OPINION: Look beyond surface to find 'truth' on Easter

“What is truth?” —Pontius Pilate (John 18:38)

Another Easter season comes to a close, ending as it began some six weeks ago, in celebration. And whether you are a believer or not, the Easter story is still celebrated because it has much to offer.

At no other time in my near six decades has the issue of “truth” been more debated and central to our lives. Just look at the Supreme Court. The nation’s supreme arbiter of “truth” is evenly divided. It is a perfect metaphor for our country in this latest election season. But while Pilate’s classic rhetorical question to Christ was never answered because Christ would not play along, we have recent experience to help us discern many “truths” in the current tug of war between the right and left.

The Brussels terror attacks again prove a truth that there are religious/ideological extremists out there that will kill innocents in the name of their beliefs. We know this as there have been scores of such attacks dating back hundreds of years from representatives of “jihad” and others. Hillary Clinton framed the latest debate quickly when she said we had to fight these people but within the framework of “our values.” She represents measured response which errs on the side of diplomacy.

These values or “truths” forbid enhanced interrogation and water-boarding and carpet bombing. These are values, but our history, our experience, is full of what Gen. Sherman coined “Total War” about 154 years ago. From his wake of destruction to Dresden and Hiroshima, America has often valued total war. President Obama denied this value when he admitted that he did not destroy ISIS oil tankers for over a year, and billions of terrorist dollars, because our values did not justify killing the drivers and especially the resultant carbon footprint. He deferred to climate change.

Which brings us to Denver and Jagadish Shukla. If Pilate had flown to Denver on March 23 he would not have made it. The airport was closed due to a record snow for that date. And last week their surrounding ski resorts received 36 inches. While this seems fairly normal for long-term residents of the Mountain West, Pilate might have called Mr. Shukla and said “What is the truth?”

Mr. Shukla is an MIT-educated distinguished university professor at George Mason University. His peers, as in “peer-reviewed 97 percent consensus,” include Bill McKibbin, Stephen Oppenheimer, Michael Mann and David Viner. Viner announced with authority from his University of East Anglia seat in 2000 that “children just aren’t going to know what snow is …” due to what was then called global warming. Mr. Shukla recently joined 20 other scientists and politicians in writing the president to advocate criminal prosecution of climate-change/global warming “deniers.”

What’s the truth? The globe may be warming, but the 97 percent consensus group, including Al Gore, Hillary, Reid, and Obama, is frequently wrong with their predictions. The truth is a snowed-in major airport. And the truth is that Mr. Shukla and his wife have through their non-profit company received $63 million in U.S. government grants to study climate change. They are currently under congressional investigation. The non-profit is called The Institute of Global Environment and Society. That’s your tax money, and they have gotten more than Denver wrong.

Pilate’s question is timeless. In this election season, the “truth” will be increasingly debated. But when you can’t land a plane in the face of failed consensus “truths,” remember that some truths are discernable, and “you don’t need a ($63 million) weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Baldridge is a resident of Whitefish and works in the petroleum industry.