January 2025 President's Message - "Staying Faithful to Truth in Divisive Times"

It is important, as we start the new year with all the enthusiasm and energy that we have for 2025, that we also recognize we mustn’t gloat or in any way divide our nation any more than it has already been divided.

To that end, I will emphasize that there is a reason the word “Truth” is prominent in the name of our organization. When the seed was planted to start this wonderful organization, one of the overarching goals we had was to present only truthful information to the best of our collective abilities. We formed, at that time, a group of volunteers who were charged with seeking to confirm that anything we were going to send out to our membership was true and accurate. As a result, we found that we could not and would not send out information about many of the topics of current interest that were prevalent in the media and social media at the time that could not be verified.

Today, STN continues to be diligent in this effort in order to avoid the potential of spreading falsehoods, half-truths, or any type of misinformation or disinformation, as such unconfirmed information is referred to by many. Unfortunately, I see that some, on both sides of many issues, continue to do this with information that is not validated. This was recently evidenced to me once again through some of the editorials I have read. These editorial articles were not only seen in local media but have also been seen across the Commonwealth and across the nation.

I do read a lot, and I am careful not to respond to much of the rhetoric, labeling, and name-calling that has been flung at us over the years. However, recently the level of rhetoric appears to have ramped up, and the regurgitation of falsehoods and half-truths appears to be as common today as it was during our COVID experience. One example, which from a propaganda perspective was pretty easy to sniff out, was a comment I read regarding a statement made by President-elect Trump. The accusation was about him commenting that “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed good.” This snippet of a much longer dialogue was quoted without any context for the statement. Perhaps if a clearer understanding of the context of the statement and a more accurate depiction of the entire dialogue were given, the reader would have more clearly understood what was meant by his statement. I certainly can admit that dialogue, in general, from the President-elect is not always completely easy to follow, but in this case, I think that with perspective, the statement makes more sense.

You see, the former President was speaking at “The Believers Summit,” an event hosted by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action. The event was a gathering of faith-based evangelical Christian attendees. The points the President-elect was attempting to make were that a significant percentage of Christians do not vote. He wanted to motivate Christians to go out and vote in 2024 and to get their friends and relatives to do the same. He then noted that he would have the concerns that many have with our government, and our society cleaned up, and things righted in the country. His follow-up statement was that then they could all go back to what they had been doing previously, not voting. Here is his exact quote, according to PolitiFact:

“We have to win this election, the most important election ever. We want a landslide that’s too big to rig. If you want to save America, get your friends, get your family, get everyone you know, and vote. Vote early, vote absentee, vote on Election Day. I don’t care how, but you have to get out and vote. And again, Christians, get out and vote just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

I agree that it was a challenging way for him to say what he did. However, to mischaracterize, as was done initially with this misquote by Adam Schiff, is far from being truthful. His insinuation was that once the President was inaugurated, he would become a dictator, and there would be no more elections. Obviously, if you read the entire quote in context, you realize that was not what he was saying.

As we know, the “evil one” takes a small truth and wraps it in a big lie. Misrepresentation is certainly an underhanded method of swaying people, but unfortunately, many people do not search for the truth and allow themselves to be manipulated by such misrepresentations.

Another misconception that I have seen recently is a misrepresentation of what we are taught as faith-based Christians. This misrepresentation is that we are supposed to love everyone and take them into our confidence. I think we can all agree that our job as Christians is, in fact, to love our brothers and sisters. However, recently I saw a reference made to Matthew 5:44 in an opinion piece. The one biblical quote that was used in the article was that we as Christians should “love your enemies.” Once again, this was a snippet of biblical teaching being used to make a secular point. The point was that we should love the individual and overlook the actions of the individual. I certainly agree that we must love one another. As I just said, as Christians, we are taught to love the person. However, the difficult distinction for some to understand, who have not spent the time in the Word, is what Jesus actually demonstrated so perfectly. He showed us that we are to be salt and light to those living in the dark. We are called to demonstrate to the individual where the sin lies and support them in never doing it again. This is where the chasm exists in the point this person was making. I would refer us all, but particularly those who manipulate the Word, to review John 8:1–11, in which Jesus intercedes in an amazing way to neutralize the trap being set for Him by the Pharisees. In this example, Jesus is called to decide if a woman caught in the act of adultery is to be stoned as was dictated by the law at the time. His statement to the onlookers was: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.” With that, the crowd cleared, and Jesus stood her up and said to her: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said: “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said: “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on, sin no more.”

The piece that is missed by many who quote a piece of a passage, as was done here with the passage (Matthew 5:44) referenced in this editorial, is a partial truth. You see, this misrepresentation leads the uninformed reader to believe that we are called to love not only the person, which we should, but also to overlook the sin or act. In this way, you are led to miss Jesus’ point in this parable. You see, Jesus loved the woman, but not the act, and by saying that He did not condemn her, He was emphasizing His nonjudgmental love for the person. However, when He told her, “from now on sin no more,” He was saying that He despised the sin, and therefore He would not condemn her for it and expected that she would no longer partake of that sin.

My point to you with this long dialogue is to clarify what amounted to a handful of words intended to give a partial truth. You see, we must all be on guard for such manipulative techniques. Our job is not to be drawn into an embroiled argument with an individual espousing such a manipulative dialogue. This will only waste your valuable time and energy. No, speak the truth to such individuals or, better yet, demonstrate through your actions the Truth and the Light that we are called to exemplify and to spread to others.

I can honestly say that I love you all, and I love the individuals who perpetrate such falsehoods. However, I despise the act.

I ask you all to keep your antennae up and avoid unnecessary confrontation with individuals speaking such slanted and manipulative rhetoric. We have too much to do this year. I only ask that you use your time, talents, and energy to positively affect others through our joint efforts this year.

Thank you all! Have a Blessed and Safe New Year. We all know how much we have to celebrate. I wish you all a Healthy and Happy New Year!

Dr. Pfeiffer

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