At the core of every issue is a Central Truth – the bottom line, the “thing” you’re trying to get done.

It’s that Central Truth that has to be prioritized in order to ensure you’re making the right decisions. And in order to make the right decisions, you’ve got to ask the right questions and you’re asking the right questions only when you’re engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of all the facts and not just a subjective manipulation of some of the facts.

You ask the right questions in order to…

…make the right decisions in order to…

…do the right thing, which is the Central Truth.

What is it that’s most important? What are you trying to accomplish? What is the Bottom Line?

What is the Central Truth?

By establishing what it is that you’re trying to get done, you’re able to better frame the questions which lead to the decisions that best facilitate what needs to be achieved.

It’s a simple way of organizing your thoughts and efforts that prevent the kind of scenario you see in Genesis 3 where Satan was able to get Adam and Eve to make a lethal compromise simply by asking a question that effectively diverted their attention away from what was most important.

Still…

Not everyone agrees on what the “bottom line” is, and some will even insist that absolutes in general are a ridiculous fiction.

It’s here where you encounter the true source of all the tension that permeates the headlines and the debates in our world today. Reason being is that the Central Truth doesn’t merely define what it is you’re trying to do, it’s a manifestation of the Reality you use to validate your approach to yourself and the world around you.

You can compile enough in the way of subject matter experts and polling data to legitimize almost anything. And while it’s tempting to believe that your rebuttal to some of the more outrageous assertions made by scientific sounding parties is sufficiently fortified with the appropriate amount of intellectual density, that faith is oftentimes revealed as a foolish confidence because of the way Truth is marginalized by so many as something that is defined more by one’s perspective than it is by a transcendent Absolute.

In other words, your platform is only as credible as the extent to which the Truth you’re defending is regarded as an appropriate premise.

This is why the way in which Truth is defined is so important. It’s here where discussions that should be civil become volatile because it’s not the strength of the logic that’s being questioned as much as it’s the authority of the individual that’s being challenged.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“You can’t judge me.”

“That’s your opinion.”

“Not everyone feels that way.”

“Not everyone believes the way you do.”

The Homosexual lifestyle, for example, is promoted as a behavior protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.¹ As long as the conversation is contained within a sphere that defines the behavior of the individual according to the legal consensus of a human collective, their logic is beyond reproach. This is part of the reason why those who staff the Supreme Court come under such scrutiny because of the way some have discarded the notion of what is “moral” so they can instead validate their conduct according to what is “legal.” Church steeples are replaced with pounding gavels and just like that, what was morally reprehensible is now a “right.”

Are you ready? We’re on the threshold of what represents the exciting conclusion to this series and I guarantee you, it’s the kind of bottom line you want to keep in your psychological back pocket as you attempt to push back on those cultural trends and legal initiatives that are promoted in the name of Constitutional Rights or Social Justice.

We’ve established that every issue has at its core a Central Truth that needs to be prioritized in order to make the right decisions. By being able to maintain what’s most important, you can deploy a wise disregard for those things that are either intentionally or unwittingly introduced into the conversation that makes the Central Truth appear less important and even irrelevant.

But what is the Central Truth?

For the Gay Activist, it’s Freedom of Speech. For those who subscribe to the philosophical foundation our Founding Fathers built upon, it’s the Word of God which means that Homosexuality is not a “right,” rather it’s a perversion.

You see where this is going?

Before you can hope to accurately establish the Central Truth, you first have to ask…

“Who makes the rules?”

What is your starting point? Who is your absolute? Where do your rights come from? How do you certify your perspective as being completely correct?

Granted, not every issue you encounter pertaining to Politics or society constitutes a moral dilemma. Where you position a traffic light or deciding what day your taxes need to be filed doesn’t require any real introspection as far as what course of action resonates as a better moral option.

But there are very few issues that dominate our national headlines that don’t include a moral component. Gun Control, Climate Change, Black Lives Matter, Illegal Immigration, COVID-19 – every one of these topics is debated in a manner that associates a specific morality with a particular viewpoint.

As has been mentioned before, you can find a poll or a subject matter expert to say pretty much anything you want to hear. But we all have in place a metaphysical ground zero that endorses the conclusions we subscribe to as being true. It’s that filter that defines your existence, shapes your convictions and dictates your choices as far as who you will listen to and who you will ignore.

So, for some, it’s not so much about what makes the most sense as much as it’s what makes the most difference in the way it reinforces your personal philosophy as the best way to process the human experience.

Who makes the rules? Who’s in charge?

We’ll talk more about that in Part IV!

1. “LGBT Rights and the Free Speech Clause”, “American Bar Association”, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/gpsolo/publications/gp_solo/2020/march-april/lgbt-rights-free-speech-clause/, accessed August 10, 2022>