Brophy’s Summit on Human Dignity always has as its underlying mission exactly that: the recognition of universal human dignity, and an exploration of the ways it is threatened by a given set of forces in our world. This year, we recognize the inherent link between human dignity and Truth, and the threats to human dignity that necessarily follow from the ways that Truth is denied, reality is distorted and narratives are manipulated in today’s world.
The Truth of God’s design for creation is that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Untruth, then, is always tied to some measure of rejection of this foundational Truth. Every distortion of the truth is a denial of the full human dignity shared by all. To untether ourselves from Truth is to disconnect ourselves from God’s will for His creation.
Our Summit will look at the many ways that untruths appeal to us and lure us to accept them as a convenient “reality” in place of the reality God has given us, or to reject the concept of truth entirely as we seek only our own narrow benefit. As men and women for and with others, all members of the Brophy community are called to recognize that we are all susceptible to disinformation, misinformation and other forms of untruth, and that we have all participated in spreading such untruths, whether we have been aware of it or not. We are all called to an examination of conscience that holds a mirror up to ourselves as we seek to correct our various disorientations to reality.
By becoming aware of our own misjudgments and vulnerabilities, we can then move forward to recognize how the forces of untruth are acting upon our society and our world as a whole. In so doing, we can contribute to a healthier information landscape that does not allow lies to propagate into acts of violence ranging from the online harassment so many people experience, to the mass shootings inspired by hateful conspiracy theories, to the wars and genocides we know from history books and current events. All violence begins with a lie that gets believed about human nature: the insidious idea that some people don’t deserve the dignity that God gave to us all.
Truth is real. It is worth knowing. And whatever powers and comforts we have acquired through untruths, they are worth sacrificing in order to uphold the Truth of God’s world: the full and equal human dignity of all people.