The Pontius Pilate Defense

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32, King James Version

"Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?" - John 18:38a, King James Version

American conservative Christians frequently express their belief in something called "Truth." 

Now, as it happens, I consider this one of the chief virtues of theologically conservative Christianity, to the extent that it is actually practiced. It is their intolerance of moral relativism—their belief that what is Good and True does not change—that motivates most of the good evangelicals and Catholics do in the world. It takes a staunch belief in Truth—not the sophisticated detachment of the anthropologist—to launch a global crusade against child marriage, or FGM, or debt slavery, or hunger (and yes, you will find evangelicals and Catholics at the frontlines of every fight against human suffering). Sometimes, their radical committment to Truth leads Christians to set up communes or oppose war or go to their deaths at the hands of terrorists, just because God's Word said so, and God is Truth.

But notice that I said "to the extent that it is actually practiced." Every ideology has its hypocrisies, true, and conservative Christians often have to resort to conveniently looking away when faced with unpleasant or inconvenient truths, like the findings of paleontology or mainstream biblical scholarship. But there was, at least, an emphasis placed on individual honesty, on the need for honest and rigorous exegesis of texts and ideas, and on suffering for "the Truth" even when it made you outcast and despised. Of course, it was always assumed that those who would despise you and cast you out were "liberal" or "secular."

(A rather curious conclusion to draw based on the story of the New Testament.)

I suppose you can guess where I'm going with this. Since the ascension of a real eastate tycoon-turned-reality TV star to the office of the president and effective Fuhrer of the Republican Party, the once-vaunted evangelical commitment to "Truth" has started to ring more and more hollow. That Donald Trump is an enemy of Truth is not up for debate. Dr. Edward Feser, a Catholic philosopher of a rather conservative bent and a frequent critic of the late Pope Francis (to the point of comparing him to the arch-heretic among popes, Honorius) describes Trump as a "bullshitter" in a 2024 post called "Trump" A Buyer's Guide." He writes:

"It is not so much that Trump is a liar as that he is a bullshitter, in Harry Frankfurt’s famous sense of the term.  The liar, as Frankfurt points out, cares very much about the truth, if only to hide it. The bullshitter, by contrast, is not primarily interested in truth or falsity so much as in saying whatever is useful for furthering some goal he has.  That may involve speaking a falsehood, but it might instead require speaking the truth.  The bullshitter doesn’t care so long as it works."

Actually, it's astonishing how freely so-called conservatives will admit that Donald Trump, their man in the Oval Office, is a bullshitter. Whenever he says something self-evidently false, they insist he's trying to strategically deceive his enemies at home or abroad (this somehow makes it okay), or that he's merely trolling people who deserve it. But they do something else as well: They strain over terminology, adopting the sophisticated sneer of the Roman governor of Judea and asking "What is Truth, anyways?"

The Pontius Pilate Defense is named after Pilate's patrician reply to Jesus's statement in John 18 that he has come into the world to "bear witness to the truth." As a rhetorical trick, it is an attempt to muddy the waters by suggesting that concepts that religious conservatives have historically regarded as straightforward and immutable (like "Truth") are, it turns out, complicated. What is "lying," anyways? Is "war" always war? But are they really my "neighbor?" Did God really say...? This strategy has been recently en vogue with Catholic supporters of Donald Trump's military adventures in Venezuela and Iran (and his contemplated conquests elsewhere), but it crops up everywhere, every time Donald Trump opens his mouth. That Trump is not acting in accordance to Truth is obvious, and so political necessity dictates that Truth must go, or rather be relativised into pure meaninglessness. 

Christians used to call this strategy "postmodernism," and it was a Bad Thing. It was the shameless rhetorical trickery resorted to by abortion advocates who insisted that whether or not a human life should be ended was "complicated," or by liberals who said there were many ways to God and spoke of "my truth" instead of "the Truth." But, as it turns out, conservatives can blaspheme Truth with the best of them when they think it's worth their while. When Truth raises uncomfortable questions, one merely has to walk across the room and take refuge with His interrogators. Talk of "the Truth," for many, was merely a stick to beat liberals and secularists over the head with, never intended to be used against good conservatives who picked the right side in the culture war. 

What is "Truth," anyways? Sounds like liberal garbage. Or communism. Or something a fanatical Jew would say.

Bullshit, as any Roman would tell you, is a much safer weapon for winning wars.