(Thread) I’ve been saying this for a while, but yesterday put an exclamation point on it as well: we have a major truth problem in front of us as a nation, and really, as a global community. The development and growth of post modern thought (ie all truth is self defined),
along with the internet and the mass amount of information available to us for the first time in humanity, has created a daily buffet which encourages us to just pick and choose what we want to be true. And this isn’t a liberal or conservative issue; it’s an ALL OF US issue.
“What is true?” has become the central question we are sorting through, yet it seems like very few actually know how to answer it. True has become an emotion, something we feel, that whoever has the most conviction and passion behind their truth, becomes the basis for our truth.
This aspect of what feels true is part of why we are watching the chaos playing out in front of us. And it came up numerous times yesterday. Here
Here
And here (to name a few)
We have abandoned our principles and character as a nation, and have divorced ourselves from the processes and systems that modernity gave us for pursuing truth. We MUST do the hard work of combining the gifts of modernity and post modernity and rebuild our credibility.
Modernity taught us how to think, ask questions, research and discern and we have to be responsible with the information we have access to. This was really good, simple and applies well beyond just COVID, but every field of thought.
Post modernity taught us how to listen, to understand, to respect and tolerate other’s point of views. We have to have discourse, discussion and debate. We have to embrace relative truth and idea meritocracy FOR THE SAKE OF actually getting to an absolute truth together.
Instead of an attitude of, “I’m right and you should listen to me!” We need to shift to an attitude of, “What if what I believe is true is wrong? I want to listen and ask more questions to make sure I’m not missing something.” That posture change would make a huge difference.
It’s this kind of humility and grace that Jesus invites Christ followers into. Read the Gospels and you’ll see that the people Jesus was the most harsh with, were the religious leaders who were the most committed to their truth!
This isn’t about abandoning truth, but finding it and pursuing it together with human decency, dignity and love at the forefront. When we immediately reject someone’s relative truth, we’re saying they aren’t capable of holding truth which is part of the image of God in all of us.
This also doesn’t mean that we never disagree, in fact the opposite! But we should do that in love as well. @JohnMPerkins defined tolerance as, “You believe what you believe, I’ll believe what I believe, but we won’t kill each other.” It’s that last part we have been missing.
As advanced as we are as humanity in so many ways, we have a lot of work to do. I’m still trying to figure this out. Heck, I wrestle with being fully honest with myself! (#enneagram3) But this is the work that I believe we are being invited into more than anything today.
