Living in a Post-Truth America

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

                    --Jesus 

Does truth matter anymore? 

I wonder.

Are we now living in a post-truth America in which truth and factual reality are no longer necessary compatible realities? 

As the 2016 Presidential campaign unfolded it became increasingly clear to me that truth no longer mattered to a lot of people, sadly including professing Christians. 

Now political differences aside, it is quite remarkable to me that so many professing Christians kicked truth under the bus during this election cycle.

Most of these same Christians would acknowledge that Jesus said something about truth, but my guess is that what he actually said is unclear to many of them. Well , allow me to offer a very brief refresher course on Jesus and truth:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Truth mattered to Jesus, it really did.

Most Biblical scholars believe that what Jesus meant by truth in this text is anything that conforms to the entire “body of his work” which include both his teachings and manner of living. 

Speaking the truth in fact was considered liberating to the individual. In fact, even those who opposed him acknowledged that he was a man who honored truth and faithfully lived by it precepts. Check out Matthew 22:15-16 for an example of how truth mattered to Jesus (and apparently to those who opposed him).

It is also helpful to know that Jesus self-identified as the embodiment of truth (John 14:6). 

So yes truth mattered to Jesus, in a big way. 

Quite frankly it is difficult for me to get my mind wrapped around how so many Christians seemed to disregard truth during this election cycle, as if it was no longer important.

This disregard for truth signals to me a dangerous trend towards a post-truth society. 

It is acknowledgment that pragmatic results are more important than the preservation of truth itself. 

Now that the election is over we might ask: How do we teach our children and grandchildren about the value of truth to the health of any given society? How do we shape the little minds and hearts that look to us for guidance when they see us demonstrating such disregard for truth in our support of the right candidate.

More importantly, as we sit in our pews on Sunday listening to the Gospel being proclaimed as the “truth” how do we explain the glaring disconnect between what we profess as truth and the way we abandoned it just a few weeks ago?

America now has a full-blown truth crisis on her hands. 

More tragically, so does much of American Christianity, especially the Evangelical variety.

Have we forfeited our integrity and love of truth for the sake of political pragmatism? Have we shoved truth to the side in order to elect the candidate of our choice no matter how many lies that candidate has told during the course of the campaign?

Christianity will not last much longer as a positive cultural shaping force so long as we treat truth like a redheaded stepchild. 

Yet what is done is done. 

The least we can do is stop pretending that our willingness to cast aside truth was a necessary evil and now we can all return to our places of worship each Sunday and pretend to embrace the truth of the Gospel—as if truth really does matter to us after all.

Perhaps the Apostle Paul has some good advice for us: 

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Until such a transformation (repentance) occurs among American Christians ,I am afraid that we will continue to slide down that slippery slope into the dark abyss of a post-truth America.

God help us all!