By Ife J. Ibitayo
I recently read an article about a number of anti-vaccine radio hosts who died of COVID. This got me thinking, “What happens when your beliefs are rooted in something other than reality?”
We all hold fundamental beliefs that we think are self-evident like “We should all have a right to choose” and “Love is love.” We hold to such statements because, just like gravity, they ground us. They provide a comforting framework through which we can make sense of our dizzyingly complex world. But comfort is not a sufficient reason to hold on to any belief.
The Terrifying
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I still believe that freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” This truth resonated strongly in March 1965, when the suffering of the black community viscerally confronted white America.
The United States government passed the Civil Rights Act the year before. They were attempting to legislate desegregation from the top down. But it could be argued that the dismantlement of “separate but equal” institutions did not begin in earnest until Bloody Sunday. On that fateful afternoon, racist local law enforcement brutally beat down Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of others. It could not have been comfortable for any “upstanding, moral” American to come to terms with the vile ugliness of complacency lying in their souls. But only when our nation was awoken from its slumber could it continue the hard work of reconciliation.
This behavior is not anomalous. It’s a worsening trend. 2 Timothy 4:20 says, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.” Now is that time. In the internet age, we can find voices that preach whatever message we want to hear. We live in a generation when many are entrenching themselves in their worldviews, attempting to block out the terror of reality.
The Truth
But Martin Luther King Jr.’s statement still rings true today, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Grounding, orientation, only comes when we submit our preferences to the one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Someone once said that no one holds the market on truth, and there is some validity to this statement. No politician, no preacher, no blogger has got it all right. That’s why we must be willing to question and challenge them. But we ourselves don’t know it all either. That’s why we must be willing to humbly retract and correct ourselves. Yet truth does exist. And if it can’t be found with humanity, maybe it can be found with the one who made us all.
“‘You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’”
(John 18:38)