A few days ago I posted a clever video clip that recasts Mary Poppins from lovable nanny to menace and started a discussion on why it is we edit the truth. I mentioned that we see this editing in politics often. Ms. Sherrod’s long ordeal illustrates this perfectly.

Decades ago Shirley Sherrod told the truth about herself. This was a truth that no one would have known about her had she not courageous chosen to be transparent. She had allowed racial consideration to be a factor in choosing how much personal effort she invested when helping a white family of farmers. Before she was honest with her audience at the NAACP, she was honest with herself. She disappointed herself and vowed to change. Her vulnerability transcended our nation’s ugly legacy of racial division. She had model a better way of dealing with racial tension.

That truth didn’t fit into a blogger’s view of the world, so he intentionally edited the truth. The blogger hid Sherrod’s story of personal transformation and revealed just the “before” scene. He needed proof that the NCAAP was a racially biased organization, so through editing he fabricated a version of Sherrod that would fit into his world of “Us- verses- Them” culture wars.

Editing Sherrod’s truth gave him power. His blog post received national attention. The clicks on that post skyrocketed along with his stature as a source of information. Advertising dollars were sure to follow.

Fox News scooped up the blogger’s story and ran with it, apparently without a single fact check. Apparently, they never asked to see the entire video. Sherrod was not contacted for comment. Edited Sherrod would increase viewer-ship and consequent advertising rates.  A cable network is not married to one or the other political party as much as it is to selling conflict. Fox just happened to concern the market for conflict from a right wing perspective. If unedited truth sold toilet paper ads, Hannity would have aired a special exposing the blogger for the con man he is. The truth test for Edited Sherrod wasn’t a disciplined fact check. The “truth test” was “will this incite?”

Although the USDA had years of first hand experience with Unedited Sherrod, they had to deal with the televised version of her, and it wasn’t convenient. Edited Sherrod was a liability that gave high ground to the right. The USDA had the choice of taking the time to listen to Sherrod’s protests and to watch her speech themselves. They had the option presenting Unedited Sherrod to the nation, a move that would have left Fox News embarrassed. Instead, they decided to cut their losses and jettison a faithful employee. Setting the record straight, apparently, was been to be too much effort.

The value of retelling this unfortunate news story isn’t in the opportunity to point fingers at any of the guilty parties. We were given a rare insight into how truth gets edited too suit our means. If I read this story and point at Fox News and condemn their editing and stop there, I’m missing the point. The USDA behaved like Pilate and turned an innocent person over to the angry crowd, not stopping to judge her guilt or innocence. But if my observations stop there, I’m missing the point.

Here’s the unaltered truth. We all edit and create versions of the reality that give us power and make us feel self-justified. We edit to discredit enemies so we can avoid dealing with their perspectives. We edit as churches to defend our own theological positions and practices. Meanwhile, Jesus– who describes himself as the truth– gives himself to us, and we’re tempted to edit him too.