Dear friends,
I am still processing what we witnessed yesterday in our nation's Capitol Building. But as I watched the news unfold, the word that kept coming to mind was "truth."
The truth is not whatever you want it to be. It is not necessarily what a powerful person says it is. It is not necessarily convenient for the bottom line or business as usual. The truth has to be sought, acknowledged and acted upon. It is painful to realize that something so basic needs to be said.
Yesterday's events and the year we were hoping to leave behind us are the culmination of a culture of denial that has been growing in our country for a long time. We are confronted with organized, well-funded drives to deny the truths about white privilege, racial inequity and the history that produced them; to deny the truth about climate change and its causes; to deny the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what science is learning about it; and to deny the truth about who won the 2020 presidential election.
To willfully set aside factual truth is a moral failure. Factual truth and moral truth both matter. And the search for factual and moral truth walk hand in hand.
To walk on the path that Christ opened up for us is to seek the truth, and to go wherever truth leads. We find this message quite clearly in the Gospel of John.
I am the way, the truth and the life. [John 14:6]
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. [John 8:32]
I confess to feelings of despair when it comes to our ability to transform American culture into a culture of truth-telling. The forces of denial are powerful and entrenched. It is painfully obvious to me that there are many who simply will not hear truths they do not want to hear, or worse, do not suit their narrow interests.
In the meanwhile, as individuals, as the Garden Church and its supporters we can take this moment as a call to deepen our commitment to the truth: to seek the truth, to speak the truth, to live the truth.
Please join us on this journey of discovery and may we have the courage to go wherever the truth leads us.
Light and life,
Rev. Jonathan
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