Truth Matters

We live in a world of rhetoric, where people tend to look for words that will win an argument even if the words play a bit loose with truth. We see this every day and it is done in often seemingly harmless but sometimes rather harmful ways. This approach makes sense in a world that values winning above all other values. To be “successful” and to “win” are, for many at least, the ultimate goals.

Those who call themselves Christians – Christ-followers – cannot accept this way of operating. We are called to the highest of virtues. In particular today I am concerned with the ways that I see those who are Christ-followers handling truth in careless ways.
Lately where this has struck me the most is in all of the discussions about the newly revised USDS (now United States DOGE Services). One of the ways that people have played the rhetoric game is by comparing what DOGE is doing to a bank audit. The move here is clear. Everyone would agree that it is good to check the bank books to make sure no one is siphoning money off into their pockets. It’s a slam dunk. So how could anyone oppose what the DOGE is doing?
But truth is more nuanced than loose metaphors. Indeed, the use of metaphors in rhetoric is a way of short-cutting someone to agree with you without actually having to deal with specifics of that situation. The value of what the DOGE is doing in its cutting of funds within the federal government is going to be a point of disagreement. But to suggest that people are irrational in their opposition (“It’s a bank audit; we’re catching corruption”) is to lack virtue in our truth-telling.
There are some instances where the DOGE claims that there is large-scale corruption. I will hasten to add that the evidence given is not enough to convince me at present. But most of the cuts are taking place at the level of policy. In other words, the evaluation and judgment of the administration is that certain types of things are not valuable. In some cases I might agree and in some cases I might not. But it is emphatically not a dedication to truth that would suggest that these kinds of decisions can be considered equivalent to looking for someone embezzling funds.
Truth matters. Christians rightly stand firm on this. It is imperative that Christians uphold and model the method of humble, self-reflective truth-seeking. If telling the truth carefully doesn’t seem situated to “win the day” for our cause, then why don’t we leave the victories to God? We do not fight with the weapons of the world.

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