Most of us enjoy going to the movies. It’s been awhile since I went to a movie, in fact I think the middle - earth movie, The Hobbit was the last one I saw. There is nothing like losing oneself in an entertaining action - fantasy story. A few weeks ago, I found myself in my recliner watching the Oscars, the celebration of the very best in film.
For me, I had chosen my favourite for best picture and that was Lincoln. In the end the movie Argo got the top spot. The unfortunate thing about Argo is that Hollywood messed with the facts of the story the movie was based on. Argo is great as a movie, but much of it was based on what never happened.
Hollywood got around the facts by saying, “Because we say it is based on a true story, rather than this is a true story, we’re allowed to take some dramatic license.. There’s a spirit of truth.”
But what gets some of us Canadians worked up about this movie is that it sidelines Canada in the telling of the 1979 Tehran hostage event where Canada saved the lives of six Americans. However, Argo minimized the major part Canada had in this daring rescue and makes the CIA as the heroes of the story.
In general the movie makes it look like Canada was just along for the ride. But it was Ken Taylor, who the Canadian ambassador at the time, who deserves much of the credit. He made the six Americans fake passports, bought them airline tickets and got them out of Iran.
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said shortly after watching the movie, “I was taken aback by its (Argo) distortion of what happened because almost everything that was heroic or courageous or innovative was done by Canada. 90 per cent of the ideas to get the Americans out were Canadian, 10 per cent CIA.”
The problem some see with Argo is that it re-wrote history at Canada’s expense. Putting the CIA in the forefront of this history event. Ben Affleck stars as CIA officer Tony Mendez, who comes up with an idea with Hollywood to make up plan of a fake sci-fi movie about space aliens called Argo, so that the six Americans could pose as a Canadian film crew scouting for locations in Iran.
Ken Taylor states, “it was a good movie, but they distorted the facts, it’s not what happened.” Hollywood overlooked the truth, portraying Canada in this film as being an observer to CIA heroics. But facts are facts. The truth is, Canada was the real hero. Still others say, “relax, it was just a movie.”
What’s we as people need to learn here is that telling the truth is always important. The apostle Paul put it this way in Ephesians 4:25 – “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour for we are all members of one body.” In other words, when we tell the truth, it has an affect on others. So do half - truths. But God can help us to drop the masks and begin to practice telling the truth as a way of life.
There is something attractive about truth-telling, with someone who is honest.
It seems to me honesty should be a core characteristic of our lives. The word “honest” originates from a Latin word meaning “honorable, respected.” It later came to mean, “free from fraud” and now has the main modern sense of “dealing fairly, truthful.”
Being honest encourages others to be honest. Jesus said that when we know the truth we will find it sets us free. And isn’t that what we all want to be... set free. But as strange as it may sound, sometimes we’re afraid of the truth. Maybe you’re afraid what the truth may reveal about you. Sometimes we tell a half truth that’s found out and we find ourselves tied up in a web of our own making.
Perhaps we tell our spouse something that isn’t true, and they find out. We wish we would have told the truth. Healthy relationships require trust. When we lie, that other person thinks, “Can I trust that person the next time?”
In society, if the focus is on everyone for themselves at the cost of the truth and honesty, then our society breaks down. Or maybe we’re caught up in some habit that is pulling us down, but we say it’s not causing us any harm. We simply say, “I just believe God wants me to be happy.”
God wants us to be happy, but He also wants us to tell the truth because telling the truth, being honest is liberating, it can keep us free of certain painful experiences and situations that God never intended us to have.
The phrase, “the truth shall set you free” is really true. God said it first because He knows just how freeing telling the truth and being honest can be.
So if you are going to the movies this weekend and you decide to go check out Argo, I hope you enjoy it. May it encourage you to decide to always tell the truth!
This column is submitted by Tri-Community Bapist Church in Beiseker.
