A Truth Can Walk Naked…

“A truth can walk naked, But a lie always needs to be dressed.”
— Khalil Gibran

This month of June is almost over. It has been a month where non-objectors, or promotors, to that which Pride Celebration signifies, have been either doubling-down attempts to virtue signal they are not “hateful” people, or, to increase activist efforts to push the agenda and its accompanying lies.

I recently saw two social media posts in the past week that gave me pause.

First, it was a money-making meme that somehow appeared in my social media feed which stated a bold untruth with the twisted logic that all propaganda wields. The reason it got my attention was that years ago, a religious/motivational speaker I used to follow had a whole talk on joy not being a pie that could be divided. He called it something like the Joy Pie, basically, and the premise was that one cannot divide the infinite, and that joy comes from God and has an infinite quality to it. Meaning in practical terms, just because something good happens to someone else (especially when we are in the midst of sufferings) it does not mean that there is now “less” joy or good happenings available to us.

I still believe in that context, this is a wonderful truth. In the talk, he gave an example of an overworked person who can’t afford to take a vacation having their co-worker come back from a cruise and showing all the pictures of the fun they had. He challenged listeners to be able to “rejoice with those who rejoice” (rather than be envious or jealous). Basically, this is a biblical principle. Instead of saying sarcastically, “must be nice…” to instead say, joyfully, “Good for you! I am glad you had so much fun.”

So when I saw this meme/shirt for sale, I read what it said, taking note of the statement “It’s not pie.” And with that, I gained a sickening feeling that the speaker who said this years ago may have gleaned the idea from some other linguistic trend (that is agenda-driven, ideological) such as agendas that co-opt/weaponize language such as “hold space” or “check your privilege.”

I’m very concerned at the current usage of mantras and language that superficially sounds right, but fails basic principles of logic, or worse, is patently deceptive.

The second quote I noticed online was the above quotation by Khalil Gibran. I’ve read some of this poet’s thoughts before and found them (at least the ones I’ve read such as “On Children”) to be quite thoughtful reflections. I agree with the thought behind truth walking naked (nothing to hide) but lies always needing something sweet to dress them, so they go down our throats like delicious treats… This seems to have a loose reference to the fall of mankind told in Genesis, in the sense that when Adam and Eve were walking in the truth before God, they were naked and unashamed.

This connection is somewhat worthy of pause, as being naked and unashamed sits in contrast to being prideful of one’s nakedness (naked in the sense of our sins and errors being exposed).

Here, the lie that “equal rights” for others do not mean fewer rights for “you” is cleverly disguised with God’s beautiful rainbow colors and cleverly worked into a pie. For some people, that is enough to make them believe it is something beautiful, worthy of re-sharing.

The logic with the premise of this statement ignores that what is being promoted is in fact, like a single piece of pie. Like abortion, the rights of one “pie eater” are pitted against the rights of “another pie eater.” It is not some limitless ideology in which “everyone” can get their rights without affecting someone else.

I find it disturbing this has to be explained, or examples given.

If a pro-life advocate would state the same thing, the pro-abortionists would be all over them with vocal protest. Do those advocating this “pull the wool over your eyes” tee shirt truly not see the difference?

For example, with the abortion issue, one can’t have it both ways. In that dreadful pie, either the mother who does not want her child prevails in the child’s death, or, the child is given life into a world where a mother does not want the child to live. Both do not get their desire, meaning, the mother cannot abort AND the child be born full term and live a long and healthy life. The mother wins and the child dies, or, the child wins and the mother has to make decisions about adoption or welcoming this life into her life, as difficult as that may be.

If this is translated to LGBTQ rights, I cannot understand how many of the most prominent issues can be viewed as anything other than pitting the rights of one person against another.

When a biological male wants to compete in sports with biological females, that “right” supercedes and negates the right of a biological female to not compete against a man.
When a biological male wants equal rights to women’s bathrooms, the right of those who don’t want their daughters, wives or themselves to be forced to share a bathroom with a biological man is over-ridden.
When states decide that minors can get gender affirming care/hormones/surgeries against their parent’s will, that violate parental rights.

I could go on and on. And if you are not following what I’m saying here, or worse, dismissing the concerns of so many as insignificant, then I challenge you to truly research what is happening.

And, I invite you to listen to a good interview below that gives insight into how Penn State overrode the rights of those on the women’s swim team. The story this teammate shares is shocking in terms of uni-lateral decision-making and political forces behind a college’s decision-making. There are many lost rights of the biological women team-members I would not have otherwise considered in the Lia Thomas story, had I not heard the interview of how they were and are impacted.