Reflections From Churchill's biography

I’ve been reading Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, the story of Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister. One passage stopped me cold: Hitler, in speech after speech, insisted the war was entirely Churchill’s fault. Britain could have peace tomorrow, he claimed, if only that one warmongering drunk in London would step aside. Germany, Hitler said, had no interest in the British Empire at all. Sound familiar? Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, perfected techniques that feel eerily current:

• Pick one villain and blame everything on him (or her).
• Repeat simple slogans (lies) until they feel like common sense.
• Accuse your opponents of the very things you are doing (call others “fascists” while crushing dissent).
• Flood every channel with the same message until truth itself feels exhausted (or until people don’t know what the truth is so they give up trying to discern).
• Portray your side as the real victim, no matter how much power you hold.

In the 1940s those lies came by radio and newsreel. Today they arrive in our pockets every few seconds, tailored to what the algorithm already knows we’ll click. As Christians, we’re called to be people of truth. Jesus said the truth sets us free (John 8:32), and Paul warned that in the last days people would gather teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (2 Tim 4:3-4). We don’t fix lies with better lies. We fix them with clearer truth, spoken in love. So the next time you see a headline, a meme, or a pastor-turned-pundit blaming everything on one party, one billionaire, one “woke” agenda, or one “fascist” leader—pause. Ask:

• Is this the whole story?
• Who benefits if I’m afraid and angry?
• Would this claim survive the light of Scripture and the fruit of the Spirit?

Churchill refused to trade truth for a quiet life. May we, in our own noisy moment, do the same. “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” – John 17:17