In declaring our independence from jolly old England several centuries back, the founding folk made a bold statement in the first sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” Little did they realize how sensitive truth would become in our day and time. While George Washington’s never-tell-a-lie cherry tree incident might have gotten him elected, alternate political strategies have emerged in which white lies get the job done. It’s hidden in plain sight, and it’s as obvious as the nose on Pinocchio’s face.
Underneath such an assumption was that some truths were more evident than others. While all men might have been created equal, it was understood that some were more equal than others. The word “men” excluded slaves, women and the kids which made keeping your pluribus more unum.
Underlying the rebellion that became the American Revolution was a trade war in which the mother country wanted more taxes for their blooming tea. Something greater was brewing beneath all that rhetoric, and that something had to do with freedom from the monarchy. The musical “Hamilton” gets at some of those larger issues going on then and now, like how it took a bunch of ragtag immigrants to get the job done. [There’s a truth that might be offensive to some.]
By the way, truth and freedom very seldom coexist peacefully except over entrances to college buildings or in cross stitch notions like “You Shall Know the Truth, and the Truth Will Set You Free”. Test that theory with Galileo’s discovery of a very inconvenient truth that the earth really is not the center of the universe. Or issues surrounding gender inequality or global warming.
The God of Moses made several suggestions for how we ought to get along with each other, and one of those happened to mention something called bearing false witness. You should read the list of ten in the older testament and see how it might not be worthy of hanging up in a courtroom where people swear on an English King James Bible [where Jesus only spoke in red letters] to tell the truth.
You really can’t make up this stuff, but you can easily put it in the basement in a box labeled “suspect notions that might come in handy later.”
Before you tape that box, you might want to put in some of the other idiosyncrasies of religions that seem to have their own corner on truth. Christians are the world’s worst faith for inventing the world’s best exaggerations. Just ask them how the earth was created. Or which denomination does God love best. Or why they think God meant for abortion to be the eleventh commandment. You know that the word “abortion” never appears in holy writ – neither in the infallible King James version nor fake editions.
Nobody in their right pew seems to remember Jesus’ admonition about how all the nations will be judged: …for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Just before his untimely execution by the state, Jesus stands before Pilate and claims he has come to testify to the truth. And that’s when the politician Pontius reacted with pious hubris and a rhetorical question: “What is truth?” Then went and washed hands of the whole thing.
If such self-evident truth be known, it would take an act of congress for those final words of Jesus of Nazareth to ever happen in our lifetime. Maybe that’s why those first founders added an amendment to our constitution: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Honestly facing our pluralism and diversity, you begin to realize that maybe truth might not be that obvious since it is so ill-regarded. But we must not abandon the hope it can bring to a world honestly craving that magical peace that passes such understanding. We need to restore a time and place where middle school civics teachers, along with their students and parents, can watch the evening news without having to blush.