Truth. What is it? Where has it gone? How can we find it?
I realize more and more these days how blessed I was to come of age in the 1950s and 60s. My days, weeks, years had a predictable flow to them. School from Labor Day to Memorial Day, Monday through Friday. Playtime on Saturdays, after school, and all during the summer. Church on Wednesday nights, Sunday mornings, and Sunday nights. Visits with grandparents on Sunday afternoons. Piano lessons on Thursdays. Supper prepared by my mom and eaten around the table every night when my dad came home from work.
We didn't have a television until I was about 6 years old, and color television was a wondrous addition years later. We could only get a couple of channels -- usually NBC and CBS -- so we depended on Chet Huntley and David Brinkley for our news when we watched NBC and Walter Cronkite on CBS. The Huntley-Brinkley Report was a staple from 1956-1970, and Walter Cronkite was the news anchor from 1962-1981.
Walter Cronkite broke into my mother's favorite soap opera, As the World Turns, on November 22, 1963, to tell the world of John F. Kennedy's assassination. See the clip here.
And he was the one the whole country watched during the moon landing on July 20, 1969. Watch that clip here.
We believed what Huntley, Brinkley, and Cronkite told us. Cronkite was called "the most trusted man in America," and when he closed his broadcast each night with "and that's the way it is," we wholeheartedly and without reservation believed that that indeed was the way it was.
In reading about Cronkite in this story, I was reassured to find these words:
Walter Cronkite’s iconic sign-off – “and that’s the way it is” – was taken at face value by the nation. If Cronkite reported it – that’s really the way it was. Walter’s influence, trust and journalistic accomplishments – he won virtually every award the industry offered – set the standard for journalism for the nation and the world. . . .
Walter Cronkite, often referred to as Uncle Walter, delivered hard news to a nation for two decades. He wasn’t the most educated or the best-looking newsman, but he was perhaps the most diligent. Cronkite was committed to delivering accurate news, refusing to report stories until they were validated and vetted. Cronkite, the main influence at CBS News, chose to err on the side of valid news rather than being first to break a story. . . .
In Cronkite’s own words – “In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.” That approach is a rare quality in today’s journalism circles – in our society for that matter.
I'm left shaking my head. Where is that today? It doesn't matter whether you watch CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN or get your news on Facebook or Twitter, the truth -- the factual, unbiased truth -- seems impossible to find. A "person of faith" is considered to be a rarity and almost suspected of sinister motives. It troubles me deeply that my grandchildren are coming of age in the midst of this environment
I praise God that all of them live in homes where the Bible is taught and church attendance is a habit. That is where -- and ONLY where -- they will hear and know The Truth. My prayers are focused in that direction, asking God to give wisdom, courage, and discernment to their parents as they lead them and apply biblical principles.
Psalm 33:4 -- "For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does."
John 14:6 -- "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life . . ."
Psalm 119:160 -- "The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever."
Psalm 25:5 -- Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long."
As we navigate these turbulent times, join me in looking inside God's Word for truth. Then we will "know the truth and the truth will set us free." (John 8:32)