Episode 25 with James Glass

Elim MPower

We are chatting with James Glass, who is the Elim Regional Superintendent for the North West of England and for Scotland. James is married to Beryl who is also an ordained Elim minister and they have three children aged 24, 21 and 16.

In this episode of the podcast we discuss the idea of truth: how culture interprets, handles and presents truth, and how far that might differ from what the bible says about truth.

James suggests that in our western culture there is a prevailing trend for relativism, which is the postmodern idea that we each have our own truth, and that there is no such thing as objective truth.

In this way of thinking, things like ‘fake news’ come to the fore, as seen particularly under President Trump’s administration; or we have telling ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’, as seen in the Oprah interview with Harry and Meghan.

On the one hand it seems that we do really want ‘the truth’ and to be sure that things aren’t just made up; and yet at the same time we don’t like purely objective truth – and this is a tension that our present-day culture struggles to resolve.

We talk about the debate over the numbers in attendance at President Trump’s inauguration, and ask whether politicians are especially prone to difficulty with truth. James makes the point that no one seemed able to come out with genuinely balanced commentary during Trump’s presidency – things were either strongly for or strongly against him, but no sensible middle ground. Perhaps this made worse by a whole swathe of people feeling that they weren’t well represented.

James shares some thinking from the philosopher John Gray, former professor of European thought at London School of Economics and visiting professor at Harvard and Yale. Gray’s perspective is the much of western politics seems built on Christian ideals, yet with the kingdom and person of God stripped out. When politicians throughout history (including figures like Pontius Pilate) start trying to make the truth subservient to an ideology, the situation can become really dangerous and not just truth becomes casualty – people themselves get damaged. Jesus’ trial was based on a religious ideology taking supremacy over the truth.

After noting Justin Welby’s response to Harry and Meghan about the true point at which they were really married, we ask whether the church has the responsibility to tell the truth always. James wisely advises that we can be more effective as Christians in the arena of truth-telling when the church picks its battles – a bit like wise parenting!

James reminds us that truthfulness is enshrined in the ten commandments: ‘we shall not bear false witness’. It affects our personal relationships, and not being truthful erodes political credibility. He draws some great analogies: in taking a aeroplane flight we really need to know that the pilot flying the plane is just not ‘making things up’; or in crossing a bridge that the structural engineer is not just ‘inventing’ equations!

For the apostle Paul, the truth of the resurrection is the ‘yes or no’ hinge point for Christian belief: it either happened or it didn’t.

And in answer to the question about where men should take a stand on the issue of the truth, James again wisely reminds us of the need to keep in step with the Holy Spirit about the times when we need to be courageous, versus the times when we need to be wise! Sometimes we are battling with unregenerate minds, and we have to decide just how fruitful we are going to be in making a point of pursuing truth.

On the other hand, we should always stand up for others if they are being misrepresented, and make sure that false witness does not prevail.

James offers some great advice for blokes who perhaps struggle with always telling the truth.

We conclude that truth-telling usually needs accompanying with kindness!

Thanks for an excellent and thought-provoking chat, James!