Reflection
Naming the Truth
Bob Whorton
Naming the Truth
The Russian Orthodox Church has been vocal in its support of Vladimir Putin under Patriarch Kirill. Yes, this is going to be political. I’m not a party-political person, and never have been. But politics and faith cannot be neatly separated. Recently, the head of the Russian national guard was presented with an ikon at a ceremony in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. This is an ikon which depicts the appearing of the Virgin Mary to Russian troops in the First World War. The patriarch said that the ikon would aid the efforts of the national guard in Ukraine to ‘protect their fatherland.’ Meanwhile on March 14th a news editor who worked for Russian state television was so ashamed of the lies which she had helped to promulgate, that she burst into a live transmission of the news waving a placard written in a mixture of Russian and English. It read: ‘No war. Stop the war. Don’t believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Russians against war.’ If she is charged under a new law, she could face years in prison for her courageous act.
Truth is at stake here. When Christ stood before Pilate, truth was the issue. In John 18 we hear Pilate questioning whether Jesus was in fact a ‘witness of the truth’. ‘What is truth?’ he asks, toying with his wine glass. The implication is that for Pilate, truth is a relative thing. It is defined by the Roman emperor or by President Putin. ‘Truth is whatever we want it to be,’ Pilate seems to be saying, as he washes his hands of the troublesome prophet. And Truth dies on a cross. Unfortunately, post-modern thought seems to go along with Pilate. We have lost any over-arching sense of what is true, honourable and good. An individual can define those things – but only for themselves. It is ‘my’ truth. There is no such thing as the Truth.
Except… except when a news editor called Marina Ovskyannikova bursts into a newsroom and says that the people of Russia are being lied to. Then we can see something bigger, more universal, there in front of our eyes. We finally see the Truth. And the truth in this case is that Ukraine and the west were not acting in an aggressive way towards Russia and that a web of lies has been created by the Russian propaganda machine to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
If Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, then nothing can kill Truth. In the end, in the very end, it will be raised.