When Truth No Longer Appears To Matter

Christ Before Pilate, by Mihaly Munkacsy

"Thou shalt not bear false witness."

- from the Ten Commandments

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."

- Jesus Christ

"What is truth?"

- Pontius Pilate

"I cannot tell a lie."

- from a fake story about young George Washington

“Gentlemen, I depended on this witness to clear my client. He has lied. I ask that no attention be paid to his testimony. Let his words be stricken out, if my case fails. I do not wish to win in this way.” 

- Abraham ("Honest Abe") Lincoln

"A little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration--and a very effective form of promotion".

- Donald Trump, in The Art of The Deal

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The cover of last week's TIME magazine featured the disturbing question, Is Truth Dead? Their cover format was identical to an even more controversial April 8, 1966 cover which asked, Is God Dead? 

And maybe there's a direct link between the two, a loss of faith in God contributing to a loss of fidelity in our speech.

Here's the link to TIME's feature article on the demise of truth:
http://time.com/4710614/donald-trump-fbi-surveillance-house-intelligence-committee/ Can President Trump Handle the Truth?

This article was followed this weekend by a CBS's 60-Minutes segment which featured an even more sobering report on how mass producing and disseminating fake news of all kinds, aimed at both left and right, has become a sophisticated and highly profitable enterprise. 

CBS's Scott Pelley interviewed the person who invented and circulated widely believed faux stories about Hilary Clinton's having Parkinson's disease and another about the Clinton's alleged involvement in a pedophile sex ring operating out of a DC pizza parlor. What was absolutely chilling was that the perpetrator refused to acknowledge to Pelley that he was lying, even though as a result of his massively publicized report the innocent pizza restaurant owner in question was nearly killed by a crazed gunman who believed the account.

Here's a link to the 60-Minutes segment, at around 17:30 minutes: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-attack-in-garland-fake-news-chess-country/

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"Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace."

- Zechariah 8:16 (ESV)