Truth vs. "truthiness": a sermon (Psalm 96:13)

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with his truth.        (Psalm 96:13b, NRSV)

In the Scriptures, we learn a number of things about truth.

One thing we learn is that truth liberates.  In the gospel of John, Jesus was once in a heated discussion with the crowds and he declared to them, “… [Y]ou will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  The motto of my undergraduate college, Lafayette, was the last part of this statement – “[T]he truth will make you free” – in Latin: Veritas liberabit.  The truth liberates.

A contrasting thing we learn about truth from the scriptures is that many people are very cynical about truth.  Also in the gospel of John, Jesus was on trial before the cruel Roman governor Pontius Pilate.  Jesus made a speech in his defense, in which he appealed to “the truth”.  Pilate responded by asking (and, I believe, asking very cynically) “What is truth?”  And I believe the spirit of Pilate’s question is more accurately presented if we translate it as “What the hell is truth?”

Alongside Jesus’ affirmation that truth liberates, and contrasted with Pilate’s cynical dismissal of truth, we also have the Psalmist’s hope that God can enable us to be participants in God’s truth,

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with his truth.

But, you know, given both the liberating character of real truth and our culture’s cynicism toward truth, sometimes truth has been domesticated and diluted until it becomes something else instead. 

In recent years, a word was coined for this diluted version of the truth.  It’s called “truthiness”.  It’s associated with the brilliant TV comedian Stephen Colbert.  But I’m told it originally came from the queen of daytime television, Miss Oprah Winfrey.  Oprah was conned by a writer into promoting as a true autobiographical story a book that proved to be very much an imaginative work of fiction.  She promoted the book on her TV show and in her book club.  At one point, as the truthfulness of the book was being questioned but before the full extent of the con really dawned on her, Oprah defended the book by saying something like “Even if it’s not completely true, there’s a lot of truthiness in it.” 

“Truthiness” is artificial truth.  “Truthiness” is anything that feels true when it isn’t.  It’s the sort of thing that “everyone knows is true” even when it isn’t really true.  It’s the sort of thing that Hitler spoke about when he spoke of “The Big Lie”.  If you tell a whopper, but look very sincere when you do so, and act very sure of yourself, many people will find you very believable, even if they know you’re not telling the truth.

·        Racial, ethnic, and sectarian stereotypes are exercises in “truthiness”.

·        Many of the old proverbs you were taught on your granny’s knee contain as much “truthiness” as they do truth.

·        The professional bigots who are active in commercial talk-back radio are past masters of the art of “truthiness”.  So are the people who try to sell you dodgy investments.  So is the religious leader who tries to gain converts by putting down other faiths, other philosophies, or other lifestyles.

 “Truthiness” is all around us.

In politics, business, and the media, “truthiness” is often called “spin”, and the people who engage in it are called “spin doctors”.  It used to be called “PR”.  There are far more colourful terms for “truthiness” as well.

“Truthiness” often functions as an attractive substitute for the truth for many people.

·        Sometimes when the truth is unpopular, a more palatable “truthiness” will be regarded by many people as more true than the actual truth.

·        Sometimes when the truth requires us to change our ideas or to abandon our treasured prejudices, a less demanding “truthiness” will be regarded by many people as more true than the actual truth.

·        Sometimes when the truth is complicated, as the truth often is, a simpler “truthiness” will be regarded by many people as more true than the actual truth.

Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest, probably the greatest comic play ever written in the English language, tells us this very clearly.  One of the lead characters in the play, Algernon, was asked for “the whole truth pure and simple”.  Algernon wisely replied “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”  Truth is frequently complicated.  Truth needs its space.  Truth is often too complicated to be expressed fairly and accurately in a politician’s “30-second grab”, in an advertising executive’s “elevator speech”, on a bumper sticker, or on a t-shirt.

 “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”  The problem here is that “truthiness” often looks single-mindedly pure, and that “truthiness” is always simple even to the point of simplistic.

The real problem with this palatable, undemanding, simple and simplistic “truthiness” is that it’s not really the truth.  And as it’s not really the truth, it does not liberate.  “…[Y]ou will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  But if you are satisfied with a mere “truthiness”, that “truthiness” won’t set you free.  Truth liberates.  “Truthiness” enslaves.

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with his truth.

We too are challenged to seek the truth that is the Living God and to participate in this truth.  To do so, we need to see through the artificial truth, the “spin”, the “truthiness” that our culture often promotes as a substitute for truth.

As Jesus followed the liberating truth all the way to the cross, let us challenge anything in our culture (and in our own lives) that is satisfied with anything less than the truth.

He will judge the world with righteousness,

and the peoples with his truth.