Jao Greg - Twelve Lies That Hold America Captive : And the Truth That Sets Us Free.

I WISH I COULD CLAIM that I was not an expert liar. Of course, that would be a lie. I suspect we all are expert liars. We lie a lot. We begin lying as children. I remember my toddlers insisting that they did not take the candy from the jar, even though they were standing in a pile of crumpled candy wrappers. As children, our lies are simple and easily detected. When we enter our teens, our lies become more complex, and our alibis become more convincing. It takes an observant (or lucky) parent to catch us. By the time we become adults, we have become experts at telling lies. We tell them so smoothly that they often pass undetected. We construct stories, situations, and systems to support them. We tell new lies to reinforce old lies. We sever or sabotage relationships to defend them. Our lies can be so well entrenched after twenty or thirty years that it requires an enormous crisis to confront them. Bankruptcy. Rehab. The loss of a job. The end of a marriage.

If this is true for us as individuals, imagine how hard it is to confront the lies of a nearly 250-year-old nation. What crisis would be big enough, visible enough, destructive enough to shatter our defenses and force us to face the truth? I hope it is the crises we are currently living inthe crises that Jonathan describes so carefully and passionately in this book. The stories and statistics Jonathan has assembled challenge our self-deception. They invite us to honest reflection as individuals and communities. They point us to a better way forward, one defined by Scripture rather than by the Stars and Stripes. But I worry because there can be tremendous resistance to letting go of the lies. We are invested in them.

Why do we lie as individuals, institutions, and nations? As an experienced liar, I know I tell lies because I want people to believe I am more courageous, more diligent, more loving, more careful, more competent, more faithful, and more holy than I really am. I tell lies so that I do not have to admit to myselfor othersthat I am scared, insecure, selfish, sloppy, and sinful. I do not want to confront the truth that I fail (frequently) and am a failure (comprehensively). I am reluctant to face myself honestly. And my reluctance should be shocking because I am a Christian.

Christians should be the quickest to admit we fail (and are failures). The words We have sinned. Will you forgive us? should come easily to our lips. After all, these are the words that we said when we became Christians. They are the words that we say regularly to the triune Godand should be saying regularly to each other. These are the words that should cause no surprise or shock at a church. (What hospital would be shocked if a patient said, I am sick? Of course they are! That is why they are here.) And yet, tragically, these are words that we are reluctant to say. About ourselves. About our institutions. And about our country. As a result, we reject the truth. We quench the Spirit. We cheat ourselves out of the hope of restoration, renewal, and renovation. We deny the power of the gospel.

But what if this were not so?

Over the past decade, I have watched Jonathan help thousands of college students confront lies. Lies about themselves. (Im unforgiveable. Unredeemable. Unlovable.) Lies about Scripture. (Its oppressive. Irrelevant. Untrue.) Lies about God. (Hes distant. Disinterested. Dangerous.) And lies about our country that he uncovers in the chapters that follow. What I love and respect about Jonathan is that he is not content to name the lies. Any journalist or pundit could do that. Any self-appointed prophet does that. Jonathan does more. He points past the lies to Jesushe who is the Truth and the source of truths that can set us all free.

As an expert liar, I long to be free of the lies that bind me and define me. I want to face reality in my life, in my church, and in my country. I want to embrace the truth so that Gods truth can set me free. If you want the same, read this book. Rage over the stories. Grieve over the statistics. Wrestle with the ideas. Embrace the crisis it creates. Reject the lies. And seek the transforming truths that Jesus brings.

IN 2008, I FELT LIKE AN AMERICAN for the first time because I saw a leader who looked like me. All my life I hoped my education and accomplishments would free me from the history of my skin color as inherently inferior and forever intimidating. It never did. But then Barack Hussein Obama became president of the United States, and I believed that I belonged here.

I watched his inauguration, and with each phrase I felt more optimistic. I thought, Now things are going to be different. One word defined Obamas campaign and resonated in communities around the country.