‘‘Lies shape society, fueling propaganda, division, and authoritarian control. Fake news manipulates emotions, distorting reality for political and economic gain. Recognizing deception, fostering critical thinking, and promoting truth in media are essential to resisting misinformation and protecting democracy. Truth is our strongest weapon against deception’s destructive power.’’
Michael Corthell, “The Truth about Lies…”
In a probing and provocative piece for his “ourmoralmoment@substack.com, titled, A Pulpit Outside the White House, the Reverend William Barber II makes the following assertion:
When we look for truth in a time of lies, it is essential to know where to look.
Truth be told, there can be no doubt that we live in a time of lies, a time in which it seems increasingly more difficult to find the truth. Cultural and political commentators also call our time an age of deception. Some years ago, in a TED talk, Pamela Meyers asserted that we are lied to 10-200 times daily! Within our modern culture, we may be lied to more now, especially if we read what is posted all day long and through the night on Truth Social! POTUS is, among other things, the Deceiver-in-Chief. He splatters lies all over the news daily, sometimes even through the night on Truth Social meltdowns and rants. Fact checkers claim that the number of lies he has told could amount to tens of thousands! He, along with Hegseth, is the source of an endless stream of lies about the war in Iran, and his recent interview on NBC with Kristin Welker went badly because she called him out on some of his oft-repeated favorites about the 2020 election.
There is a growing concern as well about AI and its impact on our society’s ability to discern the truth. The rapid rise of deepfakes, AI generated material, makes it difficult to recognize fact from fiction. Moreover, the internet is filled with reports that are false. The advertising industry makes false claims about so many things! Media has its own issues with the truth. Scott Pelley, who was recently fired from the iconic “60 Minutes” weekly, stated in an explosive interview with the New York Times that the new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, sent an email to the correspondents that was filled with “falsehoods and bias.” In such a time as this, a time of lies, an age of deception, where lies and deceptions possess such a massive destructive power, it is essential to know where to look for truth and those brave enough to tell it.
Reverend Barber suggests that it is the prophetic voice in the public square that is to be trusted. These are the truth tellers, and they speak bravely from the pulpits outside the gates to the seats of power. He writes insightfully:
The prophets of the ancient world did not have large, independent platforms from which to tell the story of their people. They were public interrupters. Moses went to Pharaoh’s palace on behalf of the enslaved Hebrew children and interrupted business as usual. Esther declared, in a different political context, “If I perish, I perish, but I am going to see the king.” (Esther 4:16) The prophet Ezekiel laid on his side in a public demonstration for 430 days - longer than the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56. These moral voices took action to interrupt the official storytelling of their time because they understood the power of a pulpit in the public square.
In the 22nd chapter of Jeremiah, God gives the prophet instructions about why he should go to the seat of political power that is being abused and proclaim the truth:
This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim his message there: ‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’”
For Jeremiah, the geography mattered. He needed to be by the gates, where the officials come in and out, to name the consequences of their actions and make clear their moral agency. In any government where power is abused, vulnerable people will suffer. But policy violence cannot happen without professionals who show up every day to do their job. Wars are not funded without accountants who make spreadsheets. SNAP benefits and healthcare subsidies cannot be cut without administrators who are willing to cut them. Concentration camps cannot be built without architects who design them and, in the context of the private prison industry, corporate board members who are willing to invest in the caging of neighbors who are being kidnapped from their communities for no criminal offense.
In our present moral crisis, we need a pulpit by the gates of the White House to tell the truth about who we have become as a nation and remind those who come in and out of those gates that another America is possible. God did not tell Jeremiah to whisper his concerns in the safety of a sanctuary. He commanded him to march to the center of government. In this 250th anniversary year, when public funds are being used to tell a storybook version of American history that discourages protest, we have a moral obligation and a patriotic duty to remember the prophetic voices that have loved this nation by calling us to higher ground.
David Brooks once said that truth is the single most threatening obstacle to power and that is why those in power rely upon lies to manipulate the people. George Orwell, in his dystopian novel, ‘1984,’ published in June of 1949, highlighted how totalitarian regimes lie and manipulate the truth to grab and retain power. He wrote:
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Indeed, “speaking truth to power” is something of a cliché these days, but it is still a revolutionary act that requires, in the neat twist of a phrase, a pulpit at the gates of the compounds for the rich and powerful, from which we can serve as public interpreters who challenge and confront the official storytelling of our time.
President Trump celebrated his 80th birthday on June 14 at a UFC cage match at the White House, seated beside billionaire friends and complicit lawmakers. William Kristol, editor at large for The Bulwark, argues that although the birthday celebration is less consequential than the war in Iran or the economy, it still reveals something important about this moment in American history. He wrote:
After all, it’s vulgar. It’s violent, its commercial, it’s grandiose, it’s tacky and it dishonors a place once thought worthy of care and respect.
Gal Beckerman, a writer for The Atlantic, explained it this way:
By staging a “spectacle of excess” on the White House lawn, the president expressed the violent essence of his worldview.
Is that how we should interpret this moment in American history? Is it vulgar, violent, commercial, grandiose and dishonoring and betraying of the true nature of our nation?
I continue to be impressed with the boldness and bravery of Pope Leo XIV and how he conducts himself in the public square. In a papal address to Catholic Universities on June 3, 2026, and reported by the National Catholic Reporter, he emphasized the holy purpose of a catholic education. He said:
Unless Catholic education instills in students a true passion for the truth — and not only intellectual truth, but the truth that is Christ himself — we can hardly expect people to be willing to put forth the effort required to recognize truth and adapt one's life accordingly…
This calling extends beyond Catholic universities to all Christians and churches, whose purpose and message should nurture a deep passion for truth—intellectual truth, moral truth, and, for Christians, the truth revealed in Christ himself. We are living through both a moral crisis and, I would argue, a crisis of faith within the gates. Our nation needs citizens who love truth and have the courage to act in the public square, unafraid to challenge the official story told by a vulgar, corrupt, and dishonest administration and its allies. This is not a time to whisper inside our sanctuaries, but to speak boldly in the public square.
When we look for truth in a time of lies, it is essential to know where to look.
We know where to look- to Christ and his teachings and to those who possess the truth and are eager to share it. The apostle Paul said it well to the Ephesians, who were processing the meaning and obligations of this new life in Christ:
4 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: 4 there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.[a]
Rules for the New Life
25 So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.