By Fr. Glenn Jones
Well, first of all … Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there! A blessed task and duty is fatherhood, as you are entrusted by God for the safekeeping and cultivation of those little images of Him … and of you and mom. “In His Image” in reference to God is in the spiritual being and the internal goodness within all persons … no matter how much it may be hidden. In your image, dads, by what you and mom imprint upon them—in physical likeness, yes, but ever so much more in values and wisdom.
When we consider wisdom, we understand that it requires truth and facts, else it is no wisdom at all. In the scientific community, there are few persons more disdained than someone who falsifies his data to fit his own presuppositions or desired conclusions—most likely for their own notoriety and profit. Such happens in religion a lot, too—“discoveries” of this or that secret knowledge, revelation, artefact or photo “capturing” some ghostly “angelic” image. Yours for only 10 bucks.
“Fake news” is a term lately popularized, but in many ways it seems to have become the coin of the social media realm in particular, and in some news media outlets as well. It’s such a shame, too, because to be disdaining of facts is to be disdaining of truth. Certainly we all have our own biases, but how can we form our ideas in accordance with truth if we discount relevant facts—whether by distortion or by selective omission? Nowadays we seem to need a fact-checker website in another tab when scanning the ‘net for information, and sometimes even fact-checkers for fact-checkers.
This is nothing new, of course; if one reads accounts from any age and place, you’ll likely find glaring examples of editorial license … just as researchers know that—regardless of good intention and effort—there is bias inherent in every project. But purposeful bias injurious to truth is, of course, particularly egregious, and the resulting work becomes little more than propaganda at that point. Propaganda by its very nature excludes or distorts facts for a particular agenda—agendas which will then necessarily depart from truth by their resultant departure from factual reality, and thus conclusions based on propaganda are inevitably erroneous.
For example, many often muse on how so many people in Germany were persuaded to support the obvious evils of Hitler’s ideas and regime, but such a following came about largely through manipulation—not objective presentation—of facts, in addition to appealing to the baser emotions of pride and prejudice in propaganda and oratory … until it was too late and the thereafter uncontrollable beast was loosed … to the deaths of so many millions of people.
Who among us has not made wrong decisions because we did not have all the necessary facts, but readily jumped to conclusions based on biases and presuppositions? In my current job I receive complaints, sometimes in the most excoriating language. I learned quickly not to take these at face value, for they almost inevitably omit facts essential to the whole story. You parents encounter the same refereeing your children’s internecine quarrels; little Bobby didn’t just pull little Betty’s curls for no reason, but she first took his toy, but somehow that little detail didn’t quite make it into her testimony.
Yes, dads … teach the kids to always seek truth, considering all relevant facts in forming opinions, regardless of popular opinion or trendiness. In this you set them on the path to real knowledge and wisdom, able to make good judgments as to what is true and what is not. This is one of the greatest contributions you make in their lives.
And, kids … as the Lord tells us, and as every society values: “Honor thy father and thy mother,” … especially on their days. And dads … await your children with joy as they come and kneel before you each Father’s Day, humbly beseeching: “O most gracious and honored sire, make known to us your will, that we may leap to accomplish your every bidding.”
Well, okay … maybe they don’t do that. But, since “repetition is the mother of learning”, again is offered these admonitions of scripture on another Father’s Day:
…the Lord honored the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who lays up treasure.
Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will be heard.
Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother;
he will serve his parents as his masters.
Honor your father by word and deed, that a blessing from him may come upon you.
For a father’s blessing strengthens the houses of the children…
For a man’s glory comes from honoring his father, and it is a disgrace for children not to respect their mother.
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives;
even if he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise him.
For kindness to a father will not be forgotten, and against your sins it will be credited to you;
in the day of your affliction it will be remembered in your favor; as frost in fair weather, your sins will melt away. (Sirach 3)
And dads … remember our adaptation of 1 Corinthians 13 in teaching the virtues of a father:
“[A father] is patient, [a father] is kind; [a father] is not jealous or boastful; [a father] is not arrogant or rude. [A father] does not insist on [his] own way; [a father] is not irritable or resentful; [he] does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. [A father] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [A father’s] faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is [a father’s] love.”
Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.