I was at a Professional Men’s Breakfast meeting this morning (Sat Oct 26) and the speaker, Rev. Nicholas Sykes, chose this as his subject.

I am not going to repeat it what he said, except his title, and asking us if we had ever watched the television game show, “Family Feud”?

Most of us said. “yes” and he pointed out to us that the answers to the question the host, Steve Harvey, asked ,are the top one hundred answers given by the public the show researchers obtained. Not necessarily, in fact very often, the answers are not correct. In other words, they are not the truth.

The two families ‘feuding’ have to guess what the public think are the correct answers.

So, what is truth?

Pontius Pilate said this to Jesus at His trial, after Jesus had claimed that He is ”witness to the truth”.

Why did Pilate say this?

Was it because he could see Jesus’ trial was a mockery at all the lies. The untruths, witnesses were saying about Jesus, or was he making a statement that truth is hard to ascertain?

If it was the latter then Pilate would be hard put to find out what really is the truth people utter now or read in the media reports.

“Fake news” that is downright lies, is sadly the norm today.

Pilate didn’t wait for anyone to answer him.

Author David Lodge wrote a best selling novel with the title “Home Truths” .

It is a brilliant novel and is about Adrian Ludlow, a novelist with a distinguished reputation and a book on the “A” level syllabus, is now seeking obscurity in a cottage beneath the Gatwick flight path. His university friend Sam Sharp, who has become a successful screenwriter, drops in on the way to Los Angeles, fuming over a vicious profile of himself by Fanny Tarrant, one of the new breed of Rottweiler interviews, in a Sunday newspaper. Together they decide to take revenge on the interviewer, though Adrian is risking what he values most: his privacy.

The story examines with wit and insight the contemporary culture of celebrity and the conflict between the solitary activity of writing and the demands of the media circus.

Author Ursula K. Le Guin is quoted as saying, “I talk about the gods, I am an atheist. But I am an artist too, and therefore a liar. Distrust everything I say. I am telling the truth.”

Musician, Missy Elliott, said, “I know that some people shy away from what I say. They think it is too blunt, but when you don’t give people that, they feel like you are being fake and you’re not telling the truth. So it’s like, you want me to tell the truth, but when I do, it’s too much for you.”

As I have mentioned earlier Steve Harvey, I will finish with a quote from him:

“I think there are so many books out there written on relationships and romance that women are the authors of. How can women know exactly how men think? And there are so many guys out there with relationship books who are just not telling the truth. They have shaded parts.”

The Old Testament Book “Judith” was taken out of the Old Testament as we know it today, (unless you are a Roman Catholic) because Judith prayed to God to give her a lying tongue. Even though it was being used for good.

And that is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Or is it?