I’m afraid I have an irritating habit. Honestly, I have several, as I’m sure some of you know (and most of the rest of you will soon), but in particular I have an irritating social media habit. I correct people on Facebook.

I know, I know. Nobody posts to social media with the hope of having some know it all comment with a link proclaiming “Snopes rates this as false.” But yeah. I am that guy.

And it gets me into trouble. I have been accused of being a shill for political candidates I abhor, a party pooper in various ways, and a cold fish with no sense of poetry or appreciation of beauty. All because I dare to suggest that things stated as fact ought to be true, and that our criticisms about, for example, candidates for office, ought to be based in fact, whether or not the facts conveniently support our personal opinions. “Well, I wouldn’t put it past this person” isn’t good enough.

There’s a practical reason for my passion for truth, especially when it comes to politics. I honestly believe our country is in deep danger from nihilists whose path to power depends on the perception that everybody lies, everybody exaggerates, and that it’s all “fake news,” so you might as well make up the facts to suit yourself. That’s a dangerous way of viewing the world, and its consequences are devastating. People have died because of that kind of misinformation – especially when it comes to things like vaccines or climate science, or attacks on people of a particular race or identity. This week Haitian immigrants and Haitian Americans all over the country – especially in Springfield, Ohio – are suffering under threat of violence because of these kinds of lies.

It also tears at the fabric of society itself. When people on every side have their own set of so called “facts” which they select or fabricate to support their case, science, reason, and debate become meaningless. When we abandon the truth, we create division and the nihilists win. When we accept lies, half truths, and lies by omission as argument, we destroy what is most important and precious to who we are.

The philosopher Hannah Arrendt warned about this. “If everybody always lies to you,” she said, “the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer…. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”

Part of what frightens me so much about misinformation is that I see at least some of it coming from people on every side of the issues, left, right, and left and right field. It’s not limited to the internet, but it’s especially insidious online, because it’s so easy to cherry pick a quote or a video clip, and then manipulate it into something entirely divorced from its original meaning and context. And today, it’s easier and easier to make something up entirely, fabricate the evidence, and then share it with a dozen, a thousand, or a million people who assume it’s true and pass it on.

My rule of thumb – and I know you know this, but we all forget sometimes – is that just because somebody speaks with great authority doesn’t mean they’re telling the truth or that they know what they’re talking about. Just because a statement includes facts doesn’t mean it’s actually true. Words can be edited or taken out of context; important information could be missing. And when something confirms our biases in a way that seems especially outrageous, it is incumbent upon us to do some double checking before we repeat it. I think most of us know these things, but it’s just so easy to fall into the trap.

The thing is, I don’t think most of the people who share these kinds of things, whether on the internet or person to person, intend to be dishonest. The meme, or video, or article, or rumor, or whatever it is supports a view we hold dear, and it’s the view we care about, not the meme or the rumor.

Even so, when someone responds “I hear where you’re coming from, and I may even agree with you, but that particular thing isn’t true,” let’s just say that some will take it kindly and some less so. It’s not only that it’s hard to admit when we’re wrong – I think there’s a fear that a narrative in which we’ve become personally invested might collapse around us, and it’s just too much work to change course.

It happens everywhere, and Unitarian Universalism is not immune, especially when there is change or there are disagreements. I’ve seen rumors spread widely, seen people’s words twisted to mean something they never said, and I’ve had that happen to me. It hurts personally, but what hurts more is that it gets in the way of creating the kind of honest community we envision and can be at our best. Still, it will happen; it happens everywhere. We are, after all, very human. But being human, we also have the ability to choose a different way.

Misinformation doesn’t just crop up in politics or conflict – people like to repeat stories when they catch our fancy. A few weeks ago someone posted a story about how “Rock-a Bye Baby” came to be written, spinning a tale about the author who witnessed Muskogee Indians placing babies in the tops of trees and singing a Muskogee lullaby (which was included in the story), and it was beautiful, and adorable, and it didn’t take more than about two minutes for me to discover that it was completely made up, from top to bottom. So I did my annoying habit thing, and told the person “That’s not actually what happened. The Muskogee don’t do that, the author isn’t who this says it is, and those words you quote are actually Samoan, not Muskogee,” And then someone else said, “But it’s such a beautiful story, I’ll keep telling it.”

I had to wonder how a Muskogee person might feel about a story that presents them as adorable but childlike and frankly a little irresponsible. Most Native American people I know want to be represented in a way that is authentic. When a story or a culture doesn’t belong to me, I don’t get to make things up or repeat falsehoods. It’s not that I can’t share stories, poetry, songs, or scripture from other cultures and religions, but it’s like being a guest in someone else’s house – it is my responsibility to respect the history, context, and culture in which these stories were created.

The good news is that Unitarian Universalism also holds an antidote to misinformation. Our faith teaches a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, which is, has always been, and remains a core value. Our faith teaches that no search for truth can be responsible if it is based on falsehood. Our faith teaches that if we learn something we believe is based on false or incomplete information, we should consider changing our minds. Our faith teaches respect for cultures other than our own. Our faith teaches us to respect one another and to treat our differences with respect – that means being honest and it means being careful.

You see, the reason I keep correcting people on the internet is that my religion teaches me truth is too important to be neglected.

I want to be clear. This doesn’t mean there’s no place in life for the minor falsehoods. A restaurant meal has to be pretty awful before I will tell the truth when the waiter says, “How is everything?” And there is only one correct answer when someone asks, “How do you like my new haircut?” There is a time and place for things that are not strictly speaking true. And as someone steeped in a tradition of folksong and folktales, I also believe there’s a difference between an outright lie and a good story.

I have to believe that, because I am a parent. Yup. Reverend Humanist over here made sure that every year his kid got a good present from Santa Claus, and a visit from the Tooth Fairy each time he lost a tooth. That’s not to mention the things I said to get him to try new foods.

But then, one morning, he came out from his room holding a shiny coin retrieved from under his pillow, looked my wife in the eye, and said “Are you and Daddy the tooth fairy?” There was an awkward pause. She started to say, “Wellll,” but he interrupted. “Tell me the truth,“ he said, dead serious, looking straight into her eyes. And that was that, although he did let us know he’d still be glad to take the money.

And this has nothing to do with the story, but I just have to mention that when I jotted down some initial notes for the sermon, I used my phone’s voice dictate software, and it initially wrote “truth fairy.” Maybe we could all use a truth fairy.

There is a time and place for things that are not strictly speaking, factual, and there is also a time for the fullness of honesty. Part of growing, both as a child and as an adult, is learning which is which, and when that time has come. Remember those famous Biblical words, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” The literal translation of that last bit uses the word “enigma,” – I see the world through a mirror, like an enigma, like a puzzle, and then it says, “I will recognize” as I am “recognized.”

The truth begins, but does not end, with facts. Understanding this is also part of growing as a human being. Facts can tell us things about ourselves, but they cannot tell us who we are. Anyone who has been through any kind of serious self exploration knows this. LGBTQ folks know it – especially those who have had to turn to a world that says, “You are thus and such,” and tell them, “No. This is who I am. Nobody else gets to tell me who I am. The way my body looked when I was born doesn’t tell me who I am. I am me. And I am so proud to be myself.”

For then, I will recognize, as I am recognized.

Truth is more than a collection of facts; it is how we understand ourselves and the world based on our free and responsible search. Truth doesn’t mean there’s only one correct theology or religious belief. It doesn’t mean only one kind of religious language is acceptable. It doesn’t mean there’s only one way to express your values. And in the realm of religion, there can be more than one legitimate truth.

There isn’t more than one legitimate set of facts. The world is as it is. Science is real. Truth is what we do with it. You may look with wonder on the unfolding cosmos, and name it God. You may breathe deeply of spirit. Or you may simply express awe and wonder at the reality before us. Maybe God is love in your theology; maybe the Spirit of life animates your being. Perhaps you find divinity throughout nature and express your truth in the words and rituals of paganism, or you echo modern Humanists, or you express your truth in words entirely your own. You may find your truest teacher in Jesus, or the Buddha, or Moses, or Mohammed, or the community that surrounds you today, or you may find teachers in all of these and more.

We all live in the same reality, under the same set of facts, and we all search for and find our own truths.

It’s not the easiest way of life, I admit that. Sometimes people say Unitarian Universalism means you can believe anything you want, and it’s the farthest thing from that. Unitarian Universalism means believing what we honestly and responsibly find to be true, and it’s not always easy to figure that out. So here are some things that help me and might help you in this complicated and beautiful search for truth and meaning:

• Keep your mind open. If we lose the ability to learn new truth, or to change our minds, then we have lost something precious about ourselves.
• Keep your mind open, but not gaping. Double check facts, and especially beware of anything that reinforces your own beliefs, opinions or biases at the expense of somebody else.
• Watch out, too, for the temptation to begin with your conclusions and only pay attention to what seems to support them.
• Look for truth in stories, in wisdom teaching, in scriptures, understanding that story is not the same as history or fact. Look for the deeper truths the storyteller intended.
• Let go of your hang-ups about language. This is hard for Unitarian Universalists. We tend to get obsessed with the literal meaning of everything and miss the truth behind words. It’s okay if someone uses language that is not yours, whether they’re talking about human experience, society, or the sacred. They are speaking a precious truth in their own way. Listen for that precious truth.
• Accept your limitations. Nobody expects you to be an expert in everything. We all do the best we can. You don’t have to be Muslim to find meaning in the poetry of Rumi, or African American to sing a spiritual. At the same time, try to find out something of what that poem meant to the author, and what that spiritual has meant to the community that gave birth to it. Respect the people and the context.
• Be willing to change your mind. I know I said this before, but I can’t say it enough, or in enough ways. Truth comes to us again and again, and sometimes our old ways of seeing things don’t work anymore. Sometimes we discover we formed some pretty strong opinions based on what turned out not to be true. That’s hard, and sometimes painful. It can hurt our pride and our sense of what’s real, and when we’ve committed ourselves to a strong feeling, it’s not easy to change course – but if we care about truth we have to remain open to changing our views, no matter how strongly we have expressed them in the past.

And when you find truth that is nourishing, enjoy the experience. Let it teach you. Let it lead you to new insight and possibility. Let it grow within you as you grow with it.

We are Unitarian Universalists. Our search for truth is never complete, but always expanding as we grow in spirit, heart and mind. I hope you delight in that search. I hope you hold to what is real and open and honest, even if it means occasionally annoying someone on the internet. I hope you find holiness, and wisdom, and love and beauty. I hope you find yourself, and the holiness around you.

Together, we grow in spirit.

Now may the love of truth guide you,
the warmth of love hold you,
and the spirit of peace bless you,
this day and in the days to come.

– Jane Ellen Mauldin