Psalm 119:137-144 Tsadhe

You are righteous, Lord,
 and your laws are right
The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
 they are fully trustworthy.
My zeal wears me out,
 for my enemies ignore your words.
Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
 and your servant loves them.
Though I am lowly and despised
 I do not forget your precepts.
Your righteousness is everlasting
 and your law is true.
Trouble and distress have come upon me,
 but your commands give me delight.
Your statutes are always righteous;
 give me understanding that I may live.

Psalm 119:144

During the final decades of the 1900s and the early years of new millennium, many Christian leaders decried the increasing influence of postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a philosophy that, among other things, claims truth is relative. Your truth may not be my truth. Each of us defines our own truth based on how it fits into our individual set of presuppositions, formed by the mixture of our personal experiences and community influences.

For church leaders whose entire theology and philosophy is based on the idea of an absolute standard of truth, a standard defined by God and his Word, postmodernism is problematic. It's important to take into account the varied points of view and presuppositions among the people we interact with. But we need to guard against forgetting the bedrock truth that there is indeed a bedrock truth.

And yet, here in the second decade of the 21st century, a large percentage of Christians who consider themselves religiously conservative or who fit into the general classification of evangelicals, have, in practice, embraced wholly the truthiness of postmodernism.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the arena of politics. When George Bush and Al Gore were faced with a virtual tie in the 2000 presidential election, I heard many of my fellow Christians passing judgment on which of them should be declared the winner, long before the disputed votes were recounted and anything close to true results were determined. The winner, they said,  should be George Bush, because that's who they had voted for.

Throughout Bush's tenure in office, many Christians gave him the benefit of the doubt whenever his decisions or his statements were questioned. Not because of any careful examination of the truth, but because of the truthiness of their devotion to conservative political ideas.

But when Barack Obama became president, those same Christians were quick to question everything he said or did. Again, it was usually not due to any great study of the facts or the truth of the matter, but a gut-feeling declaration of belief that Obama was not to be trusted, mostly because of his non-conservative politics.

This unfortunate Christian truthiness has reached an historic low during the presidency of Donald Trump. Because he is leading his fellow Republicans to make policy decisions that please politically Christian conservatives, they're willing to ignore and even condone Trump's blatantly irreligious and immoral character.  They also ignore his almost daily disregard for any objective standards of truth. Trump has become the chief standard bearer for postmodern truthiness, bending the truth to meet his personal desires, and loudly working to denigrate the news media who dare to report verified truth rather than flattering his ego.

And yet Christian pastors and counselors, people who are trained and experienced in spotting the clear clues that someone is a habitual liar, seem unable or unwilling to speak the truth about the president's obvious habits of murdering the truth.

I'm sure some who are reading this are mad at me now. They probably think I'm obviously a Democrat, spreading "fake news."

Actually, I haven't expressed an opinion about politics at all in this blog post. The truth is, I don't really care who you vote for, or which political party or platform you support.

What's important is this: Christians should stand for truth.

I beg of you to not turn away from examining your own heart on the matter. Does your attitude toward truth have its foundation in the righteousness and rightness of God or are you held captive to the truthiness of your own heart?

One year from this week the next national election takes place. You and I have a whole year, 365 days, to "do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." ( II Timothy 2:15) Instead of arguing over politics, let's spend the coming year learning to cherish the truth.