Importance of Speaking
the Truth
Part 2

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Author : Bill Kochman
Publish : May 7, 2026
Update : May 7, 2026
Parts : 02

Synopsis:

Truth Is Important To God And Important To Me, We Fail God When We Aren't Striving To Know Teach And Preach The Truth, Christians Are Failing On The Social Networks, No Evidence To Support Statement Allegedly Made By Ocasio-Cortez, Every AI Chatbot Refuted The Bogus Statement, What Ocasio-Cortez Actually Said, Snopes.com's Analysis Of The Facebook Meme, My Investigate Before You Propagate Image, Facebook Friend Refused To Acknowledge His Error And Defended His Position, Supporting Promoting And Propagating A False Internet Rumor, Our Primary Christian Responsibility/Obligation Is To Share And Preach The Truth Of God's Word, We Are No Better If We Resort To Same Tactics As The Children Of The World, Major Negative Repercussions When Any Christian Is Caught Lying, Correct The Error, Closing Remarks, Suggested Reading List


Continuing our discussion from part one, so, my friends, as you can no doubt see, the Bible has A LOT to say concerning this particular subject. Furthermore, because it does, it indirectly reveals how very important this topic is to God as well. Therefore, it's equally important to me personally in everything that do and say for the Lord. In my opinion, if we are not constantly striving to know the truth, and to teach and preach the truth, then we have failed the Lord. Sadly, I see a lot of this kind of failure on many of the social networks, and it is being committed, not just by worldly people, but by Christians as well. The example I provided at the very beginning of this article is proof of this tragic situation.

Concerning the stupid statement which was allegedly made by Ocasio-Cortez, upon conducting online research, I found no evidence whatsoever that she ever made that kind of a public statement. In fact, I also asked four of the most popular AI chatbots the very same question, which was the following:

----- Begin Quote -----

"Is it true that U.S. Representative from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, once stated "Republicans are trying to rig elections by only allowing U.S. citizens to vote."?

----- End Quote -----

In every single case, the chatbots -- Claude, Grok, ChatGPT and Gemini -- responded with the same basic negative answer. In other words, they all refuted the meme, and the alleged statement is completely invented, as well as totally false. The ONLY thing they did find remotely close to the alleged statement is that in 2023, Ocasio-Cortez spoke about a Washington, D.C. law allowing non-citizens to vote in LOCAL ELECTIONS, and she criticized Republican efforts to block said law. However -- and this is important -- she did NOT use the aforementioned quote. Neither did Ms. Ocasio-Cortez claim that citizenship requirements themselves are "rigging" elections. Furthermore, like many other liberal Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez is strongly opposed to the SAVE Act as well. Thus, based on a glaring lack of any supporting evidence whatsoever, we can only conclude that the statement -- and thus the Facebook meme -- is totally bogus.

As a final test, I also visited the Snopes.com website. I do not know how many of my readers trust Snopes.com -- they've been accused of being biased -- but here is what they had to say regarding this issue:

----- Begin Quote -----

"Google searches for Ocasio-Cortez's name and portions of the purported quote did not reveal any credible news reports, videos or news releases documenting Ocasio-Cortez saying those words. If she had truly made that statement, reputable news outlets likely would have covered it.

When asked by email whether Ocasio-Cortez said the quote or anything similar, Karla Santillan, Ocasio-Cortez's press secretary, said, "She did not say that."

In February 2023, Ocasio-Cortez argued on the House floor against a Republican-led effort to prevent the D.C. Council from passing a law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections in the nation's capital. While the House of Representatives passed a bill designed to block the law, the Senate did not. As a result, Washington, D.C., became one of a handful of municipalities around the country to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

----- End Quote -----

So again, friends, there's no evidence whatsoever to support that bogus meme which is floating around on Facebook, and on other social networks. It is a complete fabrication. As such, for any Christian to willingly share the meme is to propagate false information. Following is a graphic I made a number of years ago. It is a part of my "Addiction: Internet Rumors and Conspiracy Theories" image series:



Sadly -- and not surprisingly -- the Facebook friend who had posted the bogus meme apparently did not accept what I had to say to him. In fact, rather than simply admit that he was in error by posting it, he offered a rather weak response and said that while Ocasio-Cortez may not have said it directly, nevertheless, in his view, her votes and actions proved that the meme is true. Mind you that this is coming from a fellow Christian who is supposed to uphold the truth, and not be given to Internet rumors and conspiracy theories. Just as I said earlier, he was more interested in defending his own misguided position, than in humbly admitting the truth by saying something such as "Yeah, it was wrong of me to post it before conducting an investigation. I should just remove the meme so that I don't lead other people astray."

Going by his last response, I then informed him that based on the total lack of evidence to support, verify or substantiate the alleged statement, what he was actually doing amounted to supporting, promoting and propagating a false Internet rumor. I also informed him -- as I shared earlier in this article -- that I have long believed -- and strongly believe -- that our primary Christian responsibility and obligation to God is to share and preach the truth of His holy Word. That is why the Lord has called us into His Kingdom in the first place. That is what we are here to do. That is to say, to be ambassadors of God's Kingdom, and ambassadors of truth. HIS truth.

However, if we start knowingly passing along false information just like the children of the world love to do for the sake of acquiring more likes, comments, shares and followers, and if we do even worse by resorting to sensationalistic posts just to draw attention to ourselves, then we're no better than they are. Furthermore, if something we have shared turns out to be false, it can be very damaging to the Cause of Christ, as well as to our particular ministry. It can harm our reputation as a reliable source of true information, and it can also hurt our Christian witness and testimony. After all, if we are caught sharing something that is not true, or at least which is a significant distortion or embellishment of the actual truth, then think how much more difficult it can become when we try to share the Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom with a person. Think about this, my friends. They could easily say something such as the following:

"Well, you were obviously wrong about that. You lied about it and you really misled me regarding that issue, when I trusted in you. So why should I believe you now when you are telling me about your faith and Jesus Christ? You no longer have any credibility in my eyes."

So, my dear friends, that is why this is such an extremely important issue to me personally. It is simply self-defeating when we knowingly post things which are not accurate and true, and even worse when due to our pride, we refuse to correct our error, preferring instead to foolishly try to defend what is obviously an indefensible position to begin with. We are only hurting ourselves, as well as hurting the Cause of Christ, and hampering leading new people into God's Kingdom. I hope you truly realize the seriousness of this situation. So those are my personal thoughts for your consideration.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Are You Deceived and Don't Even Know It?

Are You Flexible?

Are You Just a Baby Huey?

Beware of the Sacred Namers!

Do You Seek the Truth or Short-Change Yourself?

Doctrinal Correction: The Proper Way to Do It

Facebook False Prophets and Misguided Teachers

Humility in Our Understanding of God's Word

It Is Time to Wake Up!

My Evolving Theology

Please Stop Misinterpreting the Scriptures

Preterist or Futurist? It's All by Faith

Should Christians Engage in Doctrinal Debates?

So, You Have Got It All Figured Out, Do You?

Speak the Pure Language of Truth

The Only Credentials You Need!

The Theologian War and Man Worship

The Wisdom of God Versus the Philosophy of Men

Tradition or Truth? Old Wine or New Wine?

Understanding the Bible in Context


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