The Source of Our Lies

The Source of Our Life and Our Lies

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth  Is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell 1984 Cited in Mystical Hours

Brother Teasdale writes forcefully about his concern for the price of the truth among us. His comments in this book, written in 2004, are prophetically poignant and completely true as they confront the crisis of the age- truth telling- and the soulful emptying reluctance or the cowardly unwillingness to speak this confrontative truth to those who hold systemic power.  

… Consider Nazi Germany, a government based on one big lie. Church leader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was executed  for his opposition to Nazi anti-semitism, shone radiantly as a beacon of practical wisdom and resistance to Nazi arrogance and delusion. Similarly, in the former Soviet Union, both Alexander Solzhenitsyn and  Andrei Sakharov stood forth to expose and oppose the mendacity of the Communist system.

To speak truth under these circumstances takes enormous courage and faith. To do so is indeed a revolutionary act and a necessary effort when so many are silent, passive, observers not willing to take a risk for the truth. These heroes spoke the truth to power at great cost to themselves. In our time, as it becomes difficult to hear the truth and as people’s fears stifle free speech, we need clear voices that can speak truth with clarity, courage and persistence.

As I write this reflection in 2021,  the awful truth of Orwell’s dystopian world is coming closer to becoming a reality. Much has to do with the sheer volume and almost instantaneous availability of information, or should I say, disinformation or propaganda that is allowed to be generated and then harbored and relentlessly promoted to the dissidents who keep lies and falsehoods viable in a media morass of lies.

Tragically, I do not see the religious community, as a whole, stepping up or speaking out…

As the popular expressions or faith are increasingly superficial or easily co-opted by socio-economic and tribal values that sustain the negativity, prejudices, and the fears around race, class, and the power structures that sustain them. 

Nor do I see any concerted effort, admittedly more long range, to produce an educated and aware society that is both literate and brave enough to support those Constitutional norms and those expressed values that would promote equality, equal access, health, prosperity and safety among its people. In reflecting back over words that have inspired me,

I do recall the “Ripples of Hope” speech by RFK… and yet…

In writing this today, my sense of hope has dwindled down ( or have found their powerful grounding?) to a set of core beliefs and actions that have to be shared across the media and the world: courage of convictions, willingness to risk reputation for the truth, accept economic hardships as punishment for such truth telling, and the resurrection of a shared prophetic, interfaith witness that holds up the greater good of all humanity as its most cherished goal.