6 O Lord, your mercy reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
7 Your righteousness is like mighty mountains,
your judgements are as deep as the great deep.
Lord, you save both people and animals.
8 How precious is your love, O God!
In the shadow of your wings, the children of men seek refuge.
9 They feast on the abundance of your house,
you let them drink from the stream of your delight.
10 For with you is the fountain of life,
in your light we see light.
11 Let your mercy be upon those who know you,
your righteousness upon the upright in heart.
Psalm 36:6–11
The first thing you come across when looking up the press’s code of ethics is the following:
Freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom of the press are fundamental elements of a democracy. A free, independent and truth-seeking press is among the most important institutions in democratic societies.
You may be wondering why I am beginning today’s piece with such a statement, but given current events, I believe there is good reason to pause and reflect on the concept of truth.
For today’s press seems to believe that truth means something other than what our nation was built upon. They have replaced an objective truth with their own subjective truth, and would have us believe that they mean the same thing.
This Sunday’s readings – Psalm 36:6–11, Galatians 5:16–26 and Matthew 5:20–26 – all convey a message about God as the absolute.
Psalm 36 is a good place to start, as the psalmist declares:
‘With you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.’
In the rest of the psalm, God becomes the very measure of truth, justice and life. But if God is absolute, truth cannot ultimately be determined by humankind. Human beings can recognise the truth, accept it and live by it – but they do not create the truth.
Yet this is what we are experiencing today, as confirmed by social scientist Olav Elgvin’s commentary in yesterday’s *Klassekampen*. There, he points out that Hans Rustad and Document do not seem to be living up to what he and others had hoped for, namely that Document would tone down its stance after the newspaper was brought into the mainstream. The implication is that the traditional media houses have themselves created the ‘truth’ to which the rest of the public must bow. Or as was argued in today’s episode of the programme *Etikketaten* on P2, where one of the topics was whether there should be room for Christian-conservative teachers. The message was clear: schools must remain neutral. It does not take much imagination to understand how helpless the debaters became, with one expressing a desire for more moral education – but, of course, without Christianity.
Few claims provoke atheists and people of other faiths more than the assertion that Judaism and Christianity have something unique to tell us about human dignity, moral standards and absolute truths. Christianity’s revelation of God as the Creator who acted out of love and granted humankind free will, and who later became human in order to restore a broken relationship, was a revolution greater than it is possible to comprehend.
Once someone has grasped this truth, you cannot demand that they set it aside. It shapes all your thoughts and needs – indeed, your whole life. You see the world through new eyes. You have gained an insight into the Creator’s purpose, a purpose that is nothing but good. A God whom Jesus presented as our Father. A Father who, in the eyes of the Pharisees and the scribes, was provocatively good. But the moment you understand what the Trinity entails, what it meant when Jesus presented himself as the way, the truth and the life, this existential equation falls into place. You will realise that it is impossible to be neutral towards a God who says he loves us and who gave his life for us.
The moment the press demands that we remain neutral towards religions or ethical issues such as abortion, marriage and gender, they are in reality demanding that we no longer seek the truth, but to embrace relativism as a truth in itself. Yet any thoughtful person will realise that this is a contradiction.
It was Christianity that enabled us to abolish slavery and ensure that women were granted equal status with men. Without Christianity, this would not have been possible. This does not mean that we can demand that the people of Norway become Christians. But it is not radical or intolerant to assert that the freedom and human dignity we find only in the Judeo-Christian community are threatened by the demand for value neutrality.
I have yet to see the advocates of value neutrality and human rights manage to explain what they actually wish to defend, and how they intend to defend it. One moment they say yes to women’s rights, but the next they say yes to trans women and Islam, whilst claiming to defend human rights. But we must choose. Today, human rights are used to defend women, Islam and trans women alike, and this exposes the helplessness of both human rights and value neutrality.
Anyone who takes the call to seek the truth seriously will find Jesus Christ. But the media industry is determined to deny us this. I do not believe they are capable of understanding that, in doing so, they are also denying us a true democracy.
To put it mildly, these are strange times we live in.
