Suppression of the truth

The 9/11-anniversary lesson is entitled “Who Needs The Gospel? They Do!” is based on Romans 1:18-32. Pastor James McCullen of Liberty Baptist Church commenting on the lesson asks, “Did you ever think about unrighteousness suppressing the truth?”

This got me to thinking about how to illustrate the idea of truth suppression. To suppress is to “keep from being revealed, or deliberately exclude”.

A great illustration of suppression of the truth is found in the movie “The Insider,” where tobacco company executives testify that smoking is not addictive. Download and play an excerpt from the movie from Jeffery Wigand’s page, or make PowerPoint slides of the “still” shots from the movie that can be found on the page.

Read the background material on the page as well as the key statement about “inventing fiction than face the truth”. Ask the class to describe how this example relates to “unrighteousness suppressing the truth.”