the bumps and bruises that come with using it.  I’ve learned both religion and roller-skates are intended to be used hard and often. To be skilled we must use them regularly. They expand to fit us as we grow. They offer us a vehicle to places we cannot otherwise go. And, when we use them as intended, we may get banged up a bit along the way – but growing pains are good.

I’m immensely grateful God gave me the courage and sense of adventure to use those roller-skates hard and frequently. Those skates took me to many new places, provided new experiences, grew with me, and enabled many new genuine friendships. Religion can be like that too. I bet that’s one of the things God had in mind when saying, “See, I am making all things new!” (Rev. 21:5) It’s never too late to get rolling!

The Non-Blog Post

            OK, I have five unfinished blogs sitting in my ‘writing’ folder entitled:

-- United Methodist Church hypocrisy (homosexual behavior and war doctrinally being ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’ cuts both ways);

-- Boy Scouts renew refusal to admit self-avowed homosexuals (exercising rights or just plain wrong);

-- church membership is passé (club dues vs. discipleship);

-- church caring ministries performed by caring Christians (laity-to-laity models -- self-serve or drive-thru);

-- open market value of clergy services (comparing how much money people earn in society performing identical functions of management, counseling, guide/mentor, visionary CEO, weekly public speaking engagements, scholar-in-residence, etc.). 

            Why can’t I bring these to closure?  Surely it is not because I lack information or perspective since there’s a glut of both.  It’s not because I’m dispassionate about the topics.  Could it be I’m uncomfortable with where these topics are taking me through my assessment?  I think I’m getting warmer… So, in true scientific fashion I began looking for common threads among the topics.  Surprise – they all relate to injustices and the conflict surrounding them. More fundamentally (always a dangerous word to use in theological treatises), there is profound disagreement if they even are topics related to injustice (biblically speaking).

I readily acknowledge there are excellent, thought-provoking arguments on all sides of these topics. That said, at some point, it seems to me that we must focus on areas of agreement rather than on razor-sharp points of disagreement. As in any free society, we will not all agree – that comes with the territory.  However, mutual respect and tolerance are also foundational to the American ethos (or at least they used to be). So, how can we frame issues into questions rather than dogmatic statements; questions that invite reflection and reasoned dialogue that heals rather than polarization and division that harms?

Here are some broader questions for people to ponder and discuss:

-- Should the value to society of a professional athlete be 100 times more in real dollars than a teacher, social worker, or clergy person?

-- Should private organizations segregate simply because they have the legal authority to do so?

-- Is the reason why people do good things as important as the good things people do?

-- Is it still true in America that an ethical person knows the right things to do but a moral person actually does them (even when no one else is looking)?

-- Why is the United Methodist Church (among others) myopically obsessing on one doctrine that it claims is ‘incompatible with Christian teaching’ while completely ignoring the other?

-- Is the exercise of free speech and freedom of association always the ethically and morally correct thing to do (simply because it is a ‘right’ in America)?

            While I am almost certain we won’t all agree on the answers to these questions, I want to live in a nation and society that remains committed to open, thoughtful, and respectful dialogue from which we may all develop greater understanding and insight.

How about you?

Summer Dreams...

For at least several generations (including mine), the American Dream was characterized by a vertical climb accompanied by the accumulation of bigger and better stuff.  However, most experienced rock climbers take only what they need and lighten their load as they go.  So, it has always seemed to me that the wise principles of climbing are essentially in disagreement with the goals of the former American Dream.

I say ‘former’ because a new American dream is emerging.  A recent NPR story cites national pollster John Zogsby who, in his book The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream, discusses a generation he calls the “first Globals.”  Instead of loading themselves down with stuff over decades and laying down deep, permanent roots, these young adults are motivated to collect diverse life experiences.  They are living, studying, or working abroad, and are far less interested in following the traditions of previous generations.  To be less anchored, they rent places to live rather than purchase homes.  They choose possessions that facilitate movement rather than immobility. 

Zogby writes, “Two out of three of them have passports. They are well traveled; technologically they have networks that include people all over the world. They have a desire to be nimble, to go anywhere and to be anywhere. They also have a desire to change their world and feel like they’re in a position to do that.”  They have moved from the fixation of the previous American Dream on possessing more and better stuff to a passion for experiencing people and the world through a global lens.  In this way, the possessive idea of “my stuff” evolves into the global reality of “our stuff.”  Interconnectedness and sharing replace individualism and personal accumulation as the mechanisms through which this generation understands their place and purpose in life. 

As a result, Globals care little about how much they own.  Aspects of life requiring a sense of permanence are eschewed (i.e., 30-year mortgages at a permanent address or a decades-long career with the same employer) in favor of the ability to pick up at a moment’s notice and relocate or refocus their lives.  Globals are more concerned about how much they can give to the world than about how much they can take from it.  They have the audacity to believe global change can begin with the act of a single person.  In fact, they understand global change always begins this way.

One aspect of physics that fascinates me is chaos theory.  Globals embody the key principle of Edward Lorenz’s ‘butterfly theory’ -- the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can set the initial condition for change through which the course of global weather is altered forever.  So it is with Globals – they are setting an initial condition for change through which the human pattern of behavior is altered forever. Globals believe they produce a ripple effect of global proportions. This is good stuff. 

So, my hat’s off to this new generation that is daring to redefine the American Dream.  I like their direction and courage. There is hope for America’s future after all.  Dream on!

Building On the Eternity Plan

2 Corinthians 4:16–5:1  “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.  For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”

Take out a dollar bill.  Above the word “ONE” on the backside of the bill, what does it say?  (In God We Trust.)  The currency of the United States makes a strong theological statement, but do we in the Christian church live into that belief?  Are we fixing our eyes on what is not seen, or on what is just before our eyes?  Every time we pull out a dollar bill, we are reminded of Paul’s words to the church in Corinth – focus on what is not seen and eternal (the kingdom of God), not on the temporary things right before our eyes (money and property).  While knowing our currency states ‘In God We Trust’, we most often elect to ignore these words in our daily lives.  Adam Hamilton, an ordained United Methodist elder and prolific Christian writer, calls this disease ‘affluenza’ – our compulsion to focus myopically on the means of power and control in this life – money and property. 

We can learn from the people of Corinth in Paul’s time. Corinth was one of the most cosmopolitan, pluralistic, and wealthiest societies in the world during the 1^st Century. It was a trading hub on the Mediterranean with a thriving population of Greeks, Romans, and Jews.  As in all wealthy societies, Corinth had a large gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.  The Christian community in Corinth was not immune to this socioeconomic divide. 

The Christians in the ‘haves’ category opened their homes (churches) to the other ‘haves’ and held sumptuous (and closed) feasts before permitting some of the ‘have-not’ Christians to come in for a simple bread/wine communion before quickly ushering them out.  To promote their business networks in the broader Corinthian community, Corinthian Christians participated in pagan rituals, attended pagan animal sacrifices, comingled Christian and secular beliefs, and discriminated against fellow Corinthian Christians in lower socioeconomic classes – all to keep up social appearances and to not be viewed as odd by their peers and customer base.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul condemned these self-serving practices.  In doing so, Paul jeopardized his standing with the Corinthians as a Christian leader.  Paul told them to turn away from negative friends, pseudo-Christian practices, and a culture that viewed Christian discipleship (and disciples) as odd.  Instead, Paul encourages the Corinthian church to revere the values of God’s kingdom more than the values of society.  He is encouraging Corinthian disciples to focus on Christ’s light more than the harbor lights. 

After living in Corinth for 18 months, Paul recognized that Corinthian Christians wanted it both ways; they craved the wealth, acceptance, and power of this world while concurrently wanting the best in the world to come.  As those with ears to hear in Corinth began to realize they were not living into Christ’s Great Commandment and Great Commission, they began to feel guilty and hopeless.  Into this realization, Paul encourages the faithful not to lose heart.  Paul reminds the church that, despite Christ’s call to give up the temporary trappings of this world, by the power of the Holy Spirit disciples are being renewed inwardly day by day. 

Paul’s message is clear -- focusing on money and property doesn’t bear the fruit offered to us by Christ.  In a 2010 study, the United States ranked #1 in income, but ranked 16th in life satisfaction, and 26th on positive feelings.  Numerous academic studies found that happier people generally: express gratitude on a regular basis; practice being optimistic; engage in frequent acts of generosity and kindness; savor joyful events; and practice forgiveness.  A recent survey of more than 340,000 people showed overall feelings of wellbeing improve as people pass age 50.  Researchers report negative emotions such as stress and anger decline after the early 20s, and people over 50 worry less. The authors say it may be as simple as this: with age comes increased wisdom and emotional intelligence.  So, if you’re over 50 and cranky, you’re in a small minority.  The most hopeful information to come from these studies is the assurance that we do not have to be shackled to affluenza; we can be free from being hooked on the temporal lures of money and material property.

Paul challenges us to ask if we are putting our time, energy, and treasure toward the things that are temporal or toward the things that are eternal.  We are reminded that eternal living starts today – not when we die.  Christ, Paul, and modern experts on positive living all agree – focusing less on money and marerial property and more on God’s kingdom (joy, emotional peace and positivity, and gratitude) will result in a radically happier, more optimistic life. 

Whether from the gospels or from modern studies, the pathway to living a more joyful, emotionally positive and stable life seems universal:

-- Collect genuine friends (in Christ)

-- Enjoy solitude (spend time alone with God each day)

-- Get fit (work each day on your mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing)

-- Find your passion (explore your spiritual gifts and use them to God’s glory)

-- Take healthy risks (quit playing it safe and begin trusting in God)

-- Protect yourself from ‘emotional vampires’ who traffic in fear and negativism (open yourself to the joy, optimism, and eternal wellbeing of God’s eternal kingdom).

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”  This is the real promise; the true comfort that Paul says should guide our thoughts and actions each day.  So, this week, let’s trust in God a bit more, focus on living with an eternal perspective now, and walk the pathway that leads to joy, optimism, and emotional stability.

Old Dog -- New Tricks

Several people have told me I need a blog, and I was afraid I needed a doctor's appointment.  After learning it was not a physical procedure but a spiritual and mental one, I agreed to give it a try.  My wife does it.  My kids do it.  After all, at 57 I need to learn this before my parents do.  Welcome to a peek inside me.