The Dilemma of Truth and Power

Morality is unavoidable. Every “ought”, every “should”, every criticism of another person, whether verbally expressed or silently contemplated, entails a moral judgment concerning that other person. One of the interesting things I find is that a (moral?) code concerning the “avoidance” of moral claims instead of increasing civility actually undermines it and makes constructive disagreement difficult.

I think all of us to one extent or another can feel threatened by claims concerning morality and truth that we don’t subscribe to - this applies equally to those who believe in the validity of such claims - and even for valid reasons. However, I don’t think the denial of morality and truth as either existing or knowable (not exhaustively, but reliably) solves our problem. Especially considering that none of us have any problem judging others according to our concepts of morality and truth, while we deny others that same privilege, exclaiming “who are you to say,” but never thinking to turn to ourselves to ask, “who am I to say?”

The concern about moral/truth claims, which we all continue to make as intractably moral beings - yes, including those who self-identify as secular - is control, manipulation, coercion. Now, the fact of the matter is human history is the story of the abuse and misuse of any and all things, be it money, sex, political power, intelligence, etc. So the question is why the abuse of morality/truth by some should result in their generally becoming suspect. At the risk of being redundant, I don’t think this is what happens across the board anyway, but seems to be a convenient way of dismissing the stuff that threatens our own moral/truth claims, even if we only call such claims “choices.”

Having said that, I agree that a truth claim is in itself an assertion of power because implicit in a claim to “truth” is that it should be followed and adhered to. In a sense, the claim says, “believe me” and/or “obey me.” And if I disagree or don’t acknowledge its truth, then the power of the claim imposes itself on me in my resistance to it. This is the case regardless of the civility with which the claim may be presented. Actually, if the claim is accompanied by threats of physical violence, then it is no longer the claim that is threatening, but the person or group issuing the threats.

Yet, the eradication of truth claims does not do anything to assist us in this regard. If we dismiss the reliable accessibility of truth as something to which we can point others, then any moral judgments or attempts to persuade are merely coercive exercises in power and manipulation to conform others to one’s own preferences. Now, this coercive manipulation maybe executed politely and intelligently, with sophisticated argumentation. In the end, absent truth, it is then a polite, intelligent and sophisticated exercise in manipulative power.

Thus, truth claims are threatening and possibly coercive exercises in power. At the same time, the denial of truth leaves us with only coercive exercises in power. We are in a bind without a way out.

At this point, someone may interrupt to say, “uh, since you like believe in God and stuff, don’t you think you should, you know, mention him or something.” Okey dokey.

But does this help us out of our bind concerning truth and its coercive power? Well, actually, there are many who consider God to be the most coercive truth claim of all – one whose power is to exercise control over otherwise “free” people. In my experience, many who self-identify as secular don’t so much deny that there could be or is a god (though of course some do), but what they resolutely deny is that God is true and good. Okay, so they should just stop this nonsense about “there is no truth” or “we can’t know the truth” and realize that God is truth; and he is good, not coercive, and that’ll get us out of our bind and solve our problem concerning truth and morality. No. That won’t get it done.

The Old Testament book of Isaiah is largely comprised of the prophet Isaiah’s proclamation of truth and justice against his contemporaries’ falsehood and injustice: “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow.” Is. 1:16-17. In the book’s 6^th chapter, Isaiah himself has an encounter with the truth, he experiences the presence of ultimate reality, namely God, and he falls to pieces: “Woe is me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Is. 6:5. The truth comes to Isaiah and searches him out, exposing him for who he is, telling him what he’s really like, and he cannot bear it: “Woe is me…I am ruined.” In the light of truth, he realizes that he is not in any way the truthful person he might have imagined himself to be, but realizes that he, like everyone around him, is basically a poseur and pretender whose own mouth is sullied by the half-truths, untruths, sort of truths he utters: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

I think this is one picture of what the experience of judgment might be like. We spend our entire lives covering up, shading, deflecting, maneuvering, blame-shifting, pretending and posing. These are all survival mechanisms. Who of us if we were to be full exposed to the light of truth without anywhere to hide or run, if we were to have our conventional weapons of self-defense taken from us that keep us from even acknowledging the truth about ourselves, would not exclaim along with Isaiah, “woe is me, I am ruined?” Who of us could stand even for a moment?

So, we have a situation in which we each conduct ourselves as if we are “the truth,” even as we, in spite of our pretensions, are conscious of our need for a truth that eludes us. At the same time, we don’t really want, nor are we capable of receiving, the unvarnished truth, which simply overwhelms us. The exchange in the climactic courtroom scene in “A Few Good Men” expresses our plight: “I want the truth…You can’t handle the truth.” Truth is both unavoidable and unapproachable, and our dilemma not only remains, but is all the more apparent

Into this reality comes the one who surrenders all the power and privilege of being the truth, while remaining fully the truth. The truth puts down all his weapons and comes to us completely disarmed, even allowing us to use our weapons against him, thus exposing us all the more. Yet, it is from the cross, in his complete abandonment of power, that the truth calls us to himself in the only position that would permit us to approach him: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth (crucified), will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32. In so doing, he demonstrates that essential to truth is grace.

What is remarkable is that the pretensions to truth made by all the rest of us in religious and irreligious forms are harsh judges that do not relinquish their control or illusions of power, be they meager or substantial. By rising from the dead Jesus demonstrates that even when stripped of all “power,” the one who is truth is vindicated.

The one who is truth and grace utilizes his power in its abandonment and surrender to draw and unite to himself those who know they can’t handle the truth.