大象传媒

Good morning. 聽聽Forty two years ago today, Richard Nixon became the only President of the United States to resign. It was the final act in a long drawn out saga which started more than two years earlier聽 when burglars were found in Washington鈥檚 Watergate Complex which housed the headquarters of the Democratic Party There were 聽suggestions the burglars were connected with a group working to re-elect聽 Nixon, in the November Presidential election which he won easily. When journalists started to dig up all sorts of unsavoury details about the burglary, who knew about it and alleged attempts by the White House to cover up the whole affair, all sorts of denials and accusations were in the air. In February 1973 a Senate Committee was set up to investigate the whole affair. Its hearing provided me with some of the most fascinating television I鈥檝e ever watched- on an old black and white set.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

For six weeks that summer the Committee probed and peeled away the layers of deception until it merged that Nixon had tapes of his private conversations in the White House, He fought a dogged battle to prevent these getting into the public domain but when he lost at the Supreme Court and the tapes became public, his credibility was destroyed, Congress voted to impeach him and he resigned,

What fascinated and impressed me about watching the Committee hearings was the dogged and determined effort to get at the truth, not behind closed doors, but in full view of the American public and the world.

For truth is a precious thing. It can easily be lost in a welter of denials and not just by the powerful. We can all try to conceal it from people and from ourselves. Jesus said 鈥測ou shall know the truth and the shall set you free鈥�

Lord, help us value and respect truth through Jesus Christ, the truth Amen