Speak the Truth, Do the (Blank)

Game time!

I was at an event at a Unitarian church a little while ago, and I saw a stained glass window that puzzled me. It’s a decorative pattern, featuring furly banners with words on them. But the last banner is blank. The window reads, “Speak the Truth, Do the (Blank).”

stained glass window speak the truth do the (blank)

So I have two topics of conversation here.

One: Why the blank banner? My guess is that the original piece of stained glass got broken, and it was cheaper to replace it with a blank banner than one with the missing word. But that’s just a guess. Anyone have any actual information shedding light on this — or any entertainingly uninformed speculation of their own?

Two, and much more fun: How would you fill in the blank?

“Speak the truth, do the (blank).”

Your time starts — now!

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Greta Christina is author of four books: Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do with God, Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why, Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More.

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Speak the Truth, Do the (Blank)
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31 thoughts on “Speak the Truth, Do the (Blank)

  1. 2

    Most likely it was some high-falutin’ artistic decision, but maybe it was something else, slightly weirder. Like, maybe the church’s “Stained Glass Design Committee” deadlocked on the last word, and they’re waiting for something to change so the can finally decide.

  2. 12

    ‘Speak the truth; do the truth’ pops up in some Biblical archaeology source. But also ‘Speak the truth; do the right.’ is out there too.

    Nothing in King James version, except this in Zechariah, 8:16
    ‘These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:’

    So the window might be a bumper-sticker version of THAT.

    I was going to suggest ‘do the time.’ In honor of Robert Blake, but I’ve been scooped.

  3. 15

    I actually read it as “Speak the truth, do time”, and assumed it was a commentary on the necessity of free speech.
    However, I’m going to suggest “Speak the truth, do the thing” in honour of all the hard-working executive assistants to narcissistic inventors out there.

  4. 16

    I doubt it is such a reference, but Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Book IV of Emile, or On Education writes in “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar” an interesting passage that includes the following sentence, “Whether they love you or hate you, whether they read or despise your writings, it does not matter: speak the truth; do the good.”

  5. 18

    Thinking “hustle”. It would have a certain religious symmetry – claim to speak the truth, by doing the exact opposite, and lying, and, it has the benefit of confusing everyone that doesn’t get the con.

  6. 26

    Maybe this stained glass is a “sorta pallindrome” — the words “Speak the” and “Do the” surround the word “Truth”?

    Maybe the stained glass artist intended it to say “Speak the Truth Do the Truth” where the word “Truth” was a central element in the design?

    I would ask the Unitarian Universalist congregation (they probably have a contact email on their web site). Maybe they have an explanation.

  7. 28

    Added to which, there doesn’t seem quite enough room for a five-letter word, so “truth” or “right” wouldn’t fit without being slightly squashed. Rousseau gets my vote. Still wondering why that space was left blank, though – maybe the artist wasn’t paid in full?

  8. 30

    I finally realized what’s bothering me about this particular stained glass piece. The ribbon’s wrapping around the thingamabob the wrong way!
    So instead of being “Speak the Truth, Do the (Blank)”, it should actually read “(Blank) Do the the Truth Speak”.

    Maybe, in the grand tradition of “Pay us to name things”, they’re waiting for the right donor to pay enough to fill it in. Perhaps Pepsico will come along, and make it “Speak the Truth, Do the Dew”?
    Or maybe Nike will pay extra to fix the grammar so it reads “Speak the Truth, Just Do It”?

    Personally, I’d go for “Speak the Truth, Do the Do the Do.” Because Frank Sinatra.

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