It is time to unite around the truth.

President Trump’s multiple filings in state and federal courts alleging election fraud are, hands down, the most momentous election news in two decades. If even a fraction of the allegations is proved in a court of law, it will be the biggest scandal in the history of our nation. For this reason alone, Wyoming voters are highly interested in the developing story.

John Barrasso, Wyoming’s senior senator and Senate GOP Conference Chair, said in a statement, "As vote totals continue to update, Americans deserve confidence in a fair and transparent election. The President is right to ensure all legally-cast votes be observed and counted."

Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming’s first woman senator, issued a statement through her spokeswoman, Kristin Walker: “Where there are instances of fraud, we must root them out, correct and hold those responsible to account. Anything less is a complete affront to the American rule of law and election integrity.”

Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s lone congresswoman and House GOP conference chair, released a statement on November 6: “Every legal vote must be counted. No illegal votes should be counted. The counting process must be transparent, and observers must have access. It’s the responsibility of the courts to apply the laws to resolve disputes. These things are necessary so that all Americans can have confidence in our election process.”

Nevertheless, the Associated Press reported that “top Wyoming elected officials refused to say Friday if they agreed with President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats are trying to steal the presidential election.” (Top Wyoming Republicans dodge question about Trump remarks, Mead Gruver, Nov. 6). This is confusing, at best. Some may even call it deliberate deception.

Mead Gruver, AP reporter

Understandably, many Wyomingites have been concerned about the stance of their D.C. delegation. President Trump drew 193,559 Wyoming voters, an 11 percent increase over his 2016 totals. Wyoming tops all fifty states in margin of victory, with 69.9 percent of the vote going to the President.  The enthusiasm of Wyoming’s Trump voters is obvious.

Social media memes are asking why the Wyoming delegation has remained silent. There’s only one problem. They haven’t. Rather, hostile media has used deceptive analysis to hide the actual support that the delegation has voiced for a full counting of every legal vote and the disqualification of any fraudulent votes. Such misreporting is bound to damage our delegation while propping up the narrative that Trump’s claims are “baseless.”

This instance of manipulation is only one snowflake in a blizzard of falsehoods. I use it here as a case study for the results of deception. While deception and bias may be motivated by the lure of political power, its effects are personal and profound. In the first instance, it intentionally damages the relationship between representatives and constituents. In the second, it damages relationships between people who are getting their information from contradictory sources.

From the perspective of a pastor, the second is far more consequential than the first. Media bias has been a problem for longer than I have been alive. But in recent years it has become a crisis, and in the past month, it has become criminal.  

Twitter and Facebook have attached unwanted content to the personal thoughts of millions. Thus, they have coerced the speech of users. When that failed, they colluded with all but a few national media outlets to black out true reporting of legitimate information. They have even gone so far as to de-platform the President of the United States and block the sharing of testimony and evidence that has been submitted to courts of law under penalty of perjury. 

The effect of such iron-fisted censorship has not been helpful--either to their cause, or to the American people. Rather than prevent the dissemination of the information in question, the mainstream media has only discredited itself and precipitated an avalanche of viewers flocking to One America News Network and NewsMax. Simultaneously, it has been a boon to the small and struggling social media platforms like Parler and MeWe.

Those who were savvy enough to invest in these companies a month ago, have probably made enough money to retire early. But such a financial boon for some comes at a high cost to America.

In living rooms across America, the seeds of dissension and distrust are sown by talking heads on a lifeless screen. On nearly every issue of importance today, there are two completely different narratives being told. Those who have absorbed the one cannot find common ground with those who believe the other. No longer can shades and nuances in storytelling be reconciled with one another. News has become a great “either/or.”

In one sense, it is not the fault of the viewers. At the time most people developed their viewing habits and network loyalties, there was a general respect for the truth, and parity in presenting it. The change from objective reporting to editorializing on the front page to the full-on suppression of contrary facts has been gradual. For many it has gone unnoticed.

As public reporting imperceptibly devolved to this low state, the corresponding increase in the rancor of public discourse was obvious. Friendships are dissolved. Families are split apart. Communities are divided. Even church life is disrupted. The winning candidates of this election cycle will serve their terms and retire. The tearing of America’s social fabric will have longer-lasting repercussions.

This article is written as a plea to every citizen to know and understand the connection between these two realities. When you find your relationships strained as never before, do not dismiss friends, family or neighbors as irreconcilable. Recognize rather that at the root of every disagreement is a failure mutually to understand reality. Recognize further that this failure is not a natural occurrence. It is rather an alien intrusion inculcated by deliberate lies.

People who want to use your vote for political gain are willing to lie to you in order to get it. But their lies do more than gain your vote. They also destroy your relationships. For the sake of the people in your life, it is your responsibility to ferret out lies and reject them. Don’t merely assume that your source is true and all others are false. Put every claim you hear to the test.

Truth is the bedrock upon which we stand as a united people. It holds us together as families, churches, communities and nations. It exists quite apart from personal perceptions or opinions. The more people there are who understand the truth, the more united is the society. We are called to discover the truth, not invent it.

The fact is that there are thousands of independent citizens claiming to be eyewitnesses to specific instances of election fraud. Each claim will be judged on its own merits. Either it is true or it is false. The fact remains that there are numerous candidates (not only President Trump) who are claiming that the election fraud in their district was momentous enough to change the outcome. Each one is either right or wrong in this claim.

They will press their cases and we should cheer them on. As Wyomingites who watch the litigation play out in other states, we need to understand what is at stake. Certainly, the presidency is at stake. So also are numerous local races.  

More important than both of these, is the integrity of the system itself. If local, state and federal institutions are incapable of assuring you that your vote has the same weight as every other, America has a dark future, indeed. But above all, if we lose confidence in the truth, if we give up on the quest to discover truth as it exists and give in to those who manufacture “truth” by raw power, we will lose community itself. Now, more than ever, it is time to unite around the truth.