Well, I took a shot at redeeming the concept of argument, now I am about to tackle truth. The English word truth gets us in a lot of trouble. Pilate famously asked Jesus, “What is truth?” and we have made hash of its meaning ever since. Is truth absolute fact, 100% pure, unadulterated reality? Is it objective? Subjective? Is there absolute truth? Is truth really, really, real? What is a half-truth? Are there truths? Can multiple things be true at the same time, even when they contradict?

Well, the Greeks had an answer (as if you didn’t guess this is where I was headed). The word we most commonly translate truth from the Bible and a whole library of Greek philosophers is αλήθεια (aletheia). You may recall that in Greek mythology there is a river in Hades named Lethe. The waters of the river Lethe caused those who drank from it complete and total forgetfulness. It wiped the memory clean and left the person wandering in oblivion. αλήθεια, a-lethe-ia, simply means “not forgetting.” Truth is what it is because of what was was what it was. Even before our modern concept of history was invented, the concept of learning from past events in order to improve, grow, develop, and strive for perfection was vitally important. αλήθεια as truth meant not only remembering the past, but drawing from the past meaning, importance, understanding, and ethical life lessons.

So, where does that leave us today in a country where we are being encouraged to forget and/or rewrite our past? If we deny the truth of indigenous slaughter, inhumane slavery, misogyny, the Holocaust, the advances of Civil Rights, the exploitation of minorities and the poor (just to name a few), where does that leave us? It leaves us far from the truth.

And what of the Christian church? We have popular preachers who do not know the Bible, who are ignorant of the best historical scholarship and theology, who do not bother with Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Coptic, or Aramaic, who rely solely on modern paraphrases of idiomatic English translations of suspiciously copied translations and versions of Latin from Greek from Aramic from Hebrew oral sources, who use their politics as their filter for interpretation. How far are we from truth?

To top it off, we take our misunderstanding of the meaning of truth as a cudgel to attack people who think differently, who speak differently, who believe differently, portraying opponents as ignorant enemies. We confuse truth with opinion and decide that if enough people believe even the most insidious, hateful, illogical, and wrong-headed lies then they must be true.

So, if αλήθεια is not forgetting, what is it we should not forget? Here are a few things that come to mind.

1. Let’s not forget that we are human and we make mistakes.
2. Let’s not forget where we came from, and honor where others come from.
3. Let’s not forget that we are not alone – there are billions of people we will never meet who have as much right to be here as we do.
4. Let’s not forget to be kind.
5. Let’s not forget the Golden Rule.
6. Let’s not forget to say we are sorry and to make amends.
7. Let’s not forget to forgive.
8. Let’s not forget to admit when we are/were wrong and do whatever we can to make it right.
9. Let’s not forget to laugh (at ourselves, not others)
10. Let’s not forget that mercy, justice, compassion, empathy, tolerance, and peacemaking are strengths, not weaknesses.
11. Let’s not forget to learn from our mistakes and commit to do and be better.
12. Let’s not forget that God is love, and αλήθεια is an important way to make that love real in the lives of those around us.