Honestly: Telling the Truth about the Bible and Ourselves

Author Mark Wingfield combines his theological training as a pastor and his skills as a journalist in this exploration of truth and faithful truth-telling. Truth is often elusive in our culture, but Wingfield maintains that the Bible has been misused by some to perpetuate certain kinds of lies and untruths. Exploration of key biblical texts is woven together with stories drawn from personal experience and news stories from both church and our present-day culture.

Wingfield points to a lack of real truthfulness that plagues America in both politics and religion today. We are shouting well-worn sound bites at each other from opposing platforms. Precious few of us are willing to step in the middle and facilitate dialogue, and those poor souls who do often get shot down from both sides. Rampant self-interest can lead to supporting lies and holding tight to particular stances that are not aligned with the Bible’s ethics of justice and love.

The book begins with the important question, What Is Truth?, and explores biblical truth on topics such as creation, race, climate change, evolution, Jesus and truth, liars in the Bible, and the truth-telling of the prophets. Final chapters look at the truth about who we are and what truth looks like in our current post-Trump era. A study guide is included to help facilitate group conversation about each chapter.