Monday, May 9, 2016
495 - 'Your Truth'
Spirituality Column No. 495
May 10, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” – Jesus, Revelation 3:14
Contemporary culture has newly conjured a congratulatory bon mot that, ironically enough, perfectly embodies the moral failure of human pride.
This newly-minted coin of conversational conviviality is to declare, with laudatory enthusiasm, another person’s expression of their talents or identity as “Your truth.”
Here are a couple of cultural way-points to explain.
My wife and I watch The Voice together. We enjoy the music, the judges’ comments and their repartee’. A TV competition for pop, blues, rock and country singers (not much rap or opera), the show does not stifle the baseline spiritual component present in music of the Christian faith. That’s not surprising considering 1) the show’s producer is Mark Burnett, who with his wife Roma Downey produced The Bible TV miniseries in 2013 and 2) a lot of great singers learn to sing in church.
Anyway, twice on a recent show two different judges congratulated competitors’ secular vocal stylings as expressing “Your truth.” The inflection unmistakably equated a performer’s personal style with the sacrosanctity of Godly truth. It was “Your thing” confused with a “God thing,” producing an overstatement of misdirected reverence.
Truth has to be everybody’s, or it’s not truth; even if it’s just a TV show.
Similarly, there is a video circulating on social media where a 30-something, white, 5-foot-9 male interviewer asks college students about gender neutral bathrooms. Everyone proudly supports gender identity-at-will. Then the interviewer asks, politely, progressively, if he can identify as a woman, as Chinese, as seven years old, asks if he can enroll in first grade, and says he identifies as six feet five inches tall. The reactions go from “Good for you” to giggles to incredulity. But “No, you’re wrong” isn’t heard. Clearly, nobody wants to admit there are, in fact, identity lines that cannot be crossed.
These scenarios expose the incoherence of substituting “Your truth” for “God’s truth.” We are what God says we are, not what we say we are. Truth is always God’s glorious eternal reality, never my prideful temporal purview.
The Revelation verse above is what truth looks like in the Bible. It’s far weightier than human opinion or today’s trendiness. The cognitive dissonance isn’t new, as we’ve had trouble identifying truth ever since Satan arrived in the garden.
These days, it’s hard not to notice the prevalence of confused, PC burdened folks stifling common sense and free speech. They shoot the messenger and ignore the message in the cause of truth…
…that isn’t true.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes it’s holy to recognize God’s truth and silly to praise Your truth. BTW, that video link is HERE.
May 10, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
‘Your Truth’
By Bob Walters“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.” – Jesus, Revelation 3:14
Contemporary culture has newly conjured a congratulatory bon mot that, ironically enough, perfectly embodies the moral failure of human pride.
This newly-minted coin of conversational conviviality is to declare, with laudatory enthusiasm, another person’s expression of their talents or identity as “Your truth.”
Here are a couple of cultural way-points to explain.
My wife and I watch The Voice together. We enjoy the music, the judges’ comments and their repartee’. A TV competition for pop, blues, rock and country singers (not much rap or opera), the show does not stifle the baseline spiritual component present in music of the Christian faith. That’s not surprising considering 1) the show’s producer is Mark Burnett, who with his wife Roma Downey produced The Bible TV miniseries in 2013 and 2) a lot of great singers learn to sing in church.
Anyway, twice on a recent show two different judges congratulated competitors’ secular vocal stylings as expressing “Your truth.” The inflection unmistakably equated a performer’s personal style with the sacrosanctity of Godly truth. It was “Your thing” confused with a “God thing,” producing an overstatement of misdirected reverence.
Truth has to be everybody’s, or it’s not truth; even if it’s just a TV show.
Similarly, there is a video circulating on social media where a 30-something, white, 5-foot-9 male interviewer asks college students about gender neutral bathrooms. Everyone proudly supports gender identity-at-will. Then the interviewer asks, politely, progressively, if he can identify as a woman, as Chinese, as seven years old, asks if he can enroll in first grade, and says he identifies as six feet five inches tall. The reactions go from “Good for you” to giggles to incredulity. But “No, you’re wrong” isn’t heard. Clearly, nobody wants to admit there are, in fact, identity lines that cannot be crossed.
These scenarios expose the incoherence of substituting “Your truth” for “God’s truth.” We are what God says we are, not what we say we are. Truth is always God’s glorious eternal reality, never my prideful temporal purview.
The Revelation verse above is what truth looks like in the Bible. It’s far weightier than human opinion or today’s trendiness. The cognitive dissonance isn’t new, as we’ve had trouble identifying truth ever since Satan arrived in the garden.
These days, it’s hard not to notice the prevalence of confused, PC burdened folks stifling common sense and free speech. They shoot the messenger and ignore the message in the cause of truth…
…that isn’t true.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) believes it’s holy to recognize God’s truth and silly to praise Your truth. BTW, that video link is HERE.