Merriam-Webster defines a pet peeve as “a frequent subject of complaint.” It defines half-truths as “a statement only partially true.” My pet peeve is half-truths! Few things are as frustrating, and at times as harmful, as a biased view delivered a fact. Yet public statements increasingly follow that dubious course.

The practice isn’t always sinister or even intentional. An ad for public journalism features a series of hockey players “fact checking” different individuals for spreading falsehoods based on partial or invented truths. One of the hapless characters admits, ‘I don’t even remember where I got that information.” An equally benign version manifests itself through our proclivity for citing the first part of well-known phrases as pithy truisms, neglecting a contradictory concluding note:

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• great minds think alike

• curiosity killed the cat

• Rome wasn’t built in a day

I have thrown these partial sayings around, usually with my kids when they were younger, urging patience, caution or agreement. The problem is kids grow older and smarter. I begrudgingly recall telling my daughter, “Curiosity killed the cat,” only to have her playfully respond, ‘But satisfaction brought it back.” That led to unpacking such sayings: “Great minds think alike (but fools seldom differ).” Or: “Rome wasn’t built in a day (but it burned down in one).” On the surface, little harm is apparent. Unfortunately, we are increasingly seeing these half-truths working through our major information systems. 

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As a journalist in both the secular and Catholic press for over 40 years, I have had my fair share of opportunities to watch media at work. When I started, much was made of objectivity, in-depth reporting, and unbiased news (although pure disinterest has always been impossible). In more recent times, it feels as though most media outlets have abandoned even the pretence of objectivity. Partisan reporting is proudly celebrated, perhaps nowhere more demonstrably than in the U.S. FOX news stares down CNN, and reporters from both make clear how little impartiality matters. They are there, quite unashamedly, to prosecute a political position. Worse, audiences seek the outlet that tells them what they want to hear: what’s known as confirmation bias. It’s not a promising approach.

As a literary scholar who cut his teeth just as post-modernism was taking over the academy, I was constantly reminded that objective truth, as we can know it, was impossible. I still strongly believe, despite the plethora of critical theories to the contrary, in an essential truth: one can comment honestly about an idea or a need, a value or a proposition. Standing shoulder to shoulder with a citizen surviving in a shelter, or asking for support at a soup kitchen, need is as clear and uncomplicated as you can get. Yes, the condition of homelessness, addiction, or mental health challenges is layered and complex. But the request to be seen as a human person is straight-forward and compelling. 

For all the vitriol directed at faith communities today, I have seen acts of selflessness time and time again from individuals offering support to those most wounded and in need. I have watched with humility as individuals, rich and poor, old and young, have reached out to those most marginalized and forgotten, to help a fellow citizen in distress. And it has reminded me of a central truth that no amount of post-modern prestidigitation can camouflage: We are honour-bound to serve the other — not only those who have official migrant status, or share our racial code or as long as they can claim allegiance to our tribe. Always. To claim otherwise is a harmful untruth.

Half-truths are most often carefully constructed. One chooses what to present and what not to present in order to make a position more compelling, or more palatable: to win the day. That may be fine with something benign like the colour of a carpet. It does not pass the Jesus test — the real Truth test — when such strategies exclude, isolate, and harm.

We need to take the time to reflect on these issues in their full, messy complexity, and do so with an open mind and an open heart. Yes, it may present unhappy or unwanted truths at times, but these will always be preferable to half-truths. So let’s take the time we need to hear each other. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

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