Truth to tell

Diana Sandy considers the idea of truth

What is truth? How can we know? One of the early names that Friends who gathered together in the 1650s were known as was ‘Friends of the Truth’.

For the early Quakers, ‘Truth’ was the revelation of the Holy Spirit, the eternal, universal awareness that they experienced in their lives and worship as they sought answers and guidance.

When we are asked ‘How hath the Truth prospered amongst you?’ it is this Truth that is being sought in our answers.

When the early Friends refused to swear an oath it was because they knew that there was only this Truth and it could not be divided or expanded into the whole truth and nothing but the truth. (Friends were later able to gain recognition and allowed to affirm.)

So, what canst thou say? How does this Truth prosper in our individual lives and our Quaker communities? Friends nationally are currently being asked by Meeting for Sufferings, the representative body of Britain Yearly Meeting, to enter into a period of discernment relating to ‘a post-truth world’.

The concern relates to truth in the more secular sense and the world of politics, the media and local communities. Do our Quaker insights offer any guidance in this field? What canst thou – or we – say in this context that could be different from any other responsible group?

When considering the topic many other words and phrases mingle in: integrity, listening, simplicity, communication, honesty/dishonesty, the use and misuse of language; and, also, such things as motive, corruption, self-interest, ignorance (in both senses), misunderstanding, and deliberate misleading.

This is not an issue that lends itself to a central response at this stage. Friends need to come to clearness for themselves, within their local communities and families and within their Meetings, in order to fashion an appropriate response if and when required.

Getting to know each other in those things that are eternal is probably a secondary element after we have got to know ourselves in those things. As part of these processes we may have to get to know each other and ourselves in those things which are temporal.

If we can do that honestly we may be able to discern the eternal Truth of which we are the Friends.

And we may then have something to offer the world of untruth, fake news and open dishonesty.

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