Does it even matter anymore that light sabers aren’t real? Or that Lance Armstrong used drugs to win races? Or that Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend never existed? Or that faith, as the filmed LIFE OF PI suggests, needn’t be based on truth to be valid?
In light of these recent cultural events and conversations, I find myself fondly recalling the exuberance of Tom Cruise’s character in A FEW GOOD MEN. Do you remember the scene? He’s staring down Jack Nicholson in the courtroom while pounding his palm on the table and spitting forth his idealism. “I want the truth!” To which, Nicholson slyly (and famously) responds, ‘You can’t handle the truth!’ Perhaps in the Nineties, we couldn’t handle the truth. In this new millennium, I’m wondering if we even want the truth. Let’s recap.
After more than fifteen years of lies, Lance Armstrong admits to using illegal drugs to help him win seven consecutive Tour de Frances. And yet, some commentators question how much it matters in light of the fact that his foundation (built around this fraudulent story) raised $500 million to fight cancer. So what if it’s a story that didn’t really happen if it’s a good story that raised money and saved lives?
Collegiate football star Manti Te’o enters into an online relationship with a woman dying of leukemia. He talks her to sleep every night for four months and calls her his girlfriend. So when she dies at the start of the season, national sympathy pours in and it becomes part of the ‘story’ of Notre Dame’s resurgence as a national football power: along with their captain, they overcome tragedy on the road to victory! Then the news breaks that the girlfriend never existed. So, either Te’o was duped by someone posing as the girlfriend or he participated in and perpetuated a lie. But does that really matter, ESPN anchors would have us think, when the story helped Notre Dame advance to the national championship?
The film version of LIFE OF PI tells two stories about how a boy survives a shipwreck. One of them is harsh and bleak; the other is fanciful and miraculous. At the end, the viewer is asked to choose which they prefer. The choice is framed as a question of faith and is offered as if the truth of what really happened is irrelevant. Does it really matter, the film says, if the miraculous story isn’t true as long as it makes us feel better and helps us through tragedy?
Well, yes it does.
It’s a funny thing about the world’s major religions: they base their faith on stories they believe to be true. It’s the truth that encourages devotion and motivates the good and bad arising from such communities of faith. You don’t see a religion based on Little Red Riding Hood or Cinderella because those stories aren’t true. Historically, people have recognized this – even though a new, growing religion based on STAR WARS argues against that.
Here’s the radical thing about faith lost to the makers of LIFE OF PI: faith stories are true; otherwise, they wouldn’t be faith stories. Take the Judeo-Christian religion. One of its noted writers, Frederick Buechner says, ‘Faith is the assurance that the best and holiest dream is true after all.’ And St. Paul, one of the religion’s co-founders, says that if the story of the risen Messiah is not true, then ‘…our preaching is worthless and your faith is worthless.’ For the Judeo-Christian religion, whether or not the story is true makes all the difference.
If the man called Yeshua did not resurrect, if his dead tissue did not reanimate and walk out of the tomb, if this miraculous story of a ‘Walking Dead’ Jew ascending alive into the clouds is not real, then the faith based on that story is in vain. It’s a lie. It’s not worth believing, practicing, or giving one moment of life to. So, for those who live and die by true faith stories, the LIFE OF PI offends when it suggests stories that aren’t true can save.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love fairy tales. They have their power, beauty, and value. I was raised on Disney fairy tales and Bible stories and create my own stories today because of that. But only one of these promised eternal life. Only one gave me purpose. Only one was truth. My faith is the truth – for me, at least. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be my faith. It would only be another fairy tale on a long list of stories I love.
So, as unpopular as it might currently be, I stand with Tom Cruise’s character in passionately spitting that ‘I want the truth!’
If you want the truth, if you desire a permanent change in this life or eternal hope for the next, I’d recommend you find a good story that also happens (even if only miraculously and fantastically) to be true.
But if all you need is a good story, then you might want to check out your local Star Wars church – I hear they’re giving out free light sabers this weekend.
Raising money to fight cancer doesn’t justify doping. Raising spirits for sports fans doesn’t justify fakery. Faith in resurrection doesn’t justify murder, or redeem the lie that bloodshed cleanses sin.
Truth is written on our hearts, friend.
Hello again, brother Rick.
I spit that first comment out after reflecting on this post for several days. It boils down my passion for truth-telling regarding the violent murder of Jesus.
Having now mused on my comment for several days, I’m moved to offer more context.
This post raises a critical topic, Rick. You present several stories that illustrate how pop culture rewards deception. Our mass tendency to abet lies is a big problem, and I’m as passionate as anyone I’ve met about the need for correction.
You and I have talked at length about our journeys of faith. My assumption is that anything I say here will be received with the understanding that I love Jesus. For me his story is that of a heroic teacher who delivered a pivotal challenge to the cultural authorities — who killed him and then re-scripted that murder to fit the old myth of human sacrifice.
That’s the truth, as written on my heart. It may offend fellow Christians, but I hope you and I are equally willing to discuss how such truths might inform our callings as God’s children.
Yes, we need to cure cancer. Yes, we need to strengthen team spirit. Yes, we need faith in resurrection.
In all things God works for good, I believe. But that doesn’t mean our Creator uses deception to make things right again. Sometimes truth is found in minority reports that are overlooked by club members.
Wow! This is one heck of a post, Rick. I just happened to come across the Armstrong and Te’o stories the first time I read this post a week or so ago. And I had just finished reading Life of Pi, though I haven’t seen the movie yet. In the book (spoiler alert here), Pi tells his tale to the author, which takes up pretty much the whole book, then tells both tales to a couple of Japanese executives and asks them which one they like better. I was disturbed by the ending, since the truth is not resolved, and I, like you, am a seeker.
However, Life of Pi is fiction. The author made the whole thing up, both stories, the circumstances, all the characters, and the plot. Is this a fable, meant to teach a moral lesson? I don’t think so. But maybe. Bottom line — neither story is true. I don’t know how the movie presented it, but surely the audience knows the whole thing is fiction? Maybe not?
Now, to Lance. I believe Armstrong has been telling the story of his miraculous Tour de France victories for decades, not just the last year. Fact is, not many people believed his story, but they sure wanted to. I wanted to. I’m not sure I believe his confession. Both stories are equally fascinating. But in this case, perhaps one is true, and one isn’t. I don’t know.
This brings up the whole gamut of news stories today that sometimes are hard to believe, and often very difficult to check. Many people are very cynical of these stories, even though they come from supposedly trustworthy sources. Now imagine going back 2000 years or more and trying to figure out whether a story or historical event actually happened. Hard to ask bystanders. We have an amazing amount of archeological evidence for ancient events and civilizations, but I always find it incredible that scholars can piece together such a vivid story of these past happenings and cultures. This was really brought out when my kid was young and was interested in dinosaurs. The books were full of detailed drawings of these lizards, all of whom were gone 65 million years ago! And then, to boot, I’m to believe that the birds of today are the dinosaurs’ descendents?! Wow!
We can’t even get history right in today’s textbooks, much less ancient texts. Often it’s not that things in these books are not true; it’s that the context is often left out. As they say, the winners write the history books.
The Te’o story is really interesting to me. Both that it is a big story, when it is only about a college football team, and that we don’t know the answer already as to which story is true. Come on, ask the guy!
Well, that leaves me where you started, asking if people really want to know the truth. Do you believe that the cause of the Twin Towers’ downfall is still debated? That Julian Assange is still in an embassy in Ecuador because he’s afraid that the U.S. will jail him or kill him for releasing the truth? Or do we even know what the truth is in that case? That we’re still debating whether climate change exists, or whether it’s caused by carbon dioxide and other industrial pollutants? Hey, the truth matters in that one.
Or does it? I’m not even sure I want to know.
Some updates on my comments above. First, I just listened to a Katie Couric interview with Manti Te’o where I learned that his story is that he was duped (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wOgRVySgU). Interesting that we learn this not from a court decision, but from a TV interview, like so many other “truths” we learn these days.
Also wanted to add that another interesting story that is still being hashed out is the story of what happened in Benghazi, Libya, when 4 Americans were killed in an attack at the U.S. Embassy. Hillary Clinton was being grilled by Republicans about the incident, which they have been trying to pin on the Obama administration since before the election, it seems. Clinton replied that we should be moving on, and what and why exactly happened there is irrelevant. Wow! The truth is not important!
I’d love to see the WikiLeaked documents on that case!!
I appreciate the careful reading, consideration and response by both of you. Your comments greatly enhance the original article and give all of us much more to think about. Thank you.
Studying postmodernism years ago, I was always offended by the idea my teachers taught that we were headed into a ‘post truth’ culture where there were no truths, just opinions, and one truth would be as good as another. I see now what they foresaw. It makes me hunger for truth even more. Something I can touch, feel, taste, measure, and experience. Maybe that’s why I’ve been taking more nature walks. But I feel like saying, even if I don’t live up to it, that we should bravely seek the truth no matter the consequences and stand behind it.
In light of that last reply, I’d like to offer a link to an article written by a professor friend of mine about a man who spoke truths so unpopular, several of them have been ‘forgotten’. More logs for the fire.
http://spokanefavs.com/faith/leaders-and-institutions/stop-celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr
Excellent link, Rick! The following quote jumped out at me. From what I’ve read, Coca-Cola played a prominent corporate role in promoting Dr. King’s legacy and securing a national holiday in his honor.
“Restructuring society would require concrete economic changes, and King made these clear. He instructed the audience to stop purchasing Coca-Cola and Wonder Bread.”
I think many readers may be a bit confused, as I was at first, by Rindge’s suggestion that celebrating MLK can get in the way of living the teachings he championed. But it does hold true that mass attraction to brandnames and packaging can supplant our focus on contents.
Here’s an interesting example. As I understand it, many early Christians were killed because their faith led them to reject the empire’s call to war. Then Constantine got the idea that if he put a symbol for Christ on the shields of his soldiers, they would be victorious in battle. When the idea worked, the emperor’s stock soared.
Can a great teacher’s truths be co-opted and even subverted when his adversaries turn him into a celebrity?
Waking up to that possibility is another signal, to me at least, that said adversaries won’t control the end of the story.
It’s the real thing, the water of life, here to serve anyone who thirsts for truth.