As I read news stories of Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatening telecommunication companies for complying with legal subpoenas to preserve phone records of principal figures apparently tied to the violent attempt to overthrow a lawfully elected government, my thoughts turn toward the value of truth in a world of lies.
The True Truth
Throughout my many decades deep within the white evangelical Christian movement, I always believed that we who followed the One who proclaimed Himself to be “the Truth” were the upholders of “true truth.” It was the “ungodly” liberals who sought to dilute true truth by making truth subjective and personal. We scoffed at those who referred to “my truth” as opposed to “the truth.”
In the Trump era of “conservatism,” it’s the conservatives who have made truth a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder.
But in the Trump era of “conservatism,” it’s the conservatives who have made truth a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. Certainly, as many have astutely observed, conservatism and the Republican Party didn’t suddenly crumble into a state of relativistic nihilism on November 9, 2016. Trump’s election was the culmination of decades spent cavorting with conditional morality and situational ethical standards. Iran-Contra and bringing an unnecessary war to Iraq quickly come to mind.
No, Trump only brought to fruition the bad seeds that had been planted over the preceding decades. He merely brought to light the muck that had long been brewing in the GOP’s bawdy basement of deceits. But the difference now is that nearly the entire Republican Party—from Trump to nearly all GOP Congressional members to most Republican voters—have brazenly declared open season on “true truth.” America’s conservatives are now the unapologetic primary peddlers of “my truth.”
So, when I see commentators take solace in the eventually-to-be-revealed facts from the House Select Committee’s investigation into the January 6th insurrection, I fail to share in their consolation. The plain, undeniable, objective truth surely will come out, but if it isn’t the conservative movement’s “truth,” then for them it will quickly be dismissed as “fake news.”
A Person Who Values the True Truth
Francis Schaeffer was the evangelical philosopher who coined the term “true truth” to distinguish objective truth from “subjective truth.” Unfortunately, few evangelicals ever read Schaeffer’s works, most deeming them too difficult to understand. As a rule—as I’ve stated frequently before—evangelicals tend to be hard workers, but intellectually sluggish. Most prefer to let others do their deep thinking for them. If Franklin Graham or Jerry Falwell Jr. proclaims something to be true, then the matter is settled, no need to waste time examining the issue myself.
Unlike the evangelical world’s Franklin Grahams and Jerry Falwells, who took advantage of their fathers’ fame to build mini empires and accumulate personal fortunes, Francis Schaeffer’s son Frank chose a different path. Long before Donald Trump descended from his perch—down that now infamous escalator to announce his presidential candidacy—Frank Schaeffer foresaw the hideously mutated spawn that the unholy marriage of conservative Christianity and the Republican Party would produce.
So, over a period of a few years in the late 1980s, Schaeffer renounced his evangelical heritage and denounced the monstrosity that white evangelicalism was becoming. He could have done as many of his contemporaries such as the younger Graham and Falwell did; he could have chosen fame and fortune over truth. But Frank Schaeffer knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he went in that direction. True truth is too valuable to sell—even for coffers full of cash. But because the likes of Graham and Falwell chose material wealth over true truth, it was a small step from there to misleading their naïve followers regarding the 2016 presidential election. And then it was just another misguided step to ironically crown Trump as God’s specially chosen vessel for returning and defending “Christian freedoms and virtues.”
The "New" Truth
At that point, the die was cast. All bets were off. The game was over. For white evangelicals, Trump quickly transformed from a thrice-married adultery-committing huckster into the last great hope for an American theocracy. Trump the goofy game-show host became Trump the new messiah, the arbiter of truth—or even the final reference point for truth. This new messiah could declare night day and day night—and his devoted followers would happily change their sleep and work schedules to accommodate the new “truth.”
And this is how our often-flawed-but-always-improving nation took a giant step backward. This is what brought us to this appalling point at which a leader in one of the most significant roles in the federal government feels compelled to threaten communication companies for failing to comply with his demand that they keep secret the many lies he and his GOP cohorts have told about the January 6th attempt to overthrow a lawful election.
This is where flirting with personal, situational truths has taken us. If, as a nation, we fail to value true truth, we will also succumb to all our other base instincts and desires. Regard and reverence for the truth—true truth—is the foundation for all the other virtues that make a nation great. Some might say we’ve already crossed that point of no return; American virtue is irretrievably lost. I’m afraid that might be the true truth.