When Renee Good was shot, we were immediately told conflicting narratives. We were told that she was a domestic terrorist who weaponized her vehicle against an ICE agent, who was forced to shoot her for endangering his life. At the same time, we were also told that she was an innocent civilian and peaceful protestor gunned down by a murderous ICE agent. Obviously, these contradictory narratives cannot both be true. Furthermore, the absolute truth and the actual facts may, to some degree or another, belie both narratives.

Saturday, a second fatal shooting occurred in Minnesota, which, once again, immediately spawned two conflicting narratives. We were told that the victim was brandishing a weapon at ICE agents, who were forced to shoot him in self-defense, when he violently resisted their attempt to disarm him. At the same time, we were told that he too was a peaceful protestor, who had nothing in his hand but his phone, when he was shot to death by a murderous ICE agent, while other ICE agent thugs were brutally beating him on the ground. Now, once again, not only can these completely contradictory narratives not both be true, but the chances are that the absolute truth and actual facts belie them both, to some degree or another.

Now, you, like so many Americans, may claim to know which one of the contradictory narratives is true, based purely on your viewing of videos of the two shootings. Of course, you probably watched the videos prejudicially, looking for evidence within them to substantiate your preconceived ideas, which is proven by the fact that the videos are claimed to be proof positive of both completely contradictory narratives, by the political partisans who spin them. Still, the truth is; you weren't there. You really don't know what happened. Neither do you know the ICE officers involved in the shootings nor did you know the two fatalities, much less what the officers and fatalities were thinking or intending in the fatal moment of both shootings.

The Bible teaches us that before we believe any accusation against anyone we should enquire diligently as to whether the accusation is true or not (Deuteronomy 13:14; 17:4; 19:18-19). However, herein lies our trouble in today's America. We have burned down the benefit of the doubt in this country. Neither our media nor our government—federal, state, or local—can be trusted to tell us either the truth or the facts. Instead of being well briefed, we're being brainwashed, and, unfortunately, few Americans even realize that they're being fed lies rather than the facts, so that their minds can be made up for them rather than them making up their minds for themselves.

Our country has tuned away from the truth, finding it, as the Bible predicts the whole world will at the end of time, intolerable. We prefer the lie, as the Bible also predicts people will in the perilous times of the last days. Therefore, as the broken-hearted ancient prophet Isaiah bemoaned that the truth had fallen in the streets of his country in his day, you and I should broken-heartedly bemoan the fact that the truth has also fallen in the streets of our country in our day (Isaiah 59:14). That people are dying on the streets of Minnesota is a real tragedy, but the greater tragedy is that the truth is also dying, but not only on the streets of Minnesota, but on streets all across America today.