Truth and Falsehood
A Reflection from our Editor-in-Chief Kait Dugan
“It must be remembered that as un-truth [falsehood] has taken and swallowed and so far as possible digested and assimilated the truth. It thus has it within itself. To be sure, it perverts it. And since the truth necessarily resists its perversion, it has it to its own judgment and final destruction. But it has it, and therefore it cannot fail to have the power of a certain faded lustre. The true and succulent lie always has something of the scent of the truth. In some manifestations of falsehood it is heavy with truth in the form of truisms, so that if we think we know and should describe it as falsehood we are bound to look like iconoclasts and must anxiously ask ourselves whether it is not we who are the liars, blaspheming holy things and holy people.”
—Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3, 438.
“And then I explained to him how naive we were, that the world did know and remain silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”
—Elie Wiesel, The Nobel Piece Prize acceptance speech, 10 December 1986.
I continue to tell myself that writing the monthly round-up will get easier next month. And then the next month comes and a new layer of darkness seems to surface. This month is no different. It is the night before this post is supposed to be sent out to you, and I am still trying to figure out what to say that could bear any significance in light of what is happening in the world right now. Instead of my usual monthly update, I decided to write this brief reflection of what has been preoccupying my mind this past month.
These days, my mind has been consumed with the reality and idea of deception and lies. Since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, I have been bewildered by the ways in which lies and deception have functioned as a deadly ideology—quite literally—that has taken so many lives, both here in the United States and around the world. We hear phrases all the time like “fake news” and “deepfake.” It seems like it is becoming harder and harder to discern between what is truth and what is falsehood. And the inability to tell the difference between truth and untruth has resulted in the death of many. None of this is new, though. Throughout history, humanity has seen time and again how falsehood becomes a tangible and concrete power of death that destroys and annihilates vulnerable people.
During the month of March, I have frequently felt as though I am being gaslit by my own government. There is no other way to say it. Every day, I hear blatant lies from this current administration and our current leaders. So many lies are continually spewed and they can tempt me to ask myself, like Barth says above, whether it is not me who is the liar and embracing falsehoods. In times like these, falsehood wields itself anew in endless destructive ways, and you can begin questioning truth and your ability to discern it. So I have to remind myself nearly every day that what is being witnessed to right now is nothing less than deadly falsehoods and ideologies masqueraded as the opposite. Every single day, falsehood is being hailed as truth.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the United States President invited Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor as the guest of honor for the day. The President called McGregor “fantastic” and the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing with McGregor that she “couldn’t think of a better guest to have with us on St. Patrick’s Day.” In November of last year, a jury of McGregor’s peers found him guilty for violently beating and raping a woman named Nikita Hand in 2018. The detailed medical reports of her injuries are horrifying to read. One of the paramedics on the scene who attended to Hand after her assault testified to the court that she had not "seen someone so bruised in a long time." Falsehood hailed as truth.
This same President who calls convicted rapists “fantastic” people has also been hailed the most pro-life President in the history of the United States by Franklin Graham and other evangelical leaders in North America. But just this last week, the current administration decided to cut major funding for Gavi, a global health organization that provides critical, life-saving medical care to impoverished children. Since the founding of Gavi in 2000, the organization has saved the lives of nearly 19 million children through vaccines that shield them from preventable deaths caused by yellow fever, cholera, polio, and several other diseases. This move to cut funding for Gavi will sacrifice the lives of thousands of children for years to come. Somehow legislating death sentences for vulnerable children is the cause of life. Falsehood hailed as truth.
My last example is one that has consumed so many of us in higher education in recent days: the kidnapping of students on university campuses across the United States. Last week, with covered faces in unmarked vehicles, ICE agents arrested a PhD student at Tufts University named Rumeysa Ozturk without any explanation. Ozturk’s lawyer says she was targeted for writing an op-ed piece criticizing the violence and death in Gaza. The message being sent by our government to students—and everyone else—in the United States is that criticizing Israel’s slaughter of over 15,000 Palestinian children is somehow anti-semitic and you will be imprisoned if you speak out against such destruction. Falsehood hailed as truth.
Nothing seems more important right now than witnessing to the truth through concrete action and exposing the falsehoods all around us. The propensity of academics is to either stay silent or to draft another statement (hence, as an academic, my writing this post). But that is not quite enough in these times of life and death. Our students and our neighbors and the children being killed need much more from us. They need us to witness to the truth. They need us to seek collective action.
Throughout my time at the Center for Barth Studies over the last ten years, time and again, people tell me what they admire most about Karl Barth is that he spoke truth to power in the most dangerous of times. He did not remain silent. In his drafting of The Barmen Declaration, Barth had the courage to witness to the truth and liberating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the devastatingly violent and demonic lies of the Third Reich. I often cannot help but think that Barth would want Christians and theologians today to actually do something about what is happening right now, and not remain silent.
Telling the truth in this moment seems very costly, especially if you are not a tenured professor, not a white person, or not a US citizen. Speaking the truth to power with our words and our lives can cost one their safety, their comfort, and sometimes their very life. I do not want to lose my job, and I certainly do not want to lose my safety, my freedom, or my life. Truth be told, I am pretty scared of what might happen if I actually witness to the truth concretely in the coming days. I am even a bit fearful to publish this reflection. But we cannot and must not stay silent in these days. As a Christian who confesses to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, I follow after a God who is intimately familiar with losing his life for witnessing to the truth. And this means Christ is calling me, and you, to step out in faith and witness to the truth in action despite the potential cost.
I am not sure what the month of April will hold for us, but I have faith in the promises of God that no matter what lies ahead, the Spirit of the living God will be with us in the darkness as we witness, however imperfectly, to the truth.
— Kait Dugan, Director
Thanks so much for this reflection, Kait. I stand with you: it is clear that Barth and the other authors of the Barmen declaration would recognise our current context as another moment where theologians are called to speak truth to power. I'll continue to reflect on the ways I'm called to do that. Count on my support, in whatever way would be helpful.
Well put, Kait!