The Uncomfortable Truth

Yesterday we learned of the death of Cokie Roberts, an ABC news reporter.  I was shocked when it was revealed the she was seventy five years of age.  Then I realized my own age and seventy five seemed about right for Cokie Roberts. 

Cokie Roberts was a news reporter that I trusted.  Her father was a United States Congressman, Rep. Hale Boggs, from Louisiana.  In 1972 her father was killed in a plane crash and her mother, Rep. Lindy Boggs, assumed his seat in Congress.  After her service in Congress Ms.Boggs became an a diplomat, serving as the United States Ambassador to the Vatican.  Cokie Roberts also had a sister who served as mayor of Princeton, New Jersey.

Roberts was not a journalism major in college but rather majored in political science.  Being raised in a political environment seemed to give more depth to her reporting and she never seemed to have an adversarial relationship with those she covered.  Further, I never sensed any bias in her reporting.  I'm sure she had her opinions as we all do, but it never seemed to influence her work.  She simply reported the news.

When I was a boy there were two things that always seemed pretty serious to me.  One was church.  I will admit that I was mesmerized by worship when I was a kid.  I didn't understand everything we did but I knew church was mighty important.

The other thing that seemed serious to me was the news.  There were some fairly stern looking men (and when I was a boy the news anchors were generally all men) who always seemed to be talking of things that were important.  One of them when done speaking would say, "And that's the way it is," and we believed that to be the case.  

Today the news business has taken a hit in the credibility department.  It seems that  no longer do we trust our news sources.  I find that disturbing.  Granted, most of the folks that I know in the journalism business work in it at the local level but those whom I know seem to have no agenda but disseminating the truth.

I have a hypothesis about the disconnect between our news givers and the general public's belief in their credibility.  I have noticed over the years, even in the life of the church, that people generally do not like to hear the truth if the truth doesn't affirm their particular world view.  Therefore, when presented with evidence that conflicts with their world view many persons, rather than assess their own views, had rather attack the one who presents the facts that challenge their views.

Of course all of us filter the truth through the prisms of our own beliefs.  It is human nature.  Scripture even gives us examples of the human reluctance to accept the truth.  In the Old Testament we read the prophet Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern because he dared speak the truth to the Ancient Hebrews.  Jesus himself was crucified, in part, for telling the truth. The Apostle Paul was stoned, beaten and arrested for telling the truth. 

A number of years ago there was a newspaper publisher in a small South Georgia community who came to work one day and found his office burned to the ground.  In looking at the ash heap that was once his office he said, "In all the year's I've owned the paper no one has ever been angry because of the opinions I've published.  It's only the facts that make people mad."

Many of us remember the character of Colonel Nathan Jessup in the movie "A Few Good Men."  On the witness stand at a court marital of a young Marine, Jessup, when told that the truth is in order says, "You can't handle the truth."  Perhaps there is a little bit of that in all of us.  Perhaps we all have a bit of difficulty in handling the truth.

Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  The truth will indeed make us free.  However, there are sometimes that hearing the truth makes us all a bit uncomfortable.






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