You Shall Not Bear False Witness

[handy]

I debated whether to put this thread on Bible Study, but I opted for General Talk, because I really want to explore more the principle behind these words rather than the texts themselves. The texts are pretty self-explantory after all.

Exodus 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Deuteronomy 19:15-20 A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed. If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

The passage in Deuteronomy (which Jesus quoted btw) puts forth that if someone accuses another of something, then the matter is to be brought before the Lord, as well as the earthly judges and the matter is to be investigated thoroughly. If the matter isn't proven to be true, the the false witness is to face the judgment he was seeking against the one he accused. To me, this shows that God frowns upon us listening to and forwarding on unproven rumor.


The election is now 40 days away and there are a lot of rumors going around. John McCain admits to being a war criminal. Obama placed his hand on the Koran when being sworn into office. Sarah Palin banned library books. Joe Biden is going to step down so that Hilary can get on the Democrat ticket.

All these rumors have either been proven false or at least not confirmed by any reliable source to some extent or another yet there are plenty who ignore the evidence to the contrary and continue to repeat them.

My question is, does God frown upon Christians forwarding these kinds of rumors to everyone in our email address books, or posting them on forums such as this? Since McCain and Obama are public/political figures, does the Godly principle from which we get these texts not apply to them? How much will we be held accountable in passing on rumors that have no proven basis in facts?

And, what about rumors that are not about specific people so to speak, but to events such as the Kennedy assassination or 9/11?

To what extent are we held accountable in helping spread unproven (and often unprovable) rumors?

 

[John]

I believe we should seek truth in all things, that's why I look so deeply into 9/11

 

[Carol Lowery]

Wow that was good Dora, I say the same thing. If it's not repeated to the next person with the same mindset and heartset and verbal tones without twist in those tones, then is it the truth anymore and bearing false witness?

The Kennedy assassinations: Now the only thing I can say to that is that my uncle in his twenties was personal body guard/agent to President Kennedy and his wife and children, and many times with little John while his father was giving speaches....I have a cute little story about one of those times my uncle told us about. Little John called my uncle, uncle. President Kennedy spent alot of time with his children, but my uncle was a personal agent in the White House with them or when they traveled. Now I remember when he came home on leave just all torn up and talked about what could be said, he was broken over his death (as my uncle says murdered by our goverment). The reason why my uncle said this is the day he was assassinated, my uncle was running by the car and went to step up on the side and was directed to step down and back away, he said he put his hands out like to jester why, then later Kennedy was shot. He never understood why he was instructed to step down and away, first time ever. Though I haven't seen that part of the complete footage ever, our home was filled with that grief, I know my uncle is a God fearing man, and is now retiring as a federal marshall.....that is something my uncle swears up and down on that it was an inside job and that Oswall was an escape goat. With him being at one time a secret agent for the Kennedy's I believe him. He's a very rational man, upright, God fearing man, but to this day he believes it.

Kudos HIM,
Carol <><

 

[handy]

I can understand the search for truth, and I think seeking after truth is what God would want us to do. The Bereans were praised for not taking what was said to them at face value, and wasn't it Jesus who said to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. The "wise as serpents" I can relate to because we have a serpent, a Boa. And, Boas always check things out before striking. When we put something into his cage, his head comes up and he flicks his tongue out. This is his way of tasting the air, checking things out. Jesus was speaking of being wary of men, to check them out, for they would deliver the disciples to courts and to scourgings. Men are evil as we all know, and there are many things, things like 9/11, the JFK assination, and things about political leaders that are evil.

The thing is, when are we truly seeking after truth (a good thing) as opposed to passing on unsubstantiated and possibly damaging rumors. This is what's hard for me to figure out. Most rumors can be rejected after just a cursory check via the internet. Oh sure, sometimes you have to click on page 2 or page 3 of the Google response, but if one is seeking the truth, one can usually find it. The problem with a lot of these rumors though is that there are plenty who don't want others to find the truth, they want to obfuscate facts, often to the point where the truth can never be fully understood. For example, it has been repeated and repeated and repeated that there were no cell phone calls from the planes on 9/11, and yet I know that Deena and Tom spoke with each other. So, the rumors that there were no cell phone calls that day are lies. And yet, they get repeated and repeated.

So the question is, for the Christian, how much should we be invovled with this? I don't want to be a sheeple. But, I also don't want to bear false witness, even if the 'neighbor' in question is Barak Obama or the Warren Commission or the 9/11 Commission.