Deconstructing: “The New Christians”

In this dispatch, Audie continues his essay on Truth, questioning Tony Jones’ implication that beauty is a delivery mechanism for the truth.
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I left off on the last entry with the questions “Is the truth always beautiful?” and “Is beauty always truthful?”, especially in regards to Jones’ statement that “Beauty, you may say, is a delivery mechanism for truth”.

So, is the truth always beautiful?

Jones relates a story about Phyllis Tickle, who told of a time when in regards to the virgin birth someone told her that it had to be true because it was too beautiful to not be true. That’s an interesting take on it, and one that I do think has some merit to it.

But can we leave it at such a simple level? For example, what if someone doesn’t think that the story of the virgin Mary’s conception and birth of Jesus is a beautiful story? What if for some reason it’s a dreadful story to some people? What if others think of it as an obvious fairy tale and bit of mythological hogwash? What if others think of it as a fabrication of real events, that Mary wasn’t really a virgin but that such was added in order to make Jesus more appealing to certain groups?

What does this do to the story? Does the fact that those people do not see the beauty in the story make the story less true to them? How can you appeal to the truth of a biblical account based on its beauty when not all people see the beauty in it?

Or look at it from the perspective of Mary and Joseph. Where the events beautiful to them? Was being a unmarried pregnant woman a beautiful experience to Mary? Was marrying a woman pregnant with a child not his a beautiful experience for Joseph? And what about that journey to Bethlehem, when she’s pregnant to the point of giving birth, and he’s trying to find a place for them, but in the end she has to give birth in what was essentially a barn? Was that a beautiful experience for either of them, and especially for her?

And what about the fact that His birth led Herod to slaughter many children in that town? Can any of us say that was beautiful?

I agree that there is a beauty to the account of the virgin conception and birth, but I do not believe it because of that element of beauty, and I do not disbelieve it because of the elements of ugliness and even horror surrounding it. Moreover, I do not choose what elements of the story to believe or to discarded based on whether I think that part of the story to be beautiful or not.

No, I believe it because I believe the God of the Bible, that He will not lie, that all He says is true. I believe it because of the prophecies about it, and that nothing is too difficult for Him. I believe it because that’s what God says happened, and I believe Him far more then I believe man.

My belief, then, has little to do with any beauty in the story, but in my faith and trust in God. For me, beauty is good, but it is not a delivery mechanism for truth, because I do not think that beauty always delivers truth; rather, faith in God and His Word are the delivery mechanism, the only reliable delivery mechanism, for truth.

Is truth always beautiful?

I wonder if I haven’t already given a sort of answer to this question, but it’s probably best to be plain about it.

Think about the account of King David, when the prophet Nathan came to him and by means of story brought the king’s own sins into the open. The king’s life was spared, but the child of that adulterous affair died by God’s judgment.

Now, was the king’s sins beautiful? No, he was murderer and adulterer, there is no beauty in those things. Was the revealing beautiful? I would say Nathan’s method was more clever then anything else. Was the judgment beautiful? In my opinion, no. A child who was merely the fruit of his parent’s illicit actions has his life taken from him by divine act, in spite of his father’s pleas.

Is this account truth? Yes. This really happened. Is it beautiful? Really, I can’t see much of beauty in this event.

But I think this does show how truth can be true without being beautiful, at least as most people would see beauty. There is a verse that says “Beware that your sins should find you out”. That is what happened to David here. I cannot say that such a finding out is a beautiful thing, but it is a true thing.

Perhaps this is why emergents seem to want to shunt aside things like hell, because hell is not a beautiful thing. I agree, it’s not. But is it true? Is hell a reality, and are people going there? Such a reality cannot by done away with simply by stopping ones ears and pretending it’s not there.

~Audie