A Sermon by Sydney V. (Skip) Jackson — October 5, 2008
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Ohio
Texts:  Proverbs 31:8-9; John 8:31-32; 1 John 4:16-21

You will know the truth,

and the truth will make you free. — John 8:32

but perfect love casts out fear. — 1 John 4:18

(I am Skip Jackson, your pastor, and I approve this message.)

 

Yes, it's election season.  I was wondering what I might preach about for this Peacemaking and World-wide Communion Sunday when I picked up this week’s edition of my neighborhood newspaper the Northwest News.  The editorial cartoon shows a man who has climbed up to speak with a power company line repairman.  Under his arm is a TV set announcing “…and I approved this message,” and he’s begging the repairman, “Can you turn the power off again until after the election?”  I’ve come to realize that one of the real blessings of losing power after the windstorm three weeks ago was two entire days without television or internet political ads.

Every four years Peacemaking Sunday falls during the end of a very long election season.  And with each election, the ads seem to be meaner and more and more focused on attacking the opponent.  I’ve come to realize that 15- and 30-second political ads, whether on TV or on YouTube, are especially powerful weapons… aka attack ads  They seem to have been designed for the express purpose of telling lies.  They’re perfect for it.  Lies are so much quicker and easier to tell than the truth.  You can tell a lie in 15-30 seconds—maybe even two or three lies.  But you can almost never tell the truth in so small a time—most especially the truth needed to counteract a lie now that lies can spread at the speed of the world-wide web.

Now, I do believe Jesus had it right.  The truth definitely can set us free.  The truth is so much larger than any lie.  But it takes so much longer to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and thereby know the truth that will make you free.  Building something up takes way more time than blowing it up.

Lies—particularly political lies—seem to be especially effective in stirring up people’s fears.  Now I want to be clear.  I am not making a partisan point here or picking on either side with this sermon.  Both sides—all sides, when you include minor parties—are at fault.  Day after day the Columbus Dispatch offers “Campaign Ad Watch” analyses of political ads from both the Republicans and the Democrats, as well as ads about the various issues.  And almost without exception, the ads are found to fall short when it comes to telling the absolute truth.  Why?  Because lies and partial-truths (which are just another way to lie) are so quick and effective.  And never more so than when they are stirring up people’s fears.  War, terrorism, radical Islam, crime, family breakdown, high prices, falling propert values, corporate abuses, economic meltdown, job losses, potential environmental catastrophe: all these and more are fertile fields for fear to bloom and grow.  Yes, the world can be a scary place.  But stirring up people’s fears is not a recipe for a better world.

I recall a story Texas columnist and commentator Molly Ivins used to tell:

I love that story because I’ve been there.  Not in a chicken house, but one time at my grandparents’ farm when I was 7 or 8, a garter snake startled me so badly that I stumbled backwards into a drainage ditch.  But there is something more important than ending up “scared so bad we hurt ourselves.”  There are people other than ourselves to be concerned about.  Notice how most political ads focus on our personal fears—what might hurt me or my family, what might threaten me directly, my life, my home, my security, my bank account, my investments, my job.  That’s what makes the ads so politically effective.  Fear is personal.  It’s all about me.  But, in the terms of the Proverbs passage we heard this morning, what about those who cannot “speak out for themselves”?  What about the “rights of the destitute,” of “the poor and needy”?  The danger in stirring up fear for political ends is that we may end up scared so bad that we hurt others.

The difference here is between fear and love.  Fear is mostly about what might happen to me and to those especially close to me.  Whereas love is about concern for what might happen to others.  Sometimes those others are the poor and destitute, the powerless, people out of the mainstream, people who have little or no voice even in our democracy.  Sometimes they are people living in another country… or who’ve come from another country.  Or people of some religion other than our own.  And when the lies cross the line into hate speech (and you don’t have to dig too deep on the internet to find examples that are too raw to repeat here), fear manifests itself in prejudice and all of those “–isms”—racism, sexism, class-ism, ageism, heterosexism—that bedevil our world and dehumanize people.

As Christians we are called to speak and live the truth that sets everyone free.  We are called to love—to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and also to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Neighbors means everyone—especially in a world where every action has global consequences.  The author of 1 John says we can do this because (and only because) God first loved us.  This love, God’s love, works in us (if we let it) to drive out our fears.  And if we hate our brothers and sisters anywhere in the world while claiming to love God, we are liars according to 1 John.  So what should we do in the midst of this political season—given that another power failure is not likely to shut down our computers and TV sets for the next month?  I don’t have a guaranteed solution.  Only “perfect love casts out fear,” and no one is perfect.  Certainly not me.  But I do have some suggestions, fairly common-sense things, for how to deal with all those political ads critically (short of yelling at the TV set—my usual response—throwing you shoe at it or becoming a hermit). 

First, be especially wary of ads using pejorative labels and name-calling when referring to the opponent.  There are all too many of these.  They depend upon eliciting a prejudgment—that is to say, a prejudice.  They’re the more-or-less polite version of hate speech.  And they can convey a lie in the blink of an eye.  (And research shows that any effort to combat the lie can actually spread it and increase the number of people who believe it.)  No label, no name, can ever convey anything close to the whole truth.  Watch for this in your own party, whichever it may be, not just in the “other guy.”  Regardless of political side, pejorative labels and names are invariably meant to stir up fears and rally the partisan faithful.  Similarly be wary of any attempt at guilt by association, connecting the candidate’s opponent to a particular group or person.  “Those blankety-blank… you fill in the blank… they’re all alike.”  “Oh, he’s just the same as…”  “Watch out for… candidate’s name… and his… pejorative label here… friends in… again, fill in the blank (Congress?  Lobbyists?  The oil business?  The banking industry?).”  Such statements are warning flags.

Now there’s likely to be significantly more truth involved when a candidate’s ad gives a positive presentation of his or her record and plans.  Yes, they may be “gilding the lily,” but such ads don’t usually depend upon stirring up people’s fears.  Unfortunately they’re far too rare.  So watch out whenever ads present the opponent’s record or plans.  Does the ad play on people’s fears?  (“We can’t afford my opponent’s risky plans.”)  Look for facts rather than interpretations, quotations or video clips of the opponent’s actual words, not vague summaries.  Does the ad cite official records, a news report, or an editorial opinion?  Political ads never present the opponent in the best light.  After all, his or her photo is likely to be in black and white, poorly lit, fuzzy, and looking a bit like a police mug shot.  But statements about the opponent should not “bear false witness.”  (Isn’t there a commandment somewhere about that?)

Again, I urge you to be equally critical assessing the ads of both sides.  Don't just focus on "the other guy."  Watch for some of the warning signs I’ve noted.  Check out “Campaign Ad Watch.”  Do some research using multiple sources, not just the “usual suspects.”  Go beyond special interest groups.  Maybe even see what newspapers from other countries are saying.  Especially truth check any of those e-mail forwards we all get, and be wary of sending them on yourself.  No one is free of bias—not me, not you, not anybody.  WeBelieve Ohio here in Columbus has been working hard for over a year on a Sleaze-Free Campaign, trying to get candidates to agree to refrain from attack ads.  Obviously such ads are still flooding the media.  But you can do your part by not spreading lies and fear and hate yourself.  There are plenty enough “ol’ chicken snakes” in the chicken coop already.

This election is important.  Voting is a vital part of our freedom.  But only knowing the truth can really make us free.  Lies—even those “on the side of the angels”—can never contribute to freedom.  Lies lead to division and to fear and hate.  As we all consider our choices in this election season, let us do so in love—love of God and love of all our brothers and sisters everywhere in the world.  For all love is from God, and God’s love drives out fear and hate.

Thanks be to God.  Amen and amen.