We Can Do More Than Just Avoiding Bearing False Witness

An unknown writer put the Ten Commandments in poetic form:

Above all else love God alone; bow down to neither wood nor stone. God's name refuse to take in vain, the sabbath rest with care maintain. Respect your parents all your days, hold sacred human life always. Be loyal to your chosen mate; steal nothing, neither small nor great. Report with truth your neighbor's deed, and rid yourself of selfish greed.

All these short and specific commandments are concerned ultimately with people. In each instance, an act is seen not in the abstract, but in its effect on human beings, who are precious because they are made in God's image. I particularly like this setting because all the commandments are presented in the positive - what we must do, rather than what we must not do.

Consider today the important command: "Report with truth your neighbor's deed." All people seek to safeguard the dignity and value of their own lives. And our heritage asserts that we ought to seek the same for all members of the human family, who are also children of a common creator.

We believe that God intends that we build communities here. We are not to live in isolation from one another. To bear false witness is to contribute to distrust, suspicion and disrespect, alienating and building barriers that prohibit community building.

Thousands of respectable people, who would never dream of committing murder or stealing, do engage in gossiping or spreading

tales, or in bearing false witness, by sharing rumors, innuendo or even slander about another human being.

Discussing others is not necessarily gossip. We all love to talk about other people. This is good. It not only makes life interesting, but we need more genuine interest in and concern for others. We can talk about others without passing on something that should not be told, or telling something that is detrimental or only partly true.

The fact that we should be careful concerning the reputation of others does not imply abstention from criticism or condemnation when either is required to be faithful to the truth.

Nothing in our religion would say that we should always speak well of or to other people. Kindness does not imply that we keep still. In fact, it could be downright unkind to keep still. The prophets' scorn of tyranny and deceit and Jesus' wrath exploding in the face of the Pharisees dispels any doubt of the necessity for uncritical tolerance.

The solution lies not in abstention from criticism, but in the achievement of genuine objectivity - that is, dealing with any human action, ours or others, with impartiality. To speak out against ourselves or others when something should be said is not cowardice but courage.

Our chief concern is the false witness that deals in half-truths, outright lies, rumor or unfounded statements. This is serious business. It is this against which we should vigorously rebel, for here we are dealing with the most sacred possession of each individual - that individual's good name. Knowing that gossip or false witness is wrong, why do we ever have any share in it? Why are we prone to be tale-bearers of idle gossip?

Much of our participation does not stem from malice, but from the nature of our own needs. We all want to be loved, praised and respected. God made us this way, and this ingrained need is good, for it is the stimulus for us to behave in such a way as to garner love, praise and respect.

The problem arises from our failure to measure up to what we want to be. This creates feelings of guilt within us that we believe we can alleviate by finding a flaw, real or imagined, in another's armor. In articulating it, we feel better by contrast.

The popularity of scandal, gossip and slander reveals that people's consciences are so uneasy that they need stories of murder, divorce and sex crimes to solace their consciences and give them the feeling of being better than those they believe are greater sinners. Some have such need that they actually search for something negative.

Jesus said, "Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." In our judgments of others, we reveal ourselves. The words we speak of others is often a mirror in which we reveal our own souls. "Speak friend, that I may see thee," Socrates once said to a young man. Simply because we see another as selfish does not mean that we are unselfish.

How can we avoid or overcome this most destructive habit? First, we can strive to live in such a way that we do not become an easy subject for gossip. Plato said, "So live that when anyone says evil of you, no one will believe them." Will Rogers put it in contemporary terms - "So live that you will not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip."

Second, we can develop the potential in us so that we do not have to build ourselves up by tearing others down.

Third, we can take the offensive and overcome evil with good. Instead of spreading gossipy negative stories, we can reverse the process and develop the habit of looking for something that is good and praiseworthy in others.

Be noble, and the nobleness

which lies in others

Sleeping but never dead

Will rise in majesty to meet

thine own

Then shalt thou see it gleam

in many eyes

Then shall pure light around

thy path be spread

And thou shalt never more

be sad or lone.