Truth IS Truth

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In 2018, Rudolph Giuliani appeared on Meet The Press to explain why the president should not testify for special counsel Robert Mueller for fear of being trapped into a lie that could lead to a perjury charge. “Truth is truth,” Chuck Todd responded. “No, no, truth isn’t truth,” Giuliani said.

About a week ago, a good friend of mine posted on Facebook that, “Gen Z is so hopeless and depressed, and I think I've stumbled upon the answer..... Gen Z has no TRUTH. Everything in their lives has been subjective, temporary, or untrustworthy.”

Unlike most Facebook posts, this one stayed with me long after I’d logged off. While I agree with her sentiment, I don't think the upcoming generation is the first to be swept into moral subjectivity.

When I was in college, back in 1992, a fellow student explained, the holocaust was right for the German people therefore we shouldn't label participants as being “evil.” My, normally subdued, philosophy professor turned beet red as she explained that if morality was subjective enough to excuse the sadistic murder of 6 million Jews then there's no such thing as evil.

She was right. There's a line between what is good and what is evil; what is true and what is false; what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. The line is real, it exists.

Yet, we live in a society which embraces subjectivity to the point some new parents don't want to list a gender on their baby’s birth certificate . Don't get me wrong, as far as I’m concerned you can love whoever you want, but I'm sorry; if you're born with an “innie” you're a girl, if you're born with an “outtie” you're a boy. It's as objective as truth gets.

Granted, sometimes there are ambiguous gray areas in life. However, there are many black and white areas as well. Sometimes I think we tell ourselves a decision falls within a gray area, when we know it's wrong, as a way of justifying our actions. If an action is good though, we don't have to justify it.

I live by the idea that if an action helps someone it's good, if it hurts someone it's evil. It sounds overly simplistic, I know, but it works for me.

Truth IS truth.

The Price Of Justice

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“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” ~ Matthew 18: 15-17

|Subject: Courtroom, Robert N.C. Nix Federal Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Date: 2007 | Photographer: Carol M. Highsmith | This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division. |

The practice of law has always been of interest to me. Heck, when I was a kid my hero was Perry Mason. I like the idea of being able to use well-reasoned argument to trap someone in a lie. Even today, I like to end the day with an hour of Judge Judy. Seeing her embarrass obvious liars is pure entertainment to me.

Yet, there are two things I hate about the show.

1. They'll introduce litigants as being, “former friends.”

2. During their exit interview, someone will inevitability say, “I’ll never help anyone ever again.”

“Former friends?” What's that about? OK, sometimes we have to axe toxic people from our lives. It’s painful, but sometimes it's necessary. Granted. But, friends, real friends, shouldn't let a single disagreement sink their friendship. Life's to short to lose even one friend over an insurance deductible or a hole in the wall.

And, if the moral of a story is, “don’t help others,” the story is fakakta. If we’re not helping others, then what are we doing here? Seriously, I sleep much better if I know I helped someone that day. I believe it's, literally, why we're here.

My best friend and I will never agree on politics or religion. She refers to God as, “that fictional guy on the cloud.” We agree on the important things. We agree on how to treat people and put them first. At the end of the, our relationships are our most prized possessions.

People of good conscious can have genuine disagreements, and sometimes we need the courts to resolve such disagreements. Yet, when we allow the adversarial system to cost us friendships, and/or make us jaded toward helping others, we’ve paid too high a price for the resolution of our dispute.

Healing Thoughts

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I haven't posted in some time for the simple reason that I've been in the hospital. No, it wasn’t COVID-19 related, but the problem with my innards was nasty enough to knock me down for the count, requiring emergency surgery.

Lying in bed, breathing through a tube, gives a person a chance to observe humanity from a unique angle.  On the TV above me, I could follow the story of a self-interested president trying to hold onto power, despite the will of the people. 

Watching this meglomaniac whip, gullibly uninformed, people into seething hordes of misdirected violence, one would tend to agree with Paul's letter to the Romans (3:10-18 ESV) ~ As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

I don't buy it.  As I healed, a parade off people made their way through my room.  These people had all dedicated their professional lives to easing the pain of others.  The contrast between the televised selfishness, and the compassion which  I had been the beneficiary of, was striking.  Perhaps it's due to a lack of imagination on my part, but I can't picture such kindness being the result of "original sin."  Nor, can I see humanity as fundamentally unrighteous and worthless. 

I've said it before, and I'll happily repeat myself here.  People are naturally kind.  Humanity is naturally good.  When given a choice, mentally, and emotionally, healthy people will choose kindness & generosity over cruelty & selfishness. 

Yes, the world seems to be mired in a darkness right now.  The darkness in question is not a reflection the majority of humanity.  The darkness in question is the result of sick selfish people obtaining more than their fair share of power.  We fell asleep at the proverbial wheel & let it happen.  Yet, last November we rallied back and corrected many of our mistakes. 

As a whole, the human race values; 

• kindness, 
• compassion, 
• generosity, 
• healing, 
• helpfulness, 
• and love. 

I simply can't make myself believe that people with such values were originally spawned from sin.

Amen.