July 16, 2010

The Truth

In a TV interview, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made the comment that there were enough House seats in play for the November election that it would be possible for the Democrats to lose the House majority. While Mr. Gibbs spoke the truth, it was a truth that Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, doesn’t want spoken. Apparently the Democrat leadership fears that this train of thought could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Jesus said, “… the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32b NIV), even as believers we need those who are willing to speak the truth.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----One of the keys to understanding the mindset of Progressives is pragmatism. In its simple concept, pragmatism seeks the practical solution to problems. What possibly could be wrong with practicality? Something practical is something useful, and something useful is something effective. But the menace is in the effects of something’s use. I can use my car to get groceries. But I can also use it to run down my neighbor’s dog. There is a certain abiding to principle about getting groceries, but deliberately running over my neighbor’s dog seems to fall outside the boundaries of good principle. This is where pragmatism goes awry.
-----When you or I are being practical about taking the car to the grocery store, instead of the wheelbarrow, we are being pragmatic. We are serving intentions inside the bounds of good principle. But C.S Pierce and William James gave life to a different way of thinking to which they taped the term pragmatism. It searches for the meaning of concepts by their practical relationships with whatever other matter that might effect or be effected by them. Therefore, the practical consequences of belief determines truth, so it‘s said. If the neighbor’s dog barks all night, running over it with the car is right because it achieves the belief in silence, while running over it with the wheelbarrow is wrong because it won’t. Silence becomes the truth, and effecting it becomes the principle. There is a double bonus in such a pragmatic act. Maintaining a good relationship with the neighbor is also a necessary truth effected by claiming some other car could have ran over the dog, achieving also a belief in lying. All this becomes right when defining truth by principle is cast aside for defining it by effect.
-----Such penchant to fudge seems so audacious to us. But consider how deeply ingrained it is in human nature. Paul admitted, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.“ (Rom 7:21-23). We learn and know God’s principles because we cry out for them. We search for them more than for gold and silver. And they form in us understanding and wisdom through their effects and influences upon what we feel, desire, and do. But that is the mechanics of the spiritual nature. We know from what Jesus said that few have it. Most have the carnal nature that rejects God’s principles. For them feelings, desires, and deeds form the basis of perceiving, which effects audacious foolishness in the mind. Such minds must not think deeply, lest they strike upon the truth. And the Nancy Pelosis and Barack Obamas of the world know there are plenty of these darkened minds receptive to their pragmatic fudging. So, in the short end, this darkness will win for a few more days.
-----But don’t let that bother you. In the darkness started at the forbidden tree, ends always come. Beginnings are what matters. Keep beginning searches for truth, and soon The Day will bring the beginning of a life without senseless, pragmatic lying.

Love you all,
Steve Corey