On Saturday last I went out for a run. The weather was near perfect for running and as I had no other commitments I managed to get in ten miles. As it has been my custom for many years now I was listening to Radio Two as I plodded along.
Currently, the host of the Saturday morning show morning is Romash Ranganathan. Therefore, it was of no surprise that ‘The Traitors’ was very much part of the show. The first hour featured interviews with a small number of the contestants including co-winner along with Romesh, Sebastian (Bash) Croft. And yes, I was one of the several million viewers who have followed the series intently. While in Cornwall we had a blip when the storms took down the Wi-Fi and therefore the TV. We managed to avoid any spoilers until we had the TV back on and we could catch up.
Interestingly this morning at our All-Age Worship at St Oswald’s we explored the theme of, ‘Guide me in your truth.’ (Link to the Service: https://www.youtube.com/live/i-JthGeGpjw?si=8l9kMw2qrwIPqs2w)
Some Christians have said that, ‘The Traitors’ is predicated around lying and deceit and therefore is not something we should support or encourage people to watch. (Although it is good to remember that 'The Traitors' is a game!)
At one level I get that.
After all Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ And Jesus
also said, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out
your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the
truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8.44.
A couple of questions then. Is
there anytime when we should tell a lie or an untruth?
Is there always a
straightforward binary choice between telling the truth or telling a lie?
I don’t think it is as easy
as that and I would want to put truth and lies on a sliding scale.
Truth Lie
A classic dilemma would be to recall somebody sheltering Jews during World War Two and faced with German soldiers asking if there are any Jews hiding in their house.
One of the features on the
Saturday morning show is ‘Pitch Your Passion.’ Two people are invited to pitch
their passion in 45 seconds. People are then invited to vote for the one they
thought presented the best pitch. On Saturday there was a Halloween theme, and
we had ‘ancient castles and spooky houses’ and ‘all things witchy.’ The first
lady on the castle’s did a really good job and had thought it through whereas the
lady on ‘all things witchy’ freestyled and the pitch was basically rubbish. Does
Romesh then go on to say, well your pitch was awful, telling the ‘unvarnished
truth’ or does he try and navigate a type of middle ground?
Any man who has found himself
asked by a woman how they look will have faced a similar dilemma!
Telling the truth or telling
a lie is not always a simple binary choice but does need to be set in context
and a judgment call must be made. That’s why I like the idea of a sliding scale.
For the most part, as followers of the One who self-identifies as being ‘the
truth’ our toggle ought to be set at a default on the truth end of the scale. However,
there might be times when we need to nudge it slightly in the other direction.
And in some extreme examples, that hopefully we will never have to face, we might
move the toggle all the way of over to the lie to protect someone.
And on truth we might also
ask, is truth objective or subjective, or again is there some sort of sliding
scale or context that should be considered.
“Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say
that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason I was born and have come
into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to My voice.” What is truth?” Pilate asked. And having said this, he
went out again to the Jews and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against
Him. John 18.38
If we always embraced subjective
truth it would quickly create chaos and disorder. My ‘truth’ might go against your
‘truth.’
There must be objectives
truths to enable us to function and communicate collectively. If I went into a supermarket
for a loaf of bread but that morning the manager has decided that what was once
known as carrots were now going to be known as bread, that this was truth as
she saw it, you might call it bread but I have decided to call them carrots. A silly example but it makes the point. We must
agree on some objective truths.
But there are times when the truth
is unclear and we need try and come to some agreement, to seek to discern the truth.
Isn’t that what is happening in
our courts and in our school playgrounds and even internationally. The Ukrainians
view the truth of their history and current identity one way and Putin and the
Russian regime view the truth another way. But surely it is very plain that in
this case there is an objective truth and the International Community accepts
the truth of Ukraine sovereignty despite Putin’s claims.
What is truth?” Pilate asked.
How would answer that question?
I would be intrigued to know, so do add a
comment below or send me a DM or email.
And as we step into the week ahead no mater what we face let us always remember that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, we can lean into him for guidance.
https://youtu.be/lid8e31qOvg?si=DZbfmkOoiqVa-ivF
