Roger Matthews reflects on recent Themed Worship on “truth”:

Every fifth Sunday, Stratford Quakers hold a Themed Meeting for Worship. For a Themed Meeting for Worship, Friends are encouraged to read and think about a chosen theme ahead of the Meeting. Then during the Meeting Friends are invited to share readings or thoughts on the theme in ministry.

The theme chosen for Sunday 31 May was “truth”. Truth has been a basic testimony and value for Quakers from the beginning, and the first sentence of our current Advices & queries says “Take heed, dear Friends to the promptings of love of love and truth in your hearts”.

Truth – or its absence – is a major concern today. Of course, politicians have always sought to manoeuvre “the truth” to their own advantage. Facts can be open to interpretation – or so it is claimed. Statements may be made without evidence to support them – indeed, they may be made in contradiction to the known facts. And when challenged, the same statements are simply repeated again. It is said that a principle of Nazi propaganda in the 1930s was: “Never admit to telling a lie. If you keep repeating a lie, people will come to believe it.”

So trying to uphold the principle of truth in public discourse is a challenge for Quakers today. This is not just about checking what politicians are saying, asking for evidence and seeking the facts. It may also be about talking with family, friends and neighbours when they repeat something they have heard or read which we know to be untrue. And such challenges can be difficult. All those who ministered at the Meeting confessed to find “the truth” a complex subject in our everyday lives.

We all have our own view of the world, built up over many years, which frames how we see new facts and insights. This framework influences the things we notice, the weight we put on different sources of evidence, the ways we interpret information. In other words, we all have our biases. And we therefore need to be open to seeing things in new ways in order to be sure we are focused on the truth and not on reinforcing our existing biases. “Think it possible you may be mistaken” (Advices & queries, 17).

The seventeenth century English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote: ” ‘What is truth?’ said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.” We need to be constantly looking for an answer. And in doing so we must listen to the promptings of love and truth in our hearts.

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