Medway Messenger column, 11th October 2002: The Pollution Of Truth
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Medway Messenger column, 11th October 2002: The Pollution Of Truth |
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Three
separate stories – all unrelated. Or are they? First
story. Tuesday: BBC investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre wins libel damages
from Kent Police for their defamatory comments about his documentary on the
shameful treatment of mentally handicapped adults at the Brompton Care Home
three years ago. Now someone will have to decide which other parts of the
police’s budget (and hence the community) will have to suffer so they can pay
the reported £650,000 bill. Second
story. Tuesday, again: a concerned parent tells me about the RE homework doled
out to twelve-year-olds in one of Medway’s secondary schools. ‘What do you
think about having sex with an animal, or with a dead body?’ Third
story. The Great Lines is hardly the most attractive part of Medway, and lately
it has been scarred by further outbreaks of grass fires – doubtless
deliberately caused. A day or two after one such fire, a group of kids was
picking about in a scorched area. Most of them, I would guess, were primary
school age. The redheaded ringleader was older, though. In
the distance, but walking in their direction, were two Asian women. “Quick,”
called the ringleader to his accomplices, “Throw lizards at the Pakis.”
Thankfully the women diverted before they were assaulted. Spot
the connection? In
my last column two months ago, I wrote about another incident of racial abuse by
young people, and my piece carried the headline, ‘Kids who shame us’. They
do – but where do they get it? Maybe they picked up their bigotry at home. And
the other two stories – the RE homework and the police libel – show that
truth and goodness don’t seem terribly important in certain institutions where
such qualities are vital. In the family, education, and law enforcement, truth
is in trouble. Doctoring
the truth, even polluting it, comes altogether too easily to us. It starts with
trying to show ourselves in a good light, maybe to win an argument, or wriggle
out of an accusation. In his book on marriage, the popular author Rob Parsons
advises couples in conflict not to rely on the silent lawyer inside their heads
who comes up with all the reasons to defend certain actions or words that have
hurt their loved one. But
the pollution of truth is at epidemic level. It is making us all ill –
certainly spiritually, and often physically, too. It hangs over us, just like
the smoke from planes would if the Government is morally bankrupt enough to
build an airport at Cliffe. We
show signs of contamination when we say, ‘Everyone must follow what is true
for them.’ Trouble is, we can’t really live like that. What happens if
intercourse with minors is ‘true’ for a child abuser? If
– as is said – the first casualty in war is the truth, then we are already
at war, whatever Messrs Bush and Blair decide. It is a titanic war of goodness
and evil. How do we have hope in the face of it? Jesus
called himself ‘the way, the truth, and the life’. Big claims, but he led a
life consistent with those claims. He died and rose from death to win the
decisive battle against evil. Through him it is possible to have light and hope
in a dark and wicked world. Someone
once asked a famous preacher how he could be positive in such an awful and
world. The preacher replied, “I’ve read the Bible and peeked at the end of
the story – Jesus wins.”
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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration. |