Truth Telling....
Exodus 20:16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.
It’s with a bit of sadness that I observe the slow exiting of Tony Blair from office because I remember the optimism with which he swept into government in 1997. Labour spokespeople talked about being whiter than white, of not just being free of the sleaze that killed the outgoing government, but of the importance of being seen to be without that sleaze. But that ambition has faltered. Corrupt ministers, the war in Iraq, and his seeming pursuit of wealthy friends (not to mention his spats with his next door neighbour) have destroyed his reputation for integrity. Like most politicians that have been around for a while, it seems that we don’t trust any words that come out of his mouth.
Jesus said 'know the truth', [in other words have a complete, personal, intimate, life transforming relationship with me, then I will show you how to live in this world, to treat other people, to properly put things into perspective so your relationship with God will be restored, and you will bring healing, not conflict to the world] 'and the truth will set you free.' Imagine what it would be like living in a world where truth telling was the norm. Imagine living in a world where behind every deal, transaction, or agreement, no secrets were waiting to sneak up and surprise you. Imagine being seen as a person of such integrity. People would want to do business with you.
Tony seems to be a man of faith, who reads theology in his spare time according to several newspaper profiles, and I remember him giving a speech to the Labour party conference in 1995 where he seemed to hold to the truth above. Talking about justice and exclusion within our society, and our responsibilities to each other, he said "We are our brother’s keeper, we will not walk by on the other side." We have to acknowledge that it is harder to be in charge than to critique from the outside, but I wonder if after a decade of Labour we can say that Tony has led us in keeping our brothers and crossing over to the other side.
Because then we will be on the road to knowing the truth, and having the truth set us free....
It’s with a bit of sadness that I observe the slow exiting of Tony Blair from office because I remember the optimism with which he swept into government in 1997. Labour spokespeople talked about being whiter than white, of not just being free of the sleaze that killed the outgoing government, but of the importance of being seen to be without that sleaze. But that ambition has faltered. Corrupt ministers, the war in Iraq, and his seeming pursuit of wealthy friends (not to mention his spats with his next door neighbour) have destroyed his reputation for integrity. Like most politicians that have been around for a while, it seems that we don’t trust any words that come out of his mouth.
Jesus said 'know the truth', [in other words have a complete, personal, intimate, life transforming relationship with me, then I will show you how to live in this world, to treat other people, to properly put things into perspective so your relationship with God will be restored, and you will bring healing, not conflict to the world] 'and the truth will set you free.' Imagine what it would be like living in a world where truth telling was the norm. Imagine living in a world where behind every deal, transaction, or agreement, no secrets were waiting to sneak up and surprise you. Imagine being seen as a person of such integrity. People would want to do business with you.
Tony seems to be a man of faith, who reads theology in his spare time according to several newspaper profiles, and I remember him giving a speech to the Labour party conference in 1995 where he seemed to hold to the truth above. Talking about justice and exclusion within our society, and our responsibilities to each other, he said "We are our brother’s keeper, we will not walk by on the other side." We have to acknowledge that it is harder to be in charge than to critique from the outside, but I wonder if after a decade of Labour we can say that Tony has led us in keeping our brothers and crossing over to the other side.
Because then we will be on the road to knowing the truth, and having the truth set us free....
posted by Gordon at
12:01 am
2 Comments:
I enjoy your blog. I have a link back to it on my blog.
Teresa
Charleston,West Virginia
U.S.A.
By
T C Warrior, at 4:56 pm
I'm wierd when it comes to Tony Blair, I trust him more now than I did when he came to power, admittedly only because I didn't trust him at all then. While everyone else was full of how amazing he was, I just thought he was too smooth, he looked too good and he sounded too good (I was brought up in the era of Margaret Thatcher and John Major!), I thought he had to be fake.
Bizarely, it was the moment of my greatest disagreement with his policy, when he took us to war (how that happened not whether it was right to have a war or not in general) that changed my mind. I really respected the fact that he did what he thought was right (however misguidedly in my opinion) despite public opinion.
So as he goes, I don't agree with all his decisions or all of his politics but I respect him for being himself and I think maybe mostly doing what he thinks is right? Which made me think about what Gordon has written about living a life of truth in Christ, in the context of evangelism. We don't need to life a public life that is all smooth and pretty with all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed, rather it is as we openly grapple with being a Christian in the world and culture around us, making mistakes and even bad decisions as we go, as long as we are doing this with integrity, trying to follow God, learning to live in his light, people will see something in the overall story of our lives, that they can respect and hopefully want to know more about - even if their first impression of us is as a cheesy Christian!
By
Louise, at 9:39 am
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