An Appeal to Truth

WARNING: This post is going to be quite a bit different from the type of things I usually post.

Late last night after finishing a Bible study, I received the following text from my aunt:

Hey David I saw this and all info wrong FYI

Attached to the message was a screenshot to this article from the Daily News, posted on May 11, 2020, the Monday following my father’s death (which occurred on Friday), presumably after his body was released from the Galveston County Medical Examiner. The article reads as follows:

Based on the information presented in the article, you would think that my dad was a reckless bicycle rider whose vain attempt at seeking the attention of social media followers led to a tragic accident that led to his death, all whilst his son was gallivanting elsewhere in the woods doing who-knows-what, entirely oblivious to the tragic end his father had met. His accident is presented as one flowing forth from negligence and folly, and it is entirely misinformed.

The Real Story

If you want the real story—tough as it may be to recount—this is it:

My father is one of the most cautious people I know. In fact, it was his and my shared cautiousness that left us walking the majority of the trails we encountered at the park that day. Neither of us are huge fans of taking risks, so we erred on the side of caution and walked in the places where we thought we would be prone to wrecking. When my dad attempted the ramp that caused his accident, he was not being negligent or foolish: He had no idea that what did happen was even a possibility in his mind. In my typical over-cautiousness, I opted not to do the ramp, but he, despite being a very cautious person, decided to do it nonetheless, even though I encouraged him not to. He wouldn’t have done the ramp had he thought there was any danger involved. My dad was the biggest hypochondriac the world has ever known; if he ever thought anything bad could have happened, he wouldn’t have attempted the ramp. He attempted it simply because he was having fun.

I was the one recording him; he was not recording himself. But according to the article, I was not even present when my dad wrecked his bike. Oh, how I beg to differ. I still have the three-second video on my phone, the three-second video that replays in my mind every time I close my eyes. It was just past 4:00pm when my dad attempted the ramp, and the video cuts just as he begins falling off it, because it is at that moment that I cast the phone from my hands and ran to his aid.

My dad was not recklessly filming himself riding his bike while his son was off riding elsewhere, and he did not die alone. I was with him the entire time we rode our bikes, and I was there until his final moments. I saw him ride up the ramp; I saw him fight to maintain his balance; I saw him flip; I saw him land on his head; I held him in my arms in his final moments; I called 9-1-1 and cried for help; I waited twenty minutes alone in the woods with my deceased father cradled in my arms; I hugged a tree and wept as I watched the paramedics try to do what only the Holy Spirit can; I knelt on a ground of branches and twigs as paramedics and officers had me recount the events and give information.

He was NOT videoing or livestreaming himself, nor was he reckless.

I WAS with him.

My Request: Now Let’s Be Honest

As I said, this post is atypical of the things I typically would post. Typically I prefer to post meditative reflections on the Scriptures or things that, in general, are intended to point people towards the truth found in the gospel of Christ, but the name of this website is “Now Let’s Be Honest,” after all, so I think an appeal to truth is almost obligatory.

Just moments before I received the article from my aunt, I was leading a Bible study through Ephesians 4, wherein we discussed verse 25, which says, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Speaking the truth is something that is essential to Christianity; truth is the very thing upon which this entire website is founded. Only a few verses above, Paul commissions the Ephesians to speak the truth in love, by which we are “to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (v.15). By speaking the truth, we become more Christlike, for He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn 14:6), and by living according to the truth found in Him we align ourselves more truly to the freedom provided through Him, for He Himself testified that “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31-32).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I recognize that not everybody is a Christian and therefore much of what I have so far said will mean very little to many. I do not know whether the reporter is a Christian or not, and so I cannot personally judge him based upon the same standard to which I must hold myself, for I do not know whether he serves the same Master as I do. Despite this, however, I know he is a reporter, and unless I am mistaken, reporters are supposed to report what they have received; a good reporter will accurately report what they have accurately received from a good source. Paul himself followed this criteria—“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received” (1 Cor 15:3)—and expected his pupil, Timothy, to do the same: “[W]hat you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2). If two ministers from 2,000 years ago held themselves to so high a standard of accuracy, you would think that reporters in our current day and age (who can access information much more easily) would be willing to put in the work, given the fact that that is their job.

A Word of Caution

Now, before you start contacting the reporter and biting off his head for inaccurate information, I want to stop you: Take a breath, set aside your emotions, and just relax. I have no personal vendetta against Mr. Ferguson, nor do I wish him any ill will. Since he has publicly placed his name on the article that is public for all to see, I have no issue sharing his name in this article of my own, but I want to be absolutely clear that I have nothing against him, and I don’t think you should either. Perhaps Mr. Ferguson received his information from a faulty source. Should he have done better research before reporting? Sure, but none of us are perfect. Perhaps he received accurate information and changed it up to make things more dramatic. Even then, I hold nothing against him: There are many different reasons that could have compelled him to fudge the truth, and while I would argue that none of them are valid excuses, I will remind you once again that none of us are perfect, and therefore I cannot be mad at him without also being mad at myself for likewise excusing my own sin. Plus, is it any surprise at this point that the media would provide us with inaccurate information?

As sad as it is, this is the world we live in. It is a world plagued by sin, and we are all sinners, each and every one of us. I have no bitterness against Mr. Ferguson, for to do so would be to heap condemnation upon myself; given all for which I have been forgiven, shall I not likewise forgive this man? I do not seek to slander his name, nor ruin his reputation; it is not him, but his actions, that I despise. To hold something against him would be to make me a hypocrite, for I just taught my college group to “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31-32).

So What’s the Issue?

No, I have no bitterness against the reporter. My issues, dear friends, is with dishonesty. Whether it be from the reporter or from his source, dishonesty has here occurred, and that dishonesty in this instance has the personal effect of turning my dad from a loving and careful father out for a joyous bike ride with his son to a reckless and foolish egotist who died alone in the middle of the woods. This is an article that few people will read and few people will care about, but it points to a greater issue: We have lost the value of truth.

I love the sinner, but oh how greatly I despise the sin. We, as Christians, are to be people of truth, and so dishonesty is something for which I cannot stand. My motivation for writing this post is because there is a genuine problem here, a genuine problem that affects Christian and non-Christian alike. It is true that, as Christians, we must hold ourselves to the standard presented us in the Bible—not in order to be saved, but because we are saved and recognize the worth of God and living for His glory—but to even those who are not of the faith, shouldn’t truth still be important?

My friends, my issue is not with the reporter, nor even is it with his source. My issue is with deceit, because deceit, along with pride, lies at the root of all sin. To any and every person who is reading this article—be it one person or a million people—I ask you to recognize your own sinfulness and kneel before the Creator of heaven and earth, before the nail-pierced Savior who gave His life for you and me, and to recognize that Truth is found in Him alone. Until we submit ourselves to Him, we shall never be free of the lies that plague us, and lies will continue to dominate this world until all are subjected to Him.

Is there an issue with this article? Yes, but it goes deeper than that.

Is there an issue with the media? Yes, but it goes deeper than that.

The true issue, my dear friends, is sin. It is sin which leads us into deceit, and it is deceit that keeps us shackled under the bondage of our sin. As humans, our desire should be for truth, yet as sinners, we are incapable of attaining that truth for ourselves. The only way, my dear friends, of attaining truth is by finding life in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph 4:14). Once we have grown in Him, at last we can be people of truth, and oh how we can rejoice in that truth.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 Jn 1:8-9) We must not only acknowledge the sinfulness and the lies in others, but in ourselves as well, and we must be willing to call ourselves out on that deceit and be conformed to the truth.

Conclusion

Mr. Ferguson, if you were to somehow read this, I want you to know that I am not pointing my finger at you; I am reaching out my hand. This article frustrates me, but it is something for which I can easily forgive and have already forgiven; there is a much deeper issue that plagues the entire human race, and I want you to know that we can freed from that issue through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you are a Christian already; my point remains nonetheless: repent and believe, for those who do shall be daily conformed more and more unto Him. I do not know what motivated you to lie, but I know the perfect motivation towards truth, and that is Jesus Christ.

You might wonder why I am so passionate about this. My dear friends, I appeal to truth this day because I am a willing slave to the God of truth, and as a slave to Him who is the Author of all truth, I despise all which promotes lies, for lies are nothing but schemes from the devil meant to point us away from Him who is true. The deceiver is not my greatest problem, but deceit itself. The liar is not my greatest problem, but the lie itself. The sinner is not my greatest problem, but the sin itself. For I believe that there is a God who can take deceivers, liars, and sinners and take away their deceits, their lies, and their sins, and make them all unified in Him: saints, servants, sons. He has offered us His gracious hand; all we must do is take it, in repentance and in faith. “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” (Eph 4:28). Let the deceiver no longer lie, but rather let him speak the truth in love, doing honest work with his own hands, that he may have truth to share with anyone in need.

In the past, we were liars and schemers and plotters, deceitful to the bone and always working for our own personal gain, twisting the truth because we were sinners handed over to our sin. But that was then, and this is now. Now, things have changed.

Then, we sought only our advancement. Now, let’s seek only His glory.

Then, we were committed to falsehood. Now, let’s be committed to truth.

Then, we were liars. NOW, LET’S BE HONEST.