By Rev. Paul Graves
Do you remember the first time you lied as a child? I don’t. But I’m sure it was for a very good reason – like not getting in trouble with Mom or Dad.
I’m sure it started a self-protecting pattern from whatever. So in today’s culture of rampant, toxic lying, I have to ask:
Why is it important that so many politicians lie? Why is it important that so many of their followers believe them?
Since I decided on Oct. 7 to focus this column on “bearing false witness” (or “lying” if you prefer), I’ve tried to monitor the political lying episodes recorded in our media. It’s astounding – and disheartening – to see how easily politicians at all levels can lie with conviction and not care they are lying.
My column decision was triggered by Donald Trump’s obsessive lying about so many things – but specifically the dangerous lies that FEMA funds were supporting illegal immigrants instead of hurricane victims. That was/is obviously “fake news,” and cruel on many levels.
Additional lies cascade from Trump and his MAGA cult followers: denying the 2020 election of Joe Biden, or that Jan. 6, 2021, was filled with “love and peace” or the countless lies about Haitian and Venezuelan immigrants. Too many to list in these last days of the election season.
I’ve shared this “truth” story from Sr. Joan Chittister before. It bears repeating:
“Once upon a time a visitor came to the monastery looking for the purpose and meaning of life. The teacher said to the visitor, ‘If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.’
“ ‘I know,’ the visitor said. ‘To find Truth I must have an overwhelming passion for it.’ ‘No,’ the teacher said. ‘In order to find Truth, you must have an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.’ ”
It appears that so many MAGA Republicans and their leader cannot admit they may be wrong. I’m deeply sad for them, and fearful for our country if Trump wins.
But putting partisan commentary aside, I want to consider the human tendency to lie in a biblical context. Lying is only part of our human nature.
The ninth commandment, in Exodus 20:16, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” calls us to remember we are more. It condemns false, harmful speech as an act of injustice against God and one’s neighbors.
We don’t take lying very seriously. But today, we need to remind ourselves of this. In our current cultural moment, it has become too easy us to lie.
Ease of lying may have a deeper reason. In a 2016 column, I spoke about every person alive being inflicted to some degree with the Tyranny of Certainty.
“Tyranny” comes from Greek words that mean “absolute power”, “master.” We are addicted to – tyrannized by – our own need for certainty when we project our certainty on others as the only worthy way to think. Bold lying strongly suggest someone is firmly in the grips of that Tyranny of Certainty.
When we’re confronted with that tyranny, we must consider standing up to the bully. Elie Wiesel’s wisdom (“The Night Trilogy”) is worth heeding here:
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.
When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”
Choose your truth-seeking side and vote your conscience!
The Rev. Paul Graves is a retired elder member of the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.
