In the run-up to the upcoming United States elections, political parties will have had their national conventions, adopted the platforms upon which their members will run, have selected their candidates for national offices, and held at least two debates between the parties respective candidates for President. Between now and the elections, I will be posting occasional God-centered comments on issues that every Catholic, and for that matter every God-fearing person, should seriously reflect upon before they cast their votes. As Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “If you believe in God, then you must vote as if you do.”
St. Thomas Aquinas said, “Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.” St. Thomas Aquinas was wrong. We live with each other even though being truthful is a lost virtue. But God thinks truthfulness is important, so much so that he made a point of including it in His Ten Commandments. The Eighth Commandment states, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” The Eighth Commandment condemns lying. Because God is regarded as the author of all truth, the Church believes that humans are obligated to honor the truth. Not only does this Commandment obligate us not to lie for ourselves, but it also obligates us to not participate in spreading of lies about others nor to participate in gossip.
It is election season. To our dismay, our news is full of lies, distortions, falsehoods, half-truths, fake news; and occasionally, objective, useful information. Our task, as Christians, is to develop the skills we need to be able to tell the bad from the good. Why must we develop these skills? We need to be sure that we are not committing sins ourselves by spreading the lies, distortions, falsehoods, half-truths, and fake news. Going to hell because we participate in the spread of untruths, after all, is a far worse outcome than whoever wins any election.
For a disciple of Jesus Christ, living in the truth and bearing witness to it appropriately are not optional. They are binding obligations. Jesus proclaims himself the way, the truth, and the life, and he promises that the truth will set us free. But if we pass on untruths, we are working for the devil, whom Jesus calls a “liar and the father of all lies.”
Have no doubt, the world is pushing hard against the virtue of truthfulness. Every election is billed as the “most important election ever.” In contrast to Christian belief, many of our contemporaries believe that the end justifies the means. If fudging the truth is the way to beat back what they perceive as the forces of darkness, that is just what they will do.
But our call is to be people of the truth, and to be people of the truth means avoiding every form of bearing false witness. There are sins that show a lack of respect for other people’s reputations: making rash judgements; detracting from other people’s honest ideas; and calumny. If someone tells us something awful, even about someone we consider our enemy, our Christianity requires us not even silently to believe it is true until we have a sufficient foundation for that conclusion. How often do we hear stories on the evening news or read in national publications, or read on social media, about outlandish statements purportedly made by one politician or another? Do media outlets provide the sources that they used in preparing that story? How can we evaluate the truth of reports without knowing the sources and how the authors of the story came to the conclusions they reported. Without this information, we cannot form a foundation for belief. This is an example of rash judgement. Even if we truly know another person’s failings, we still do not spread it around without a serious reason—that is called detraction. And since rash judgement and detraction are sins, how much more serious is calumny, where one spreads some falsehood that damages another person’s reputation—a powerful temptation in a climate where one of the common paths to electoral victory is damaging an opponent’s reputation. Scripture tells us we have a duty to make reparation for the damage we cause when we commit these sins.
There are times when saying something “nice” also can be an offense against the truth. If some politician I favor is engaged in some wrongdoing, and by flattery or adulation I affirm that perverse conduct, I likewise have sinned against the truth.
To the extent we talk with others about politics, all of us take on the responsibility to do so in a truthful way. To the extent we do so in a public forum, like in social media, we must take responsibility to conform with what used to be called journalistic ethics (I know, most news purveyors today no longer follow journalistic ethics): What documentation do we have and how reliable is that documentation? Do we personally take responsibility for the accuracy of what we are saying? Do we provide the context of what we are reporting? Do we identify the sources and their motivations for what they are saying? Do we work diligently to never deliberately distort facts or context? And do we provide the subjects of our postings a chance to rebut what we are saying?
We should worry about getting suckered by fake news and by false information. But far more than that, we must not be a spreader of false information. Before you even begin to believe something awful, let alone share it with others, verify it. If you can’t verify it, don’t post it. If its gossip and garbage, as so much of what we are fed these days are, stop it in its tracks.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!