Living with Liars
Fr. Tony's Midweek Message
August 2, 2017
"[What] gave Adam free access to God
in Paradise and which also gives us access to Him in the new Paradise opened
to the world by the Passion of Christ, was based on confidence in the truth of
God's mercy. But
the sin of Adam which robbed him and us of paradise was due to a false
confidence, a confidence which deliberately willed to make the option and
experience of believing a lie." (Thomas
Merton, The
New Man [New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1961] p. 101)
One of the great misfortunes of political life in our country for the
last half century is the preponderance of "spin doctors" on both sides of the
aisle whose work is to shape narrative that is to the best political advantage
of their employers: Take
the facts, shave out the ugly or inconvenient ones, tell a moving story made
up only of the facts that work in your direction, and then focus on the
pithy and memorable message of the day.
Such unidirectional messaging has gradually choked off two-way
political discourse in the country, stifled bi-partisan cooperation and
compromise, and shattered to bits the things that hold us together in a common
life. But
at least spin doctors had to submit their version of the world and truth to
what was commonly called "the laugh test," that is, whether things were spun
so far away from the facts on the ground everyone knew that the reaction they
would likely provoke was derisive guffaws at the unbelievable story they
told.
One of the effects of the "narrow-casting" of internet media and the
partisan partitioning of radio and cable news (lefties watch MSNBC or CNN;
righties watch Fox) is an "echo-chamber" where we hear only voices we agree
with. And
this has led in some cases to a loss of effective control of the laugh
test. As a
result, we are in an environment where spin often no longer even seeks any
connection to reality at all. In a
word, we live in a world surrounded by many liars. Witness
the rise of such terms as "alternative facts" and "fake news."
As Christians, we are called to live in truth, as hard and
uncomfortable as truth may be. People of
the lie are doomed to live in fear, avoidance, and manipulation. But
as resurrection people, we live in the light, in the truth. Truth
drives out fear. As the Johannine Jesus said, "The truth shall set you
free." We
need to listen to those with whom we disagree, if only to catch facts that we
may have filtered out of our view. But
we also need to be truthful, and call a misrepresentation or distortion of
things what it is—a lie.
Grace and peace.
Fr. Tony +
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