If you have a righteous cause, why jeopardize it by (let’s be kind) “stretching the truth”? Publicity that isn’t based on actual fact can fire up current followers and garner a few more–until the truth comes out. At that point, the black cloud of suspicion gathers over your cause and you. Take two recent cases in point.
First, Kim Davis and her encounter with the Pope. Yes, her position would be strengthened if the Pope granted her an audience and offered her support for her stance against issuing marriage licences to gay couples. IF that had actually happened. Instead, she was among dozens of people who had a brief casual conversation with Pope Francis, not an audience or deep discussion, let alone encouragement and support.
Next, the Planned Parenthood video with the horrendous talk about an aborted fetus. This is powerful ammunition against Planned Parenthood–if the video is true. Many people still choose to believe the validity of that video, although reputable sources question it because the jumpy motions indicate that the camera was stopped and started again and again (lots of editing), because there is no sound (e.g., discussion about harvesting the brain), and because the maker of the video admits he made it elsewhere to depict a story he had heard. It doesn’t create an air of truthfulness, either, when the mother of the fetus says publicly that her child was a miscarriage, not an abortion.
I believe that we need to act on our consciences. To do so effectively, though, we need to use the truth as our weapon of strength, not emotion-grabbing falsehoods.