Rev. Don Campbell

Setting the Record Straight

“Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight” (Proverbs 18:17, TLB). I, like many others, have been guilty of hitting the “Forward” button on plausible-sounding emails, or the “Share” button on Facebook, sending them speeding around the world, and polluting the truth.

We not only have a responsibility to speak the truth, but we also have a responsibility to hear both sides of the story before “spreading the word,” as many such messages urge us to do. Whether deliberately participating in a smear campaign against anyone or just being intellectually lazy, spreading unsubstantiated stories should be beneath Christians, for Paul wrote, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25, ESV).