John 9:32
Today is our annual observance of Religion and Science Sunday, falling on the weekend closest to Darwin’s birthday. This observance is 21 years old this year – a coming-of-age moment. It began when clergy in Wisconsin stood up for science in opposition to an attempt to mandate the teaching of creationism in schools. Teaching the beautiful stories of God creating life is literature or religion, but not science, and the clergy wanted to be on record as supporting both religion and science as compatible but not the same. We’ve honored this Sunday for many years at Family of God as a celebration of how faith and science complement each other. This year’s national theme is Truth Matters, a timely assertion, so we’ll choose the word truth for our values project today and see if we can’t coordinate the two efforts.
The question, “Is it true?” seems like a simple question, but Wikipedia reminds us that nothing is simple. Truth can mean many things.
Jesus tells those who become his disciples, or adopt his world view, that the truth will make you free. Seeing the world through the eyes of love – or as we’ve suggested so far in our series, the eyes of kindness, welcome, inclusion and truth – is freeing spiritually. It describes a better way to live as a community or a country. When we say that the teachings of Jesus are true, we say that they reflect the values we believe should be universal. Some folks assert these values are universal because God has endorsed them and then given them to us through Jesus and the prophets, reflected in scripture. But then those of us who follow Jesus disagree on exactly how the teachings are to be applied. Is truth in the official interpretation? Or the most loving application? Or the actual words, even when they aren’t clear? I suspect we aren’t the only ones who want the truth to reflect our preference!
In the context of Religion and Science Sunday truth matters refers in part to the scientific enterprise. It includes the effort to describe reality accurately. To conduct controlled experiments, verify results, and propose summary statements about discoveries. Over time, our understanding of what those discoveries mean can change and grow, but in any given moment we are able to say, “These are the facts.” Or “This is true.” A number of faith communities have put their weight behind the assertion that finding facts and making life choices accordingly is important.
All of the mainline Christian denominations have adopted statements in support of climate science. We have said that we have a God-given responsibility to care for the earth, and so we need to pay attention to the way human activity is harming creation and creatures. Just this week our government declared that climate science is wrong, the earth is not in danger, and we no longer need to regulate how people treat the environment. We would say in response, “Truth matters.” When there are facts that support particular conclusions, we can’t responsibly pretend those facts don’t exist. We can debate appropriate responses, but neither religion nor science can make something true simply by wishing it to be so. Some truths are hard and demand change in our behaviors, changes we may not want to make. But I suspect that the more difficult a truth is, the more important it is that we pay attention.
Truth Matters also applies to telling the truth in social situations. It’s a kindergarten lesson to be honest when telling the teacher how something got broken or someone was hurt. It’s not easy to admit fault, but it builds character in us and promotes trust among us. When we learn as children to tell the truth, then we can trust our justice system, our work environments, our media. The functioning of our social system depends on being able to believe what others tell us. When that’s in question, we have a stake in protecting truth as a value.
Truth Matters when we are describing our history and our common life. Over time people make choices about how they will treat one another and how society will function. Those choices change. As Maya Angelou said, “When you know better, you do better.” It can be painful in a personal relationship or in a whole country to admit that we need to do better, but pretending there was never a need to change doesn’t serve us. We learn from what we do well and from mistakes we make. That’s part of being human. It’s not a failure to recognize a need to change and to make improvements. It’s how we build life together. It’s how we evolve as a society and come closer to reflecting the values we share – the values we believe God has taught us. It’s not helpful to try to erase facts about the past just to feel better. Being able to see progress also feels good, and we can be proud when we do better.
What else matters to you when you think of the value of truth?