"What Is Truth?"

Introduction

In last week's newsletter I mentioned that something had occurred in regard to the advertising/evangelization campaign - for internet, newspaper, radio, and television - that I have started in the Diocese of Birmingham that absolutely blew my mind. I thought you might be interested in it, so I'm going to take a break from the series on Mary to share it with you.

This is what happened: Over the last several weeks, I have been working with a team of three people from the Alabama Media Group - owners of AL.com (one of, if not the, most frequented websites by people living in Alabama), the Birmingham News, the Mobile Press-Register, the Huntsville Times, and a few other media concerns. We've been putting together a campaign for electronic and print media. The electronic campaign - consisting of banner ads, sponsored content ads, and targeted email blasts - are being built around the full page color print ads which will be appearing in the Birmingham News and Huntsville Times (the two major papers in the Diocese of Birmingham) one Sunday a month for 12 months, beginning this Sunday (the big College Football edition)

The first ad is going to be about moral relativism. About how a person's "feelings" don't decide what truth is. And about how objective moral standards emanate from God, and, without God, essentially anything goes. We have already run 3 weeks of online ads that directed people back to my website - specifically to an article on the website titled, "Was Hitler Right?" Which, as most of you know, is an apologetics aimed at atheism and moral relativism. They, the folks at Alabama Media Group, even developed a "sponsored content" ad that included a bit about Hitler and could he not claim to be right in killing millions of people if there is no God.

So, two weeks ago from today, I submitted the ad (which you will see below) which I wanted to run in the Birmingham and Huntsville newspapers. The team and I had talked about this ad in meetings and I had floated my specific ideas for the ad, with no negative feedback whatsoever. So, last Friday, which was the day they had to submit the ad to their printer in order to have it ready for this weekend, they send me the ad as they had laid it out. Guess what? They edited out "negative" parts of the ad. I was censored by the big brother - the media. When I objected and said that I did not approve of the ad as is, that I wanted what they had removed back in, they waited until 3 o'clock that afternoon (very close to the deadline for submission) to call me to talk to me about it.

In our conversation, which included the local advertising manager (one of the three on the team I mentioned earlier) and the regional advertising manager, it was explained to me that, because of what had happened in Charlottesville the previous weekend, mentioning the name "Hitler" could cause people to have negative reactions and that someone might want to bomb my house. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I told them I would take the chance. But, they repeated, they didn't want people to have negative reactions to my ad. I told them I was already counting on negative, as well as positive, reactions from people. And that both kinds of reactions would hopefully get people talking about the ad on the various local radio talk shows and such, which would boost the effectiveness of the ad, which is what I was counting on.

They just kept saying things along the lines of, "Well, we just can't mention Hitler." I told them that I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You're the media! People mention Hitler in your newspapers all the time! You guys cause negative reactions with all sorts of things you say. It's your job to stir things up, to make people think, to make them a bit uncomfortable." "But we don't want people to have negative reactions to your ad." "But I don't care! Besides, your people have known for weeks that this was coming. And I turned the ad in a week ago. Why are you waiting until the last minute possible to hit me with this?!" "Well, Hitler...blah, blah, blah." So, I asked them: "So, mentioning Hitler is what you object to, right?" "Yes." "So, we can put back in the mention of Kaitlyn/Bruce Jenner then?" Absolute silence. "Welllll...no." "Ohhhh, I see what this is about..." I'm disrespecting the gods of the powers-that-be in the secular media. They just can't have that.

Well, I let them go ahead with the ad, as they had laid it out, but they had to give me several thousand dollars worth of free advertising in return. I went ahead with it because the main thrust of the ad campaign over the next several months is not aimed at atheists and moral relativists, but at Christians, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, as you will see at the bottom of the ad.

So, I present to you the ad as I originally submitted it. I will put triple asterisks (***) around the parts censored by the all-powerful media that is afraid of people who ask questions about their idols.

Oh, one other thing, I want to state unequivocally that the three folks on the team I have been working with these last few weeks, had, in my opinion, absolutely nothing to do with this. This was undoubtedly a ruling that came down from on high...

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[Advertisement for the Birmingham News/Huntsville Times - August 27, 2017]

“What Is Truth?”
Pontius Pilate, 33 A.D. (John 18:38)

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Pontius Pilate asked that question in response to Jesus saying He had come to “bear witness to the truth.” People in our country, in our society, are still asking that same question today: “What is truth?”

In fact, people have been asking that same question for the last 2000 years. There is, of course, absolutely no problem with asking the question. Rather, the problem is that too few people today care enough about the answer to even bother asking the question, much less make the effort to find the answer. Not enough people are seeking the truth, the whole truth. Either they don’t care about truth, or they deny that there is such a thing as truth, or they just flat out hate the truth.

[Censored] ***{Quote/Box: “There is no such thing as truth, either in the moral or in the scientific sense.” Adolf Hitler}***

{Quote/Box: “People hate the truth for the sake of whatever it is they love more than the truth. They love truth when it shines warmly on them, and hate it when it rebukes them.” St. Augustine}

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This is especially true when it comes to moral and religious truth. Moral absolutes are denied and rejected. Morality is said to be purely subjective and entirely dependent upon what any given individual “feels” is right or wrong. The Ten Commandments no longer hold sway as objective moral standards, they have been replaced by one’s purely subjective feelings.

[Censored] ***{Box/Headline: If Kaitlyn (Bruce) Jenner “feels” that “she” is really a woman, does that make it true?}***

[Censored] ***{Consider: If Kaitlyn (Bruce) Jenner were to commit a crime, and suffered a cut during the commission of that crime, when the crime lab analyzed the blood found at the crime scene, will they determine that the suspect they are looking for is a man, or a woman?}***

[Censored] ***{Box/Headline: If there are no moral absolutes, then was Hitler right?}***
[Censored] ***{In other words, if morality depends on one’s feelings, or on what a particular group of people arbitrarily decides morality should be, then how can you say Hitler was wrong, when he did what his “feelings” told him was the right thing to do?}***

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And the religious beliefs of many are now no longer based on ancient truths and teachings, rather they are bound only by each individual’s imagination and, within Christianity, man-made traditions and each person’s private interpretation of the Bible . A new interpretation - a new belief. A new belief - quite possibly even a whole new denomination. Who’s right...who’s wrong? What is the truth? Who decides?

In the coming months, we’ll be looking at religious truth within Christianity by touching on some of the following topics:

Did Jesus start a church? Is Purgatory in the Bible?

Where did the Bible come from? Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?

Who is going to be left behind? Salvation...by faith alone?

Sola Scriptura (the Bible alone)...it is biblical? Can any man claim to be infallible?

Stay tuned...

{For the truth about the Catholic Church: www.biblechristiansociety.com; info@biblechristiansociety.com}

Closing Comments

All I did was use a well known quote from Hitler about truth, and then two examples - one about moral relativism and one about a person's feelings vis-a-vis the truth. And, I just asked a couple of questions...didn't even answer them. But we can't do anything that might make someone think, now can we?

If you are in the Diocese of Birmingham, then please get a copy of the Birmingham News or Huntsville Times this Sunday and check out the ad. Also, if you are a fan of any local radio talk shows, call them and let them know about the ad and about how it was censored by the media. I'm also available to talk on these shows if they want to follow up on it.

And, if you would like to donate to the advertising/evangelization campaign, see below!

Donations

The Bible Christian Society is a non-profit organization that relies solely on your support to bring the truths of the Catholic Faith to tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S. and all around the world each year. If you would like to help us do what we do, you can donate online at: http://www.biblechristiansociety.com/donations, or send a check to: Bible Christian Society, PO Box 424, Pleasant Grove, AL 35127. Anything you can do is greatly appreciated!

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