Wineke: Truth has its way of prevailing My friend and colleague, Phil Haslanger, is now the Rev. Phil Haslanger; he was ordained into the ministry of the United Church of Christ in a light-hearted ceremony last Sunday at Lake Edge UCC.
Phil is a writer and editor for The Capital Times, a fact which, I suppose, makes us competitors, though we don't usually think of it that way. I met him decades ago, when he was a UW-Madison student interested in a career as a newspaper religion reporter. It took him a number of years to achieve that lofty status and, by the time he did, I had relinquished my role as religion writer in order to trod the humbler path of a columnist.
Haslanger has always intimidated me because he is one of those men who actually practice what they preach, and now, he is going to preach what he practices.
At any rate, we all gathered to wish him well and those of us who are also ordained laid our hands on him in order to convey whatever mystical power the ordained ministry confers on a mere mortal.
And we told him his main job — in addition to not dropping babies during baptisms (a fear, I can assure you, that is shared by anyone who has ever officiated at such a ceremony) — is to "speak truth to power."
I've never been quite sure what that means. For those of us in liberal Madison, I think it means saying nasty things about President Bush.
But, we aren't the only people who encourage others to speak truth to power. Pope Benedict this week told pharmacists in Italy they ought to follow their consciences when asked to dispense birth control drugs, even though Italian law requires them to dispense the drugs.
We have similar debates here in Wisconsin almost every legislative season.
No matter how we define the phrase, the idea of speaking "truth to power" rests on the assumption that I have the truth and "power" doesn't.
When I do something like that, "power" is likely to crush me. I can then feel martyred for the "truth." We in the church like martyrs.
Since I have no desire to be a martyr, however, I usually encourage others — the Rev. Haslanger will do — to speak truth to power. I try, instead, to emulate Bible stories where Jesus has dinner with rich people.
My real problem, however, with the prescription that we ought to speak truth to power is that it gives power way too much … well, power.
The real message of Jesus, I think, is that power is irrelevant to truth. The proper response to power is to laugh at its pretensions because the worst it can do is to kill you.
Frankly, Phil, I doubt that any power in Madison is likely to kill you. So, speak "truth" if you must, but don't take either power or your understanding of "truth" too seriously.