Monday, January 1, 2018
581 - Backward and Forward
January 2, 2018
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
Backward and Forward
By Bob Walters
“Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8
Unlike Jesus, history is a
remarkably unstable thing … its facts and truth so often becoming manipulated
slaves of current cultural fashion.
Whether it
is the sin of presentism – judging the customs and constructs of the past by
the political correctness of today – or the mischief of disingenuous
embellishment – altering yesterday’s known facts to press a trendy agenda coyly
presented as a “settled narrative” instead of a case for civil discussion – both
smack of dishonesty.
Truly, the
political, social, economic, scientific, educational, entertainment, religious,
or any other sphere of human endeavor exists today in a light different than
ever before. Communication technology
has made it as fast and easy to promulgate bad ideas as it is to share good
ideas. The difference in the
dissemination dynamic – of the bad or good, I mean – historically remains about
the same. Unhappy people tend to play at
a louder volume in the aggressive key of outrage, while happier folks tend to avoid
rocking the boat. Truth is less important
than timbre; facts subordinate to agenda.
I’ve never
read of a rebellion started by passivity, and know of only one that ever
started with pure humility. We’ll get to that in a minute but first, “history”
is often “wrong.”
My wife and
I have been smitten by the current Netflix series “The Crown” about the reign
of Queen Elizabeth and 20th century Britain. Meticulous in its setting details, well
written, and beautifully shot, its “poetic license” miscasts several historical
character relationships. The recent
movie “The Post” recounts the liberal Washington Post newspaper’s coverage of real
1960s government lies, the Pentagon Papers, and the Vietnam War, but a reflexive,
decades-old real-life leftist media/entertainment bias requires attacking Richard
Nixon … for events that occurred before his presidency.
For those now
fashionably disaffected by the actual history of the United States – a
disaffection plainly infecting so many modern academicians – socialist Howard Zinn’s
broadly-distributed U.S. history book is a weapon of mass mis-instruction so
fashionable for the globalist, anti-patriot, open-immigration, “America is
Unexceptional” left.
Another
glaring media weak spot is polling, posing insecure and often spurious narratives
of “truth” fashioned from fallen human opinion.
People demand truth! But I think
not really. What I realize, truthfully,
is that neither my “right”-trending opinions nor another’s “left”-trending
opinions alter one iota of the only real truth that’s ever existed.
And that
secure, humble, final truth – causing that humble rebellion mentioned above
that began two thousand years ago – is the truth of Jesus Christ because it is
the righteous, final truth of God. Not “my” truth, “your” truth, historical interpretation,
poetic license, political spin, or polling data. Jesus is the singular truth of God, forever.
I’m OK
knowing I’ve gotten so many things wrong in the past – everybody has – and I pray
for discernment sorting today’s mistaken narratives. Truth in Jesus is already with us, stays with
us, and guides us if faith in Jesus lights our path to the future.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) appreciates truth that leads us forward without tying us to or
confusing us about yesterday. Happy 2018!
May it be a year of strong, joyful, true,
and forever faith.