On the Ed Show this week, there was a segment in which one of the guests pointed out that Franklin Graham was bearing false witness when he implied Obama was not a Christian.
And it occurs to me that the holier-than-thou “Christian” right have been breaking this commandment all the time. And that they need to be called out for it.
Proverbs 19:5 ESV
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.
Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
Exodus 20:16 ESV
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “
Here’s a small sample of deliberate dishonesty (some bits are paraphrased) that we have heard recently:
Senator Orrin Hatch: “Planned Parenthood uses 98% of its funds for abortion” - No only about 3%
Senator Jon Kyl (Arizona): “Planned Parenthood spends about 95% of its funds for abortion” – No, only about 3% of the funds are used for abortion. And of course, birth control means that abortion is less likely.
Former Senator http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/...
:
”Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized every year — and it’s 10 percent of all deaths for the Netherlands — half of those people are euthanized involuntarily, at hospitals, because they are older and sick. And so elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they’re afraid because of budget purposes that they will not come out of that hospital if they go into it with sickness.”
George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell: “There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq”. Obviously there were no WMDs as most of the world knew or guessed. Lying to start a war - well, genocide is worse but that is about it.
ACORN is encouraging underage prostitution.
Sarah Palin: Obamacare means death panels.
Glenn Beck: Obama hates white people. (For once this led to pushback and a whole bunch of advertisers abandoned his show and finally Beck and FOX parted ways)
I’m sure we could come up with hundreds more.
*
Some people may say that these liars are not committing false witness, because they are not doing this while under oath. I disagree. I do believe that some sorts of lies are not particularly damaging – like a man telling his wife that yes, he already took out the garbage and then sneaking down to the kitchen to do just that. No, the lies described above are meant to do incredible damage. Lies which have started wars, lies which harm our neighbors.
Only when we as people start to demand the truth can we heal this nation. That is because we have problems and we need solutions. We may not agree what the solutions should be, but we will make much more progress if we base the solutions on reality.
Now, what can we do? How can we fight it?
We need to support those who are telling the truth. Change.org, Maddow, Olberman, O’Donnell, Stewart and Colbert
We need to remember that truth is sometimes more complicated. A slogan such as “drill, baby drill” is inane.
We need to push back on those that lie. Check the math; check the facts. Shout out the truth.
We could use the phrase "Bearing False Witness" against these hypocrites. One way would be to make signs for relevant rallies. Let's use the commandments because they support our position. Let's own this and use it against those who are lying.
*
More instances of false witness? Include below.
More ideas how to fight back? Should we create our own politifact?
*
Sermony rant is over! Go out and demand the truth.
*
Want to know more about me? I'm into Greek mythology.