Letter to the Editor

LETTER: Our students should be taught what truth is

Monday, March 6, 2023

To the Editor:

Our society rests on the idea that there is “truth” that does not change based on the culture and “truth” that does not change based on circumstances. Every person who testifies in court promises to, “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

In order for America to flourish, our students in all of our schools need to be taught true things and not taught any false things. At a sidebar to the trial of Jesus, Jesus claims to be the truth, and Pontius Pilate asks in a scoffing way, “What is truth?”

Our schools need to be teaching true things, and true things do not even need to mention Jesus by name. Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, Greek philosophers were able to deduce that there must be one God who is perfect, and they were just using philosophy and logic.

Is there a way to teach our students logic and philosophy? Kids are asking and wrestling with really deep philosophical questions at a really young age. Can we teach them the tools to answer those questions?

All public and private schools would do well to teach their students to seek the truth, and to teach them the tools that they need to find the truth.

God bless,

Fr. John Hollowell

Pastor of Annunciation in Brazil and St. Paul’s in Greencastle

Catholic chaplain in charge of outreach to DePauw University

Catholic chaplain to Putnamville Correctional Facility