Our nation's issues have nothing to do with preferred pronouns or fake insurrections or manic pushes for equity.  They stem from an application of subjective truth to virtually everything.

Consider our founding charter.  Progressives say the Constitution is a living, breathing document that must adapt to the times — as if the principles of liberty require adjustment because things have changed so much in a mere 234 years.

Do progressives truly believe we should reinterpret the Constitution to fit their perception of reality?  Or because it's more to the liking of people who pretend its truths are somehow less true with the passage of time?

Regarding truth, its meaning comes down to one question: is it contingent on reality or feels?  The notion that truth is whatever we feel it is — your truth, my truth — is absurd.  The reality is that we all operate in a world of absolute truth, and we all affirm its supremacy a thousand times a day whether we accept it or not.

If truth doesn't exist, then it would be true that truth doesn't exist, and once again we arrive at truth. —Nabeel Qureshi

As in politics, progressive leaders in Christianity believe that the Bible is not Scripture, but is merely a "library of books" written by men whose prejudices and viewpoints make it unreliable as a guide for Christian living.

Question: If the Bible is a library of books, who's the managing editor?

Rather than reject all Scripture, church progressives cherry-pick Bible truths they can live with.  Consider the easily digestible maxim that God is love.  To them, God is only love.  He doesn't ask anything of them in terms of obedience or justice or truth.

To spiritual progressives, we have carte blanche to live without structure and without guidance other than what we feel is right.  This eliminates personal responsibility and accountability.  It also creates a contradiction: spiritual life without the truth of Scripture is like self-governance without a timeless Constitution.

In the minds of progressives — in culture, government, and religion — truth is purely subjective.  Except when it comes to bolstering an agenda — then helpful truths quickly become absolute.  Like these:

All men are created equal.  This maxim actually means that everyone is created with equal worth to the Creator.  It has been subverted to mean that everyone is equal and thus should be given every opportunity to act upon this equality through denigrating measures such as affirmative action.

God is love.  According to Scripture, love is only one of God's attributes.  The Bible also says God is holy and just and righteous and pure.  These characteristics, if true, call for accountability and responsibility — just as our Constitution calls for rule of law based on self-evident truths.

Care for the poor.  This is where progressives in religion and politics coalesce and differ most strongly with evangelicals and conservatives.  In truth, it's not a question of if we should help the poor; it's how.

Progressives think the federal government is best suited to help the poor.  Conservatives think state and local government and religious groups and churches are best suited to help the poor.  When we leave caring for the poor to the federal government, we wash our hands of them.  The poor become enslaved to a system that crushes their spirits and keeps them dependent.

I receive care from the federal government — the Veteran's Administration.  Trust me: the federal government is a ponderous, inefficient caregiver; it's far from ideal.  Private health care, driven by incentives and the market, naturally provides the best quality of care.

In terms of charity, local volunteers and people on the ground can make a real, lasting difference by helping poor people help themselves.

If political progressives think we should give people what they need without encouraging them to give themselves what they need, they do not understand human nature.  Or worse, they have little faith in people and in the value of encouraging them to lift themselves up.

If religious progressives think God is all love and is not necessarily holy and just and that the Bible is not reliable, they do not understand God's nature or human nature.

On the subject of truth in politics and religion, allow me to offer these observations and concluding arguments:

I've never seen such a starkly obvious difference between those who rely upon constitutional and scriptural authority for governance and interacting with God and others, and those who seek to create their own framework for the same.  This faulty framework is based on feeling rather than thinking, emotion rather than cognition.

When progressives disregard the Constitution's or scripture's authority, there is no rule of law — civically or spiritually.

Today's progressives in the political and religious arenas seem to have forgotten this objective truth: what feels right is not always what is or ought to be right.

Subjective truth is by its nature not true.  If a tree falls in a forest, it's irrelevant whether anyone is there to hear its crash.  And no, God cannot create a rock that even he can't move.  The size and weight of the rock are irrelevant.  If he can make it, he can move it.

Subjective truth is like a sideshow clown who distracts and pleases childish minds with colorful balloon dogs.  It's a nonentity that binds the brains of many.

Dear leaders in government and the church:  Let go of the lead balloon of subjective silliness, and let people soar on the wings of truth.  It will truly set them free.

For more from Patrick Luscri, visit his blog at luscri.com.

Graphic credit: Mossado, CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

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