Approximate reading time: 5.5 min.
As I said in my first installment in this series, Part 1: The Courage to Tell Ourselves the Truth, telling our selves the truth begins by bravely rejecting the convenient comfy lies of our day. Taking this first step of naked honesty ejects us from the comfy go-along-to-get-along route and catapults us smack dab on the “Rough Road Ahead” of truth-telling yet is essential before setting out to live in truth.
The thing is, it takes as much courage, if not more, to speak hard truths to an already hyper polarized society such as ours. Whether it be our family, our boss, our pastor, a close friend, our neighbor, our state legislator, the city council, no one — me included — likes being confronted with the inconvenient facts that show why they are mistaken, deceived, misinformed, uninformed, or just plain wrong. We have only to look at how “the science” vs. “disinformation” over masks, vaccines and social distancing, that so polarized our nation, to make us want to permanently retreat to the safe harbor of keeping “the truth” to ourselves.
Once citizens become too afraid to speak the truth, they essentially have forfeited their right to free speech, and in so doing have become surrendered serfs to their overlords.
I get it. I, too, just want to be left alone to live my life in peace and quiet. Who doesn’t? And yet, while a boat is safest when it is anchored a harbor, that’s not what a boat is for. And neither are we citizens. A free society will eventually lose its capacity to stay free or counter tyrannical forces the longer it remains tied to the dock of comfort and safety.
Likewise, our fear-based self-censorship to not rock the boat will lead to a demoralized society that only lives for comfort and survival and incapable of mustering the courage to fight back.
Czech playwriter and future post-communist president Vaclav Havel wrote, “A person who lives only for his own comfort and survival and who is willing to live within a lie to protect that is a demoralized person.” Consenting to the system’s lies might buy you safety, but at an unbearable cost. Demoralization comes at the super high price! Prolonged demoralization will lead to losing the ability to challenge the lies of 24/7 propaganda, no matter how many facts or evidence are presented to the contrary.
So, where do we turn for mustering the courage to march upstream against a relentless raging river of today’s militant atheism, the rival woke religion, the lawlessness of lawfare, the 24/7 wall-to-wall propaganda that passes for news, and the behind-the-scenes spiritual warfare? There are many essential tools that I will be sharing in this series with which to equip you but for now let me share this foundational one.
Commit to Living in Truth
Acclaimed author, Rod Dreher, in his bestselling book, Live Not By Lies (2020) devotes a whole chapter on committing our lives to living in truth, and wisely added, through the bedrock of resistance, developing resistance cells (family, church, citizen action groups), and through following in the footsteps of role models, past and present. I know as a board member of MVLA that I draw inspiration from the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr and from reading the lives of Christian saints and martyrs. For sure, living courageously is not a solo act but forged in the company of kindred spirited communities.
Living in truth means decidedly living as an outsider, he says, setting ourselves apart from the latest trending values, rejecting the myth of enlightened progressivism, doublethink, groupthink — living soberly in a world drunk on lies but not letting the lies live in you. It also means accepting the honorable distinction of being called a racist, ultra MAGA, this-and-that-phobe, extremist, and worse.
Welcome to the club of non-conformity. Expect to be labeled, put in Facebook jail, canceled, doxxed, defunded, debanked, disinvited, shunned, betrayed, fired, sued, and possibly arrested. All of this is happening now to patriotic Brits by their government. Yep, we’re next.
Living in the light of truth also means defending the right to speak and write the truth, even when it costs you something. It is the duty of every supporter of free speech. Indeed, of every citizen of our constitutional republic. It is the primary duty of every Christian to follow in the footsteps of “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” — Jesus Christ — not just to Palm Sunday, but all the way to calvary. Which begs the soul-searching question of every Christian in America: am I truly a follower of Christ or am I just merely an admirer? And of every pastor in America: Am I making followers of Christ or just admirers?
While living in truth comes at a price, it also comes with an abundance of blessings:
- No longer being bound by the idols of comfort and safety.
- No longer being manipulated by the ruling class that creates artificial divisions to bait people into fighting against each other.
- Breaking free from the pressure of people-pleasing an elitist woke mob.
- Living consistently with your values and courageously in your faith.
- Having the moral courage and fortitude to hold the ruling class accountable.
- Standing courageously in solidarity with a community of truth-tellers against the flood of lies.
