I received an e-mail last week informing me about a daily radio program based on A Course in Miracles (Welcome Rain Publishers, 2006) by Helen Schucman. This book, which claims to be a record of a new revelation of Jesus Christ as channeled through Ms. Schucman, attempts to deliver a new gospel for a new age. You may not have realized it, but according to the disembodied voice Ms. Schucman heard: (1) “There is no sin,” (2) a “slain Christ has no meaning,” and (3) “The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.”

My concern about this has little to do with a book that purports to bring a new revelation from Jesus. I want us to talk, rather, about the idea of “truth.” We live in a cultural milieu where the very concept of truth is becoming increasingly difficult. When hundreds of thousands plop down hard-earned money for a book by someone who hears voices and believes it is Jesus talking, something is seriously wrong with our truth compass. The needle is pointing somewhere other than North.

“What is truth?” Pilate asked, confused about the subject and doubtful that such a beast really existed.

Pilate was a quintessentially modern man. He was impatient with claims to any principle higher than pragmatics. Give the crowds what they want. Wash your hands. Turn a deaf ear to the expendable Jew who says, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” Not Pilate. Pilate didn’t believe in truth. Pilate didn’t have to listen.

In our relativizing, pluralistic, absolutes-wary culture, it’s easy to be as cynical about truth as Pilate. Who can say what truth is? Who knows what is best? Who am I to judge? What’s true for you may not be true for me. There are many paths. No one has a monopoly on truth. Whatever floats your boat.

The very basis for the notion of truth is eroding. We’ve spent so much time doubting authority and questioning moral codes and debunking revelation, there’s no one left standing to affirm, “This is true.”

More than that, the very basis for the attractiveness of truth is being questioned. Once seen as the only thing worth living (or dying) for, truth now smacks of arrogance and judgment and narrow-mindedness. Truth is thinly veiled thought-control, an opiate to keep the masses safely sedated. Truth is just a big stick we use to get our way and shape the world to our preferences. It’s about power and manipulation, not a quest for eternal verities that lead us to wisdom.

All of which poses real problems for people (like us) whose faith rests on the notion that there is such a thing as truth; that the truth matters; that it describes how life actually works, what’s important, where history is headed; that it can be discovered and applied; that it teaches us to live productive, purposeful, and dignified lives.

Christians, by definition, are addicted to truth. We cannot survive without it. And I don’t simply mean the particulars of truth: that God is, that Jesus is God incarnate, that the Bible is the revelation of God’s will, that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and at work in our lives. I’m talking about the idea of truth itself . . . that it exists; that it is worth pursuing; that it is deeply attractive, deeply beautiful; that “here we stand” with confidence and hope.

Against a tsunami of doubt, what can we do to keep our compasses pointed toward truth? First, let’s encourage each other with the truth that there is such a thing as truth. There are rights and wrongs, facts and fictions. The world may doubt that, drowning in a sea of relativity, but we don’t have to join them there.

Let’s reaffirm the notion that truth is a beautiful thing, a lovely and noble thing, a Holy Grail worth a life’s pursuit. Let’s cease to be embarrassed by our attachment to truth. Let’s frame that attachment as virtue rather than vice.

Let’s trust truth enough to be able to talk about it with others . . . to confess our hunger for truth . . . to suggest that in a world full of truths like the effects of gravity and the dangers of smoking and the physics of driving headlong into bridge abutments, there may be comparable truths in the realms of morality and the Spirit. We don’t need to be defensive in these discussions. We aren’t required to be strident or unpleasant.

We only need to trust that the God of truth has made us with a longing for truth that awakens whenever the beauty of truth is held up to the light. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells