The ongoing political fiasco of our nation (and within several states as well), raises a very basic issue.We trust our legislators to do what we pay them to do (they’re our employees) because they take an oath to uphold the Constitution.Problem is, liars don’t keep their word.When an elected official opts to lie pathologically rather than to tell the truth, how can we expect him (or her) to uphold an oath they took?Doesn’t lying behavior suggest that they were lying when they took that oath?A hand on the Bible means nothing if you don’t suppose God is waiting with a lightning bolt in the metaphorical Heaven described, none too clearly, in the Good Book.This is the greatest crisis a democracy can possibly face—lying leaders.
This isn’t just alarmist talk.Societies—even capitalistic ones—rely on a great deal of trust.Those who don’t mean what they say end up on the business end of the Better Business Bureau, or fail to stay solvent.There are laws that ensure you are protected if someone sells you a false bill of goods.What then, if the highest office in the land is occupied by someone who can’t be trusted?Instead of appealing to the rule of law to set such a person on the right path, the Republican (Church) Party has decided that lying is now a commandment.I may be lying, but how can you tell?If no one has the backbone to stand up and declare that the whole system has toppled, what can a nation do?An even more worrisome fact is that there’s no going back once this has happened.The Republican Church has instilled this behavior for three years and is showing no sign of repentance.
Oaths were taken very seriously in the world of the Bible.Violating one (lying intentionally) was considered the surest way to arouse God’s anger.Ironically the Republican Church, which claims to be biblically based, is, according to its own Scripture, angering God.I often consider myself a cynic, but my cynicism falls far short of this.Psychological studies have demonstrated that the average person is reluctant to outright lie when the idea of God is introduced into conversation.God’s Own Party, however, has inured itself to that minor phobia.The Good Book, after all, says God’s the father of lies, right?If they’d bother to open that book they’re thumping, I think they’d discover that that is truthfully the worst kind of blasphemy a human can utter.
