Truth, Advertising, and False Imagery of the Word

I couldn't help but notice the ad.  It was an anti-diabetes ad that featured a man, overweight and missing a leg, sitting in a chair with a pair of crutches in the background.  "Portions have grown; so has type 2 diabetes, which can lead to amputations" the ad boldly proclaims.  Image+message= powerful; thought-provoking; and a stirring of the emotions.

My first thought, however, was not of diabetes, but rather an empathy for the man in the ad.  How terrible, I thought...  The emotional pain that man must feel...

That is, of course, until I read an interesting article in the news.  You see, while the ad's claim about diabetes and what it can do may be true, apparently the picture is quite deceptive...  Enter one Cleo Berry, a man who not only does not have diabetes but ironically, has all of his limbs instead of a pair of crutches.  Mr. Berry was quite shocked and upset when he discovered the altered imagery to promote a government sponsored message of cutting down portion sizes- including, mind you, the portion size of the man in the picture.

Of course, this put my mind into thinking; and the question that I pondered was simply this:  Does truth in advertising matter?  Do we, as a society, and as individuals, care if the whole message is accurate and true?  I ask this in light of Mr. Berry's situation.  While it may be true that diabetes can, indeed, lead to the loss of an appendage- I cannot help but wonder just how likely it is!  Is it possible that this is the result only in extreme and untreated cases?  Or is this really something that requires more of my concern?  After all, if it is such a pressing issue one would think it would be quite easy to find a one-legged man to pose for a good cause, wouldn't it be?

Now I must confess that I am NO expert in this disease, I will state for the record that I think truth does matter when communicating a message.  And with that I speak now to the church on this issue.  (I would speak to the government, but the cynic in me says there is no hope for anything truthful to come from them)

How often do we, as a church, misrepresent the Gospel?  How often do we take a single image and promote it as if it were the regular example of things?  I have known so many people that have gone on and on about how "if you would just turn to Jesus you will have..." ending that with a variety of different claims, from the promise of ALWAYS feeling loved, ALWAYS feeling happy, to the promise that God wants you to be prosperous in all things, and if you pray enough you will have that new car you think you deserve.

We throw up on the screen pictures of people with plastic smiles and say, "See? They are SO happy because they luuv Jesus!"  Or we show the video footage of some random guy (usually an overpaid actor) leaping up from a wheelchair as his "faith" makes him "whole"...  And in the meantime, people have their "come to Jesus" moment as a result of what they see.  And then the next morning, when the spiritual high has worn off and they are left feeling the same as before, they start to question- why? And too often the answer we give them is, "well you just didn't have enough faith"...  And so they walk away from the church, convinced it is all just a scam, just more false advertising and false hope.

Why is it so hard for us to be truthful?  Why is it that we just cannot seem to utter the reality that though we may be born again, we are still human?  We still have our struggles.  We still have life experiences that bring us pain.  Sometimes we still deal with loneliness, with heartache, with despair.  Why?  Because we are HUMAN.  Because we live life.  Because sometimes things don't always go the way we would like them to.  Does this mean we are abandoned? No.  God promises that He will walk with us the whole way, that He will shelter us from the storm- but He never promised that the path would be a smooth sailing highway, or that when the storm comes we won't get wet...

I think people would be more interested in hearing and seeing reality from us, as opposed to the plastic smiles we offer up.  I think people would be more interested in the healing message of the Gospel we speak of, if they actually knew that we too had been through times in life when we needed to cry out to Him for healing.  I think some may even be a bit more receptive to our proclaimation of their need for salvation if we would let them see the truth that we also needed God to save us...

Perhaps it is time we start communicating truth in all we say, instead of adding false imagery to the Word of God...