Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

I often joke that I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm.

A Florida teacher, years ago, did not find that funny at all.

Sarcasm is not a spiritual gift, she wrote to me.

I read her comment and just thought to myself, well,

no, duh. Now, not only does that story point clearly to my own sin nature, it reflects the

struggle that Christians have in this cultural moment. George Orwell famously said that in an age

of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. And I believe that Christians who understand

that this is the moment to which they've been

called, that truth-telling is a non-negotiable part of their calling. In other words, it is every

Christian's calling in a moment that has abandoned the very idea of truth to be truth-tellers.

Now, the struggle is how to do this. Father Robert Serico, co-founder of the Acton

Institute, offered this once as a guide. We must be ruthless with ideas, but gentle with people.

It's helpful, but the struggle is still in the trying, especially when so many people identify

with the ideas that they hold. And some of these ideas are especially damnable and also reinforced by

those in positions of influence, even political power. And yet, scripture is perfectly clear that

truth is always to be spoken in love. At the recent Great Lakes Symposium, which was entitled

Truth, Love and Humor, Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, talked about what that means.

Here's Jim.

I believe in the fruit of the spirit.

I believe in the love of God.

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