Going Rogue for the Truth
By Dr. James Thrasher
Back in 1995, as a new director for a college office of career services, I attended the National Association of Colleges and Employers conference. One of the concurrent sessions was entitled “Going Rogue.” More and more students were formally accepting multiple internship and job offers. Unsuspecting companies were expecting their hired students to be people of their word. But no, these students would intentionally mislead, make their selection, and then with no communication, blow off the other companies. The conference attendees were frightened and angered by this trend. They were troubled about the implications of this ethical issue regarding corporate-university relationships.
During an open mic opportunity, I introduced myself and said, “Is it any wonder?” The ballroom attendees whipped their heads toward this unknown director from a small Pennsylvania college. I continued by saying, “Is this any surprise? Your professors are teaching this very thing in your classrooms. At most of your colleges and universities, there is no right and wrong—there is no objective absolute truth. Your students are just living out what you have taught them, which is do what you feel and define your own truth.”
There was an immediate rumble of voices reacting to my position on the issue. The audience was shocked. How dare this brazen newcomer share this blasphemy of their closely held, progressive, culturally fed educational ideology. Fire was coming out of eye sockets, and if looks could have killed, I was a goner.
This ingrained professorial ideology has stormed academic halls, has been commandeered by the educational elite, and is now almost universally held.
The present political administration has fully released and is utilizing this mounting tidal wave of “no objective absolute truth.” Surprised? You shouldn’t be; the waves have been building for years. We have experienced an exposé, through the policy changes and events of the last year, on what has been taught in colleges and universities for decades. This worldview has now come to full fruition and is on stark display. College professors have been eagerly preparing the “death to truth soldiers,” and they are now being called into full service as willing compatriots. Batten down the hatches, your life and the lives of your family will never be the same.
An article titled “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” authored by Edward Schlosser, perfectly captures our current situation. Redefining truth through the politics of personal testimony and identity, through critical race theory, and through cancel culture has unleashed a monster. Even the professors that have propagated the errant philosophy of “be your own truth” are now petrified of the practical realities. Students are turning on their mentors. Their students, based on classroom material, are formally charging them, claiming “grievous harm” at their own institutions. Their professorial campaign to radically change America is coming around to bite them in their own ivory towers. The monster is devouring its own.
The monster is no match for absolute truth. This truth reflects actuality and is tethered to reality. God is the source and author of truth. This truth is absolute, singular, objective, authoritative, and unchanging. Honesty and truth-telling are ultimately grounded in the character of God. The truth stands independent of feelings, preferences, emotions, biases, human knowledge, and wisdom or experience. A fundamental expectation and the glue which has kept a semblance of order and trust in our lives is people speaking the truth. When truth and honesty are removed from daily genuine interactions, there is turmoil, resulting in individual and societal chaos. All authentic communication and sincere respect for one another begins with truth-telling. Truth-telling is essential for a thriving society. All human experience depends on your yea being yea and your nay being nay.
Without trusting someone’s word, life, as we know it, ceases to exist.
Institutions, businesses, governments, organizations, families, and relationships cannot function without being able to take people at their word. Truth-telling is critical for a prosperous and properly functioning market system. I can guarantee you that the relationships I developed with Fortune 500 corporations and hundreds of other companies and firms required absolute honesty and truth-telling. The marketplace demands it. Trust and integrity cemented the very basis of our well-established relationships. It also assured our students’ outstanding job placement success. But the monster’s falsehoods, being advanced by the educational elites, are doing their students a grave disservice, resulting in the students’ self-defined absurd conceptions of reality being readily apparent and overtly rejected by employers.
The monster is on the loose, spreading un-truth and wreaking havoc. Only the truth can destroy the monster.
Dr. Jim Thrasher is the Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Student Recruitment and the coordinator of the Institute for Faith & Freedom's working group on calling.
