Tried With Fire

Theology For Everyone  has been running a series on the 10 commandments. I contributed this post on the 9th commandment. This particular commandment has been on my heart and mind for quite a while. I actually began pondering its implications when I began reading more American history and realized how much was omitted or tweaked to make the past more palatable. But that is only one example. Being truthful in all areas and at all costs is the ethical outworking of loving God and loving our neighbor. The bar should be set high because God is the arbiter of all truth. At the same time, I am very thankful that God is merciful to 9th commandment breakers of which I am one. "At face value, the 9th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more. According to both the Westminster Shorter and the Baptist catechisms, “The ninth commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth b...

This is a very interesting TED talk on  how people see or rather don't see the world correctly. My daughter clued me in on this study after her thesis advisor gave a talk about this research. It's fascinating why people did so poorly in answering questions about the state of the world. The participants did even worse than if you sampled a group of chimpanzees (random answers). I'll go ahead and give the spoilers since this isn't the latest superhero movie. We are ignorant because of: 1. Personal Bias 2. Outdated Facts 3. Media Bias Combine that with an intuition that has been trained on the above, then it makes sense why we would be so off. What intrigues me is how we as Christians can fall prey to this especially when we are called to be people of truth in what we believe and what we disseminate. Ignorance is one thing, but choosing to be ignorant and not making an effort to learn the truth is another. The 9th commandment comes to mind and what we learned in ...

"While truth is based on facts, it involves more than facts and does not end with them... This is why pure rationalism and scientism cannot lead us to truth; such approaches cannot tell us how to interpret, arrange, and discern the meaning of what we see, touch, feel, taste, and hear. Nor can they ensure that we will be ethical in the process. Pursuing truth requires more than knowing where the facts lead. It requires the honesty to actually follow them, regardless of who they implicate."  (pg. 74, my italics) I first read All That's Good  by Hannah Anderson last fall, and I'm rereading it with a group of women from church. We are now on Chapter 4, which is one of the best chapters of the book in my opinion, because Hannah addresses an area that I am deeply concerned about. I was in a situation many years ago where the truth did not lead to transparency but a cover up of the facts and a minimization of sin. Even though I was not the target, I was badly burned...