No freedom without truth and integrity

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
John 8:32

A couple of issues ago I wrote about seven principles for evaluating the trustworthiness of media reports. This month I want to talk about the relationship between trustworthiness and freedom.

Often, we act like freedom is the most fundamental of human rights, but actually, freedom cannot be obtained unless there is integrity. Quite simply, without truth and integrity, we can say goodbye to freedom.

The reaction to the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine on July 17 is a current illustration of this. I am writing this piece almost three weeks after the crash and at the time there is really only one thing we know for certain—we don’t yet know for certain what happened.

Except for God, those who shot the plane down, and maybe a few others with firsthand knowledge, none of the rest of us know exactly what happened, who did it, or whether it was an accident or intentional. There hasn’t yet been a full and fair investigation into the crash, although having said that we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that we will never know exactly what happened, who did it, or why they did it.

Yet this lack of facts and knowledge didn’t stop various Western politicians and news outlets from making definitive statements on the subject, just hours after the plane came down. Some of their statements, made in the absence of an investigation or anything like proof, assume the kind of omniscience I would want to leave to God alone. For example, within hours of the tragedy Hillary Clinton apparently knew it all, pointing the finger of blame at the president of the Russian Federation and saying that action was needed to “put Putin on notice that he has gone too far and we are not going to stand idly by.”

A few days later it was Secretary of State John Kerry’s turn at omniscience. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he said, “It is pretty clear that this was a system from Russia, transferred to separatists. We know with confidence that the Ukrainians did not have such a system anywhere near the vicinity at that point of time.” My italicizing of the words “We know” is both deliberate and ironic. This is the same John Kerry, who in a State Department speech on August 30, 2013, used the words “We know” no less than 35 times when claiming unequivocally that sarin nerve gas attacks on three Damascus suburbs had been carried out by the Syrian government. Subsequent information later emerged to show that this was not true, and that the attack had been perpetrated by those fighting the Assad government. To date, I’m not aware that Mr. Kerry has ever apologized.

The media was also quick to jump to conclusions about MH17. For example, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, The Sun, on the day after the tragedy said, “Putin’s Missile.” The following day, another of Britain’s biggest selling newspapers, The Daily Mail, ran the headline: “Putin’s killed my son.”

A few days later, however, some of the hysterical reaction was dampened, at least for a little while, after a presentation by the Russian defense ministry showed a lot of new and important evidence that seemed to call into question the narrative being peddled by Western politicians and media. The presentation itself really ought to have been shown in black and white, since it had a distinctly Soviet-era circa 1954 sort of feel to it. But in contrast to the hawkish screams coming from Western media and politicians, it calmly and rationally presented evidence to the watching world which raised serious questions that needed answering. To date, none of their questions seems to have been answered, including their calls for the release of images taken by a U.S. government satellite known to have been overhead at the time that the plane was allegedly shot down.

The effect of this new evidence clearly put the U.S. administration on its heels, and the very next day what can only be described as a damage limitation exercise was carried out. Members of the U.S. intelligence community briefed Associated Press reporters that they actually had no evidence whatsoever for direct Russian involvement in the crash. According to one widely reported source, “We don’t know a name, we don’t know a rank and we’re not even 100 percent sure of a nationality. There is not going to be a Perry Mason moment here.” So much for the certainty shown by Clinton, Kerry, and various newspapers a few days before!

Now what has all this got to do with truth and freedom? On one level, there is the basic issue of innocence until proven guilty, a concept without which no society can have freedom. What the Western media and politicians have done by apportioning blame without first ascertaining any of the enormously complex facts, is to ride roughshod over this fundamental concept, which has been a bedrock of all countries who have ever taken their Bibles seriously.

We are warned in the Bible against spreading false reports, which would include reports that are made before the facts are in, even if everyone else is doing it. For example, “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice” (Exodus 23:1-3).

Scripture also cautions us against jumping to conclusions before hearing all sides: “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17). All we do when we reach conclusions before the facts are all in is to show how far we have fallen away from Biblical ideas of justice, law and morality. A people that accepts what Clinton, Kerry, The Sun and The Daily Mail were doing as being normal and acceptable is a people that neither deserves freedom nor will they attain to it.

But there is also something in addition to the violation of the presumption of innocence. Many people in our era seem to believe that the mark of a free press is that it can say what it wants to say, when it wants to say it, and about whom it wants to say it. We pride ourselves on not being like North Korea, where the media are hostage to the state, and on the fact that our press is free and can print whatever it likes.

This is, however, a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of freedom. A free press is not free just because it is free from government interference. A free press is not one that has the right to make wild and unsubstantiated allegations, regardless of facts. A free press is not one that can apportion blame before an investigation or trial. This kind of thing is not a sign of press freedom; rather it is a sign of tyranny in the making.

The same is true of free speech in general. Many people seem to think that the mark of free speech is being able to say whatever we want to say, wherever we want to say it, and to whomever we want to say it to. Again, this is a fundamental misunderstanding and it actually leads to the opposite of freedom. If we spread falsehoods about others, it is not freedom that is created but rather the opposite, through mistrust. When we jump to conclusions about people before we have heard all the facts, it is not freedom that occurs, but rather suspicion. If we pronounce guilt before the investigation or trial, it is not freedom that happens, but rather injustice.

The fundamental principle that underpins freedom—whether freedom of the press or free speech in general—is integrity. Without integrity, there cannot be a free press or a free anything. Integrity demands that we wait for the facts. Integrity demands that we do not condemn people as guilty before we have all the evidence in place. Integrity demands that we do not publish the results of an investigation or trial before they have taken place. With their cavalier approach to the aftermath of the MH17 tragedy, many of the news organizations in the West have shown that they do not even understand the basic concept of integrity. Making wild and unsubstantiated claims is not the mark of a free press—it is the engine of tyranny.

Jesus set out the connection between truth and freedom in the Gospel of John, when He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). He is, of course, referring there to the ultimate Truth—Himself—and the ultimate freedom—freedom from sin, and adoption into God’s family. Yet like so many truths in God’s Word, the principle applies in all areas of life. Without truth, there is no freedom. Without integrity, we will find ourselves living under despots.

I hope and pray that the truth about MH17 will eventually come out. And if it is proved beyond reasonable doubt that it was a deliberate act, I hope that those who perpetrated it will be brought to justice. I also pray that Christians everywhere would resist the current disregard for integrity and truth that so seems to characterize our leaders and the media. We, of all people, should be at the forefront of promoting integrity and truth, without which our freedoms will die.

Rob Slane lives with his wife and five home-educated children in Salisbury, England. He is the author of The God Reality: A Critique of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, contributes to the Canadian magazine, Reformed Perspective, and blogs on cultural issues from a Biblical perspective atwww.theblogmire.com.