“Those who follow him [Jesus Christ] live in the Spirit of truth and guard against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.”
–Catechism of the Catholic Church, section on the Commandment against bearing false witness
Given the dishonesty pervading the campaign, I thought it might be useful to review why lying was included in the top ten commandments.
Here are excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Note that in Catholic translation’s the prohibition on bearing false witness is the Eighth Commandment. In many Protestant and Jewish translations, it’s the Ninth Commandment.) For a Christian, falsely defaming another person’s character or reputation violate Christ’s commands.
521. What is one’s duty toward the truth?
Every person is called to sincerity and truthfulness in acting and speaking. Everyone has the duty to seek the truth, to adhere to it and to order one’s whole life in accordance with its demands. In Jesus Christ the whole of God’s truth has been made manifest. He is “the truth”. Those who follow him live in the Spirit of truth and guard against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
522. How does one bear witness to the truth?
A Christian must bear witness to the truth of the Gospel in every field of his activity, both public and private, and also if necessary, with the sacrifice of his very life. Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith.
523. What is forbidden by the eighth commandment?
The eighth commandment forbids:
• false witness, perjury, and lying, the gravity of which is measured by the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims;
• rash judgment, slander, defamation and calumny which diminish or destroy the good reputation and honor to which every person has a right;
• flattery, adulation, or complaisance, especially if directed to serious sins or toward the achievement of illicit advantages.
A sin committed against truth demands reparation if it has caused harm to others.
524. What is required by the eighth commandment?
The eighth commandment requires respect for the truth accompanied by the discretion of charity in the field of communication and the imparting of information, where the personal and common good, the protection of privacy and the danger of scandal must all be taken into account; in respecting professional secrets which must be kept, save in exceptional cases for grave and proportionate reasons; and also in respecting confidences given under the seal of secrecy.
525. How is one to use the means of social communication?
The information provided by the media must be at the service of the common good. Its content must be true and – within the limits of justice and charity – also complete. Furthermore, information must be communicated honestly and properly with scrupulous respect for moral laws and the legitimate rights and dignity of the person.
posted September 15, 2008 at 4:02 pm
It’s an excellent post, and Andrew Sullivan has made the same point:
“The Commandment They Always Forget
12 Sep 2008 05:16 pm
It’s sad to be lectured constantly by the Republicans on morality. My marriage, for example, is a sin, according to Republicans. And if you squint hard enough somewhere in the Bible, you can find a couple of verses that will say so. But you don’t have to squint hard at all to see the Ten Commandments. And one of them is pretty clear:
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
What we are seeing from the pious denizens of the Christianist right – once again – is not just their susceptibility to breaking this commandment, but their zeal and enthusiasm in doing so. They are obsessed with the sex lives of others but see nothing wrong with breaking one of the most fundamental moral instructions in the Bible thenmselves. A reader writes:
Thou Shalt Not Lie.
Anyone? Dobson? Romney? Hewitt? Anyone? Larry Craig?
I’m seriously losing count of the transparent frauds on the “Right.” This whole Palin bump/fiasco is like one last glow of the Rove movement before it goes boom in the night.
The other thing that comes to mind is lemmings. You’re right. People need to chill, take a step back, forget about the polls for a second, and understand that there is a historic implosion taking place right now. History will look back kindly on the canaries in the conservative coal mine. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be many.
Well, David Frum is quietly chirping. And Paul Mirengoff did too.”
As a libertarian Democrat, I have no problem criticizing Democrats. In the end though, you have to care more about ideas and principles and decency and fairness than individuals and winning at any cost. You would think that this would be an area where religious leaders really could help with politics. I guess not.
posted September 21, 2008 at 9:52 am
I have been a christian for many yaers now. I also have been struggling with certain issues that keep me from moving ahead in my walk w/Christ. For along time I was devoting 8-12hrs to the study of the word but for some reason I just seemed to slow down then eventually just stopped. I know exactly what it is I am supposed to do but doing it is another story. I turn to Christ in every situtation that seems to be my undoing but hardly ever just to give thanks & praise. I am still hoping that the father will just turn my life around and allow me to fall at the feet of the cross.
ANY WORDS OF ADVISE?
Thank you…Tony
posted September 21, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Im searching thur the bible and other information to find an anwser to this question, can any one of any faith answer this for me. God’s word says we should not lie is it ok to lie about the day of his birth. the encyclopedia says Dec the 25th wasnt the day Jesus was born but is the day pagans celebrate the birth of the SUN god. Help me see some where in the Bible where it is ok to lie and celebrate Christmas Please
posted September 22, 2008 at 6:22 am
It is not okay to celebrate Christmas. First of all, Jesus was born in April or May no one is sure. But the lambs were being born and that usually happens in spring time.
Plus John the Baptist had his cut off at a birthday party, another reason not to celebrate. Jesus and John the Baptist were like brothers or partners sent to preach the lesson – come with me and be saved.
Finally, Christmas is a retail event. I am sure Jesus would walk into Walmart and curse it so it will never have a profit again.
Jesus said celebrate my death for it is in death that mankind and womankind will be saved from this world.
Sorry, don’t have my Bible handy to quote the scriptures but I can.
My two cents for what it is worth.
Barbara
posted September 22, 2008 at 8:00 am
Hello Tony,
Wow 12 hours of study per day sounds like a lot of devotion. But remember not to overlook the main message that Christ was teaching: Above all things love one another. It is wonderful if you are a new christian but you commented that you have been a “Christian for years”. Sometimes our flesh desire to immerse ourselves in something is really to get that emotional adrenaline release. Following Christ is not going to be a 24/7 high. Even if you were one of the disciples walking next to the Man Himself, there would be times of feeling tired, dusty, hungry and just frustrated at the way you had to avoid trouble from the local authority. Take a minute to just sit back and think only on your relationship with Christ first, then your brother/sisters in Christ. It is wonderful to read to learn but then what are you going to do with that knowledge. Go out and fellowship for those 8 hours. That is what will fill your cup back up and you will not tire or fall away from that because that is what Jesus did do.
Blessings and Restoration to you.
In Christ’s Love,
Nancy
posted September 22, 2008 at 8:28 am
Good Morning Carla and Barbara,
It’s very sad to read such conflicted feelings about this country’s most celebrated holiday. Christmas is celebrated as a recognition of the Holy Birth of the World’s Savior. Does it matter if there is a story about the Pagan Harvest Ritual in celebrating Thanksgiving if we bow our heads to God in humble thanks for His Blessings?
I have never met anyone that goes through the family ritual of decorating a Christmas Tree in honor of the Forest Gods. I have never met anyone who colors Easter egss with their children while teaching them to bend their heads in prayer to the Goddess of Fertility so that their chickens in the back yard can produce more eggs.
Christ himself sat down with the Pagans to eat their food offered openly to their gods and Christ ate. What was more important than dissecting the ritual/act was the fellowship and the coming together of the people to break down walls of judgement and scorn.
If it gives you a sense of pleasure to celebrate Christmas in honor of Christ’s Holy Birth, then do so. Do it to recognize the Event, just as we all come together at 9-11 and bow our heads and shed our tears. I expect that there will be some group out there talking about how ignorant it is that we “celebrate” this event yearly. They will ignorantly claim that we do it in submission to recognizing the power it took to execute such an atrocity on our America. They will pervert our act of Honoring the survivors, the volunteers, the heroes and their families. But, we will know in our hearts why we do it and THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS.
GOD knows YOUR heart. If you want to make Christmas about shopping, then that is who you are. If you want to make CHristmas about baking cookies for the homeless or lonely senior citizens 1 out of 365 days of the year, then that is who you are. Remember what Christ said to his disciples when they we angry at the other men, not of Christ, that were working miracles and driving out demons…”Those who are not against us, are for us”.
My own father was a war veteran and he once shared an interesting observation with me. He said that hunger relief included dropping crates of Gerber’s Baby Food into the war zone. The goal was to provide food to the starving babies in Vietnam. A group of enemies started the rumor that the picture of the infant on the jar was to inform them of what was in the jar. That is, the Americans had ground and cooked children to make cannibals of the Vietnamese. A lot of children died because their parents refused to take part of this cannabalistic ritual. That is a very sad thing.
Blessings and Wisdom to you both,
In Christ’s Love,
Nancy
posted September 23, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thank you Nancy and Barbara for those wonderful words of wisdom. It as well help me thank you for allowing GOD to use you.
posted September 23, 2008 at 11:22 am
If ever there was a church that broke the commandment on lying it is the roman catholic church.
The vast cover up of imorality amoung priests from way down the bottom to way up to the top.
The moving of priests caught in this imorality to other parishes, even other countries to let them not only escape punishment but to let them continue their totally imporal lifestyle and destroy countles young people for life.
And still it goes on and onand on.
But God will not be mocked. All those involved from the very top to the very bottom will have to pay for this totally imorality. May they all burn uin hell for ever.
posted September 24, 2008 at 6:41 pm
It is sad, when people claim to be christians and yet they never claim to be liars, they just do it and hope that they can get away with it.
If a person will lie in order to get what they want; they will do [anything] to get what they want.