False Witness

I memorized the ten commandments when I was in 3rd grade, about the time I memorized the books of the Bible to earn my first Bible in Sunday School. It was all King James Version at the time, so I have etched in my brain: "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Sometime later I read Proverbs 6:

There are six things the Lord hates – no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.

I remember marveling that a lying tongue and a false witness were included in the same list as hands that kill the innocent. Since then I've seen how lies can kill.

Bearing false witness is not just originating lies. It includes repeating them. Maliciously, carelessly, casually, fervently ... The harm is done no matter the motive.
I've always taken that seriously, so seriously I won't even write something in my morning prayer journal unless I'm sure it's true. I sometimes catch myself about to record a grievance or complaint. I pause, pray, consider.

To me, truth is a precious treasure, and false witness a danger that destroys trust, damages community and endangers lives.

That's why I'm alarmed when people I once respected casually repeat lies. It's also why I have a deep distrust of President Donald Trump. No, Haitian immigrants have not been eating people's pets. No, USAID did not pay millions of dollars to distribute condoms in Gaza.

I know politicians sometimes misspeak. I know sometimes they stretch the truth. I also know Trump's flagrant lies led to the nickname "Liar in Chief" (repeated in well-researched books, film and too many articles to document).

Wikipedia has a page titled "False or misleading statements by Donald Trump." It's by far the longest page I've seen on Wikipedia, and has a little note to volunteer editors:

This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (September 2024)

 

The page provides 595 sources (as of this writing, with more added daily). Text under the graphic on the right notes it only covers a window from 2018 to 2021:

Fact-checkers from The Washington Post^[1] (top, monthly), the Toronto Star^[2] and CNN^[3][4] (bottom, weekly) compiled data on "false or misleading claims", and "false claims", respectively. The peaks corresponded in late 2018 to the midterm elections, in late 2019 to his impeachment inquiry, and in late 2020 to the presidential election. The Post reported 30,573 false or misleading claims in four years,^[1] an average of more than 20.9 per day.

For me, once someone has demonstrated repeated, determined disregard for the truth, that person is not to be trusted, unless there's confession, apology for harm, and even then, anything such a person says needs to be carefully weighed against other, more reliable testimony.

Yet I know Christians who consider Donald Trump a trusted source and repeat what he says, regularly breaking one of the ten commandments and doing a thing scripture says God hates. I also know preachers, far too many, who brazenly, emphatically repeat Trump's lies, stirring their congregants' emotions and sowing anger, fear and discord in families and communities.

Both cases undermine and compromise Christian witness and regard for truth. Here's an interesting challenge: spend some time on Bible Gateway, checking how much scripture says about lies, repeating lies, aligning with liars. I promise, there's plenty. Not nearly as much as about caring for the poor, or the stranger, or creation, but enough to make clear: God really really hates falsehoods and those who align themselves with liars. How to avoid the snare of misinformation? How to avoid repeating lies? One quick rule: don't repeat a source that has lied in the past. Even if he's the president. For a more in-depth approach, there are plenty of resources online offering fact-checks, assessing media bias, giving step-by-step instructions on countering misinformation. I like this thorough guide provided by the Austin Community College Library Resources. It's worth sharing some of their resources, or links they provide. And worth reading the page about why misinformation is harmful. The reality, though, is that most folks bearing false witness and sharing rumors and lies will not be convinced by fact or fact-checking websites. There's a whole body of research on why that's the case, a post for another day. NPR offers a thoughtful discussion of connection, not correction. I've tried much of what the article suggests. I'm not sure it works. From what I can see, once someone has given their loyalty to a liar, truth has a hard time breaking through, and the torrent of accusation and misinformation from Trump loyalists can be wearying, even dangerous.

I know friends who have gone silent rather than run the risk of constant friction or personal attack. I know politicians who go along with lies rather than risk their political careers by insisting on the truth.

Silence in the face of lies is rarely a lasting option. A quote attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, killed for his resistance in the final days of World War 2, is a grim reminder that most German Christians were actively complicit, while others were silent in the face of Nazi brutality: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” We can pray that God will change hearts and minds, that God will intervene as policy is shaped by distortions and deception. But sometimes the call of justice, mercy and righteousness demands words, from us. A first step is to refuse to repeat, affirm, or stay silent in the presence of false witness.