Circles of Truth

In the book The Road to Wisdom, Francis Collins provides a visual image for truth.  He says:

"Let's consider a set of concentric circles. In the center are truth claims that are universal and inescapable. In the outermost circle are claims where no evidence exits to favor acceptance or rejection, so these are essentially just subjective opinions. And then there are the levels in between."

The circles are from the innermost outward:

• Zone of Necessary Truth - items that just have to be the way they are.  For example, 2+2=4.
• Firmly established facts - "These are conclusions that are overwhelmingly supported by evidence, but discerning them has required human observation."  For example, the earth is round.
• Zone of Uncertainty - "Claims that are potentially true but whose supporting evidence is currently insufficient to move them into the circle of firmly established facts." For example, life on other planets
• Zone of Subjective Opinion - For example, dogs make better pets than cats.

As we traveled through our last election cycle (and the two before it), I found there were things I considered to be firmly established facts, that other people didn't. And I would encounter what some people called firmly established facts that for me, were not truth at all.  I think this is part of what divides us - we can't even agree on what is true and what is not true - even though some of these categories are objective.

Later in the chapter, he talks about commonalities that we an all agree on and that can be used to bring us back together.  Think of these as pillars that represent the values we all probably share: faith, family, freedom, truth, beauty, love, goodness.  He sees this as good news.  Truthfully (haha), I worry that we don't all share these values. We say we do, but we argue about them so much, and what they mean, that I'm not sure they can be used to bring us together.

Truth Be Told

In November and December, I was part of a series of meetings with the district laity.  Our Conference Lay Leader, Kristi Wilkerson, used this song as a core to her talk  with each district.  The lyrics of the first part of the song are:

Lie number one you're supposed to have it all together
And when they ask how you're doing
Just smile and tell them, "Never better"

Lie number 2 everybody's life is perfect except yours
So keep your messes and your wounds
And your secrets safe with you behind closed doors
Truth be told

The truth is rarely told, now
I say I'm fine, yeah I'm fine oh I'm fine, hey I'm fine but I'm not
I'm broken

When we reach the "I'm broken" line, the truth of the song reaches my emotions.  Lest you worry, I don't think I'm broken any more than anyone else is - but I do think all of us are at least a little bit broken.  We have sinned.  Our hearts are a little bit broken (or a lot broken).  We grieve, we hurt, we long for a different set of circumstances (especially right now).  To admit to any of this is to be vulnerable, and I think we all try to avoid that.  So I'm fine.

But with God, when we are brave enough, we can share it all.  When we are fine.  When we are joyful. And when we are broken.  I encourage you, as I encourage myself, be brave enough so that when the truth is told to God, it is truth.

Truth

I read book The Luminous Web by Barbara Brown Taylor.  It's a small book that she wrote to address the connections and disconnections (my words) between science and theology.  My kind of stuff. I'm sure I'll share more.  

But for today, I wanted to share a quote from the book.  This is the life-guiding principle of one of Taylor's friends:  "When truth and belief come into conflict, it is better to change on'es belief to fit the truth that to change the turht to fit one's belief."

That quote struck me as so "spot on" that I got up from my desk and walked into a co-worker's office to read it to her.  

I think we do sometimes try to change the truth to fit our beliefs.  Don't you think there is a futility in that?  We can't really change the truth - it is the truth.  So by trying to change it, we instead ignore it.

At the same time I was reading this quote, I had an article from the magazine Rotarian on my desk, open to an article called "How to tell fact from fiction and truth the news again."  I'll link the article here.   

It's an article about how professional fact checkers do their work.  Most of us aren't professionals, but in a world where so many lies are spread via social media, I think we have a responsilbity to check the facts of what we post.  We need to stop spreading memes and posts that support our beliefs without checking their veracity.

Here are the articles three easy stops to stop fake news:

1. Gut-check.  Did the headline or image you just saw make you feel a strong emotion?  Misinformation is designed do to that.  I would add that we should ask ourselves if the "fact" presented really makes any logical sense.  Is it so designed to create in us a strong emotion that the "fact," when we think about, just couldn't be true.  
2. Fact-check.  What is the original source of the information? Have you heard it from other, reputable sources? You can do a reverse image search to see if an image could have been created from other images - put together to tell a false story.  What do independent, nonpartisan fact-checking sources like Snopes, PolitFact, or FactCheck.org have to say?
3. Read real news.  News institutions that reported on events like Watergate are still producing top-quality journalism.  Subscribe to a variety of reputable publications and get your information directly from those sources - not from social media.  We both know that certain cable news outlets broadcast opinion more than facts.  Don't rely on only them for your news. What are other people saying?

Those who connect with you on social media are your friends.  Don't spread what is untrue to your friends.  And if you are brave, fact-check their posts and share the truth. Let's not be used - let's be beacons of the truth so that we are not trying to ignore the truth to fit our beliefs.

Were Adam and Eve a lie?

This morning I read a conversation on Facebook between two people of different viewpoints. Let's call them Jay and Don.  The discussion wasn't heated, although the reader knew that these two people would never agree, and would only debate.  Jay asked Don, "Do you believe in a real Adam and Eve?  Or do you see these two conflicting creation stories as divine love stories developed centuries apart by primitive people to do the best they could to understand God with the knowledge they had and to teach their children about God and God's purposes?"

Don answered that he did believe in a real Adam and Eve. (I wasn't surprised, based on the rest of the conversation).  He went on to say, "I must say that I find it amusing you think people serving a god that says not to lie, use a lie to teach their kids about said god."

I don't want to use this post to debate whether Adam and Eve were real (although my beliefs fall more in line with the second option in the original question).  What surprised me about the conversation is that Don would say that to not believe in a "real" Adam and Eve was to believe and teach a lie.  While I might not believe that Adam and Eve were real people, I do believe that the story is totally and completely true.  The story is not about the existence of Adam and Eve - it's about the truth that God created the world and all that is in it, including us.  The story is no more a lie than a parable of Jesus would be.  No one would think to argue (although maybe I'm wrong) whether the characters in the parable about the Prodigal sons were "real" or not.  The story is so true that it drips with reality and divine revelation.  So it is with the creation story.

I thank God for people like Rev. Chuck Echols, who taught me to examine the contents of the cart - for this is the message, and this is where the truth is found - rather than the cart itself.

Assumptions

I'm still thinking about Luke 7:36-50.  As I mentioned yesterday, this is the story of Jesus' visit to the home of Simon the Pharisee.  His feet are anointed by a woman whose name we are not given.

We make several assumptions about this story.

1. In my class on Sunday, the assumption was made that the woman is a prostitute.  Why is that assumption made?  It doesn't say that.  Jesus tells a story comparing great sin to less sin, and from that we assume that the woman has sinned much, but why do we assume she is a prostitute?
2. My class didn't make this assumption, but we do often say that the woman was Mary Magdalene.  None of the four anointing stories in the Bible name Mary Magdalene as the woman who does the anointing.  In one of them, the woman's name is given -- Mary of Bethany (Martha's sister), but that story is different from the one in Luke.  The Lukan story is probably not Mary of Bethany.
3. Because we connect Mary Magdalene with this story, and we assume that the woman in the story is a prostitute, we call Mary Magdalene a prostitute.  The Bible never says that.

I wonder what it says about how we see women that we assume the anointing woman in the Luke story is a prostitute.   We should be careful about our assumptions about people, reading both the Bible and other people with care.

I wonder what it says that we combine what we think we know and assume it is the truth.  We need to examine what we think we know and compare it to what we really know.

Viewpoint and Truth

I was going to work the other day when a segment about hurricanes came on the radio.  It is difficult, said the expert, to predict the intensity of a hurricane season.  That difficulty is compounded by our geographical location.  He asked those listening if we those the previous year had been a "light" or "heavy" year for hurricanes.  He predicted we would say "light" because no hurricanes struck land in the United States last year.

It was actually a heavy year, and if you lived outside the United States, you would know that. Hurricanes struck land in other countries; just not here.

Listening to that, I was struck by the idea that we often see what is happening around us only from our own perspective.  We see with narrow vision, and we think that we see with open eyes.

We need (I need) to remember that what we see if not nearly the sum total of the truth -- we may not know the truth, or we may only know a portion of the truth.  Our perspective may even create a "truth" that does not at all resemble what is real.

I wonder if we need to be less arrogant about our knowledge of the truth.

Telling the Truth

I am the "editor" of the monthly newsletter for our local Emmaus community. For this month's newsletter, a guest writer, at my request, submitted a testimonial concerning sponsorship. He spoke about how sponsorship has been a blessing, but he also shared the idea that it is a responsibility.

I like this approach. I think it's important to explain to people how their "yes" to a question is a commitment -- and what is involved in that commitment. Too often, I think, we "sugar coat" requests in the hope that we will be more likely to hear "yes" to the "will you...?" question.

As I thought about that today, I became convinced that an honest assessment and description of the responsibilities of a commitment is what people are searching for. I think we sell people short; we underestimate their desire to make a real and lasting contribution to causes and calls that are close to their hearts. Why do we avoid telling people how important their contributions can be? Why do we assume they don't want to work or to have responsibility? Why do we try to "save them" from the joy of real work for the kingdom of God?

And then I ran across this post on a blog called United Methodeviations. I can't explain how much I resent some of the attitudes expressed by the ministers in this post. Go read it and see what you think.

Amazing Risk

Continuing from yesterday's post about James, the Discipline author, whose name I forgot to mention yesterday (F. Dean Lueking), says this:

God takes an amazing risk. God entrusts the word to the lips of God's people to speak the truth in love, to upbuild one another's faith, to speak good news when there is none.

Consider first, how successful are we, as a group, in being God-like in our words and actions? Sometimes, not very successful at all. Our words can be hurtful, dishonest, destructive. They can lack compassion, understanding or grace of any kind. And yet, God trusts us to speak his word, to speak of his word, and to convince others of his grace, through what we say and do. It is amazing, and it might be one of the very most amazing things about grace.

To speak the truth in love.... Think of the challenge it is to know the truth -- to discern it in the first place. And then to speak of it, even when it might be uncomfortable or unpopular. And to do it in love -- with Godly purpose and with grace. Amazing that he has the extraordinary faith to believe we can do that.

Then, to upbuild one another's faith... Do your words, do my words, build faith in others, in myself, in yourself? Do we convince others that God is alive, that he is at work in the world, and that he loves even that person you cross the room to avoid? Do I build up that person's faith? Do I build up my own when I gossip and complain? Or do I damage my faith and the faith of others? And yet God has the faith in us to believe we can build up each other's faith.

To speak good news when there is none.... There are those situations, in death, in loss, in grief, when it is so difficult to know what to say and what to do. How can there be good news? If there is, how can we begin to speak of it in the face of pain? It is such a challenge to me to know how to be grace, how to spread grace, how to encourage grace, when loss is so big. And yet God has the amazing faith in us to believe that we can speak good news in those situations.

It is an incredible risk that God takes with his truth, entrusting it into our hands.