Monday, July 3, 2017
555 - Truth and Freedom
Spirituality
Column No. 555
July 4, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
July 4, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Truth and Freedom
By
Bob Walters
"But the fact being once established, that the press is
impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it
to its strength, by recalling it within the pale of truth." —Thomas
Jefferson (1805)
I love
freedom of the press. I’ve studied it. I get it.
I defend it.
Though I like to joke that my own journalism
degree (Franklin College, 1976) was squandered by several years working as a
newspaper sportswriter, I was never very far personally – in spirit or function
– from the larger themes of public information and mass communications. Perhaps it’s a career irony that most of my
private reading and interests since college have centered on politics and
history, not sports. It was always the
people in sports I found truly interesting anyway, not the sports themselves.
Since 2001 those intellectual
interests have been considerably added to with the Bible and the enthusiastic
study of nearly 2,000 years of Christian thought, religious philosophy,
doctrinal development and church history.
I found faith in Christ at age 47 and suddenly a bevy of scholarly and
preacherly companions appeared alongside me to help navigate my faith journey
to a confident trust in Jesus Christ. These
folks – who I mention often in these weekly essays – revealed a deep, wonderful
and mysterious ocean of Christian truth, peace, wisdom and purpose. Question my discernment and discipline if you
like – I do all the time – but Jesus is the solid rock of truth in this life.
Not “my” solid truth; “the”
solid truth. Not me, not my opinion, not
church: Jesus.
So going back to journalism as an
issue within the context of truth, I find some solace in the fact that Thomas
Jefferson who penned not only the American Declaration of Independence but also
the Bill of Rights – freedom of the press, etc. – to have been confounded (see
quote above) in his age by journalistic malfeasance. Every time I see a dust-up in church or in
the Christian community or among different religions, it is rare to see one
that hasn’t happened multiple times over the centuries. Similarly, in a free society journalists tend
to push their own agendas. That’s not
cynicism or hate speech any more than studying the Great Schism of the 11th
century is an indictment of the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox
churches. It’s just how it is. Agendas
happen.
But there are times – and this is
one of those times – that the American Experiment would be well served by
earnest media truth-telling rather than hyperbolic obeisance to fashion and
fancy. Perhaps some of you also notice
today a pervasive “backwardness” to how news stories are covered and social narratives
are asserted. Things we should probably
worry about – domestic security and international terrorism come to mind – are
pooh-poohed with claims of phobias.
Private preferences of sexuality that have always been
with us but, shall we say, will never propagate the species, are celebrated with specious
huzzahs of courage and heroism. Religion
is covered with politically correct themes rather than academically rigorous
investigation. Truth suffers.
Freedom requires truth to realize
human purpose, life’s desires and God’s glory.
I pray for American journalism to
regain its strength by getting the message.
Walters
(rlwcom@aol.com), who understood tennis because he played
it, will return to visit God’s truth and American journalism in the coming
weeks. Happy 4th!
Fourth of July bonus reading ...
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