Speech given by Pablo Martínez at the reception of the “New Dawn” 2024 Award in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain (20 April), which recognised Pedro Tarquis and Pablo Martínez as founders of Spanish news website Protestante Digital.

Five years ago, on the 15th anniversary of Protestante Digital, I spoke about one of its main purposes: to edify, not to destroy, we are builders in the work that God has entrusted to us.

The title of that reflection was The word with grace seasoned with salt.

Today, as we receive the "New Dawn" award as founders of Protestante Digital, I want to talk about another of its essential purposes: to defend the Truth.

We are called to "follow and speak the truth in love" (Eph 4:15,25). Hence the title of this reflection: The word of truth seasoned with love.

Speaking the truth seasoned with grace and love is a distinctive feature of the Christian and, therefore, of the Christian journalist.

Why is Truth so important? The two anchors of human existence are hope and truth.

Hope points to the future, truth sustains us in the present. Their absence, hopelessness and disregard for Truth, are existential toxics that poison our lives until they suffocate us.

The great battle of ideas fought in the world today takes place against the backdrop of what we can call "the war of truth".

The renowned French historian Jacques Barzun warned in his best known work, From Dawn to Decadence, that "the postmodern assault on the idea of truth could lead to the liquidation of 500 years of civilisation".

This battle is being fought on two inseparable fronts: truthfulness and Truth.

The battle for truthfulness

Truthfulness, truthful language, is a feature of good journalism, but it becomes essential in Christian journalism.

This is a very relevant issue in today's fake news society, where truth seems a relic of the past, an extinct species. It is rightly said that we live in the post-truth era. Perhaps it would be more honest to say that it is the era of the globalisation of lies.

Truthfulness is important for several reasons, but above all because you can kill with words. An old saying goes: "The tongue has no bones, but it breaks very thick ones".

You can destroy the reputation, the name of a person with a false word and, according to Jesus, that is the same as killing. This is why truthfulness is so important.

The battle for Truth

The second front where the battle for truth takes place has to do with faith in its objective dimension, the deposit that was once entrusted to the saints.

We are called to "earnestly contend" for this faith (Jude 3). We are impressed by Paul's testimony at the end of his life: "I have fought the good fight..." (2 Tim. 4:7). What is the good fight? He answers it himself: "I have kept the faith".

The battle for the Truth is "the good fight", the one worth fighting for to the end, the race par excellence.

That willingness to contend for Truth is more necessary today than ever before. The bankruptcy of truth and the rise of subjectivism as an absolute value is the most striking feature of 21st century society from an ethical point of view.

After more than two centuries of rationalism (the glorification of reason preached since the Enlightenment), the pendulum swing of post modernism has led to an over evaluation of the subjective, which has become the supreme standard of life and conduct.

What I think and feel, my opinion, is what counts. Before, truth was outside me; today truth is inside me, it is an extension of my "I".

And that brings us to the heart of our reflection. The fight for truth is not so much a fight for ideas or values, but for a person, Jesus Christ. Truth cannot be separated from Christ and the Word of Christ. That is why the battle for Truth is the battle for Christ.

Therefore, I would like to conclude this brief reflection with a threefold challenge, which is at the same time my prayer for the whole team that makes Protestante Digital possible.

We must:

- hold firmly to the truth so as not to sink.
- keep the truth faithfully
- proclaim the Truth vigorously to the world.

That is our challenge and our privilege in this historic hour of crisis: to be like Christ, "full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14) and to proclaim that Christ remains "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6).

Pablo Martínez, psychiatrist, author and international speaker.