Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz

Fact-checking website Politifact has determined that beginning with his 2016 presidential campaign and up until this week, Donald Trump has spoken lies, either substantially or completely—76 percent of the time. Only 3 percent of his statements have been labeled as fully true. J.D. Vance’s declarations have been deemed mostly to completely false 79 percent of the time. In other words, The Republican Presidential ticket regularly hovers between Pants-on-Fire and Pinocchio.

Understand the gravity of that reality for a moment:

More than three-quarters of the time the former President of the United States and his Vice Presidential candidate open their mouths in a press conference or an early morning social media post or at a public rally—they are lying.

The previous and wannabe Leader of the Free World, is continually and intentionally manufacturing an ever-malleable counterfeit truth; one that is being perpetuated by political allies, financial benefactors, supportive clergy, opportunistic partisan media, and rank-and-file supporters who simply want their guy in power and they don’t care what they need to do to ensure that.

This is how far we’ve drifted in just a few years.

Of all the ghastly wounds inflicted by Donald Trump; to the environment, social services, immigration, education, equality, religious freedom, national pride, and global standing—perhaps the greatest injury has been to the Truth. It is simply no longer a requirement for so many here in America.

The scene plays out hundreds of times each day: a supposed leader willfully lying, being called out, brazenly gaslighting his accuser—and then doubling down on the lie. With these people, the truth need not be at all considered anymore.

Donald Trump is molding the truth as if it were soft putty and building whatever narrative he needs in the moment, facts, data, and reality be dammed, and then his surrogates in Congress reiterate the myths until they become the truth. And whether the target of their fabrications is law-abiding legal immigrants, hurricane-ravaged North Carolinians, or war-torn Ukrainians, the damage is terribly real.

Tragically, this is one of those rare times when trickle-down actually works: Liars at the top are yielding more liars down below.

Fox News fills its slate with phony headlines, falsehood-spewing pundits, and egregious perversions of reality on-screen crawls. The fully manufactured fiction disguised as news plays on repeat in kitchens and car repair shops and fast food restaurants—and like frogs in a slow-simmering pot, millions of people gradually lose any semblance of the truth. They never see it happening until one day statements no longer require scrutiny to be ratified into belief. They only need to have been spoken.

As a Christian and a former pastor, Trump and his party’s allergic reaction to the truth has made the vast Evangelical Christian support for them all the more disheartening. Pastors and celebrity evangelists amplifying and amening lies; giving them credence in the eyes of the faithful, who leave their Sunday gatherings and bible studies prepared to passionately spread the False Gospel According to Donald on social media, in their living rooms, at their workplaces, and on their college campuses.

For a group of people so supposedly compelled by the Bible, MAGA Christians conveniently misplace one of the commandments, and a few thousand verses from the revered prophets, their spiritual forebears—and from Jesus himself.

And day by day, millions of people who used to know better, who once valued the truth as a nonnegotiable—no longer give a damn about it. It is relegated to a very distant afterthought.

These co-conspirators in untruth then daily raise children who grow up with no desire for veracity because they’ve seen the upsides of the opposite.

They’ve watched a man who lies as easily as breathing, ascend to the highest position in the country.

They’ve seen politicians and preachers following suit, winning elections and reaping financial rewards.

They’ve seen their own parents rationalize it all away.

What need or respect for the truth will they have? Why would they even consider it?

Our children will inherit this America unless we reverse course.

Unless we pushback against these professional liars, if we keep allowing them to freely speak falsehood, we will be reproducing more of them.

Our children will become easily-lying adults; teachers and law enforcement officers and caregivers and lawmakers, who have no inclination to speak truth.

This will be a horrible legacy to leave the world.

When our leaders are liars, we need to lead in their place.

We need to be courageous enough to speak truth and not stand for anything less.

This truth, it is said—will set us all free.