A recent study is causing a great amount of alarm and soul searching in the American church. The study, reported in Newsweek, found that the number of self-identified Christians has shrunk rather significantly – from 86% to 76% – in the past two decades. Notwithstanding that the overwhelming majority of Americans still claim to be of the Christian faith, the trend is cause for great concern among the remaining Believers.
Whenever reports like this come out, twice the number of suspects are routinely rounded up (to paraphrase a famous line from that old classic, Casablanca). Blame in the case of spiritual decline has been placed at the feet of all sorts of culprits, from the 1963 ban on school prayer to creeping socialism. The trouble with a panic approach to systemic problems is that other much more plausible causes are overlooked.
Americans love statistics. Throw a few stats into any argument and you can sustain the silliest of reasoning because we like to think that figures prove scientific expertise. As with most anything else, statistics need to be both verified and clarified as to what they are really saying. I recall a well educated and monied family in the church I attended as a boy blaming strange weather patterns on the astronauts landing on the moon that summer. Their lofty logic completely escaped my lesser brain.
In the case of the decline of the Christian faith in America, do these stats mean that this is a newly developing problem? No. This decline is only newly surfacing evidence of a trend that began long before it became outwardly evident. Given that people tend to report changes after they have already taken place, the dip in actual faith identification most likely started a couple of decades earlier (meaning forty years ago) with the religious ground actually beginning to shift generations before that.
Do these stats readily identify the causes? Definitely not. In the 1960s, many American neighborhoods experienced what was called “white flight.” White people were alarmed that blacks were moving in and “taking over” entire neighborhoods. What was really happening was that when a single house in a previously “white only” neighborhood was bought by a black family, other whites would suddenly sell out of fear, causing a rapid exodus and a resulting lowering of housing prices, making those homes affordable for lower income families, often nonwhite, also to move in. In short order the neighborhood had become highly mixed or even all-black, though even a small percentage of blacks gave the perception that the neighborhood had gone “black.” Blacks didn’t invade as much as whites fled.
Such cause-effect relationship confusion reminds me of the old story about the boy tormenting his cat. The boy’s mother told the boy to stop pulling the cat’s tail, to which the boy replied, “I’m not doing the pulling, the cat is; I’m just holding on.” Yeah, right.
The influence of atheists and secularists in our nation is still more like moss than some invasive species – they only “take over” where faith “plants” have died out. An increase in the number of atheists or unbelievers or people of other religions does not indicate the infidels are moving in and taking over our uniquely special American “neighborhood.” In reality, a high percentage of immigrants in recent years, especially of Latin origin, are strong Christian faith-oriented. Newsweek reported, for example, that the percentage of professing Muslims is still very minimal.
Contrary to popular hype, we are not being infiltrated. Rather, the loss of faith is a problem in our own Christian backyard.
2009-04-08
Authenticity and the 9th – Part VI
It is an intriguing story, the one about Adam and Eve in the Garden. Adam and Eve were tempted to disobey God and they did. Then the sin was compounded as they bore false witness against each other and even the serpent. But, you say, the serpent really did tempt Eve and Eve did tempt Adam.
The false witness comes in that both of them were putting the blame on someone else. The devil made me do it. My spouse made me do it. In saying such things we lie about our own culpability in the crime. We think we are saying the truth when we are really saying more by what we are not saying. Truth-telling becomes a lie when the larger picture is hidden in order that the blame will rest on another.
What happens as a result of this sin? Adam and Eve have to leave the garden. Eve has to experience pain in child birth and they have weeds and back trouble when they garden. At a more fundamental level, a deep, dark separation has fallen between God and them. And between each other.
Adam and Eve are ashamed, embarrassed around each other so much so that they want to put clothes on, a thought they haven’t had until then. In their physical nakedness, they feel emotionally vulnerable – because they can no longer fully trust each other. They haven’t yet discovered forgiveness and they can’t go back to innocence. It is a painful moment of self-discovery. They have no where to go to relieve the glare of self-disclosure, so they hide behind fig leaves and trees and each other and the serpent. In reality they are hiding from themselves and it doesn’t work.
What did God really intend in the Creation? That we as people would live in trust and openness with one another. That we would not second guess each other’s motives. That we would believe the best in each other, treating one another as innocent until proven guilty.
Instead, in our woundedness, we lash out at each other and close the doors of our hearts so that we cannot be harmed any more, not realizing that in closing the doors we shut the pain inside of ourselves where it festers and grows like a cancer eating our very innards away. The day Adam and Eve shut the door on their hearts from God and from each other, that was the day they started to die.
Truth telling is not just about not lying. It is about living in integrity before God and one another – and with ourselves. It means waking up and realizing that we must and can face ourselves as we really are, believing that if God can accept us just as we are, so can we. The key is in being honest. That is what it means when the Old Testament prophet, Micah, wrote that we are to “walk humbly with our God.” Humbleness is honesty at its best.
When we accept the truth about ourselves, we can accept the truth about others. One of my favorite stories from World War II is of the Jewish witness on the stand in the Nazi war crimes trials. The witness in facing his tormenter broke down. The judge stopped the proceedings and apologized to the witness that this was so painful, whereupon the witness replied that he wasn’t crying because of the pain this man had inflicted on him. He was crying because he had suddenly realized that the accused was merely a human like himself, and if so then he, the witness, was as capable of these heinous crimes as the Nazi was.
Such a revelation didn’t make the Nazi innocent, but it changed the dynamics of the trial for that witness. He was back in the garden able to stand emotionally naked before his tormenter, the courtroom and his Maker.
The false witness comes in that both of them were putting the blame on someone else. The devil made me do it. My spouse made me do it. In saying such things we lie about our own culpability in the crime. We think we are saying the truth when we are really saying more by what we are not saying. Truth-telling becomes a lie when the larger picture is hidden in order that the blame will rest on another.
What happens as a result of this sin? Adam and Eve have to leave the garden. Eve has to experience pain in child birth and they have weeds and back trouble when they garden. At a more fundamental level, a deep, dark separation has fallen between God and them. And between each other.
Adam and Eve are ashamed, embarrassed around each other so much so that they want to put clothes on, a thought they haven’t had until then. In their physical nakedness, they feel emotionally vulnerable – because they can no longer fully trust each other. They haven’t yet discovered forgiveness and they can’t go back to innocence. It is a painful moment of self-discovery. They have no where to go to relieve the glare of self-disclosure, so they hide behind fig leaves and trees and each other and the serpent. In reality they are hiding from themselves and it doesn’t work.
What did God really intend in the Creation? That we as people would live in trust and openness with one another. That we would not second guess each other’s motives. That we would believe the best in each other, treating one another as innocent until proven guilty.
Instead, in our woundedness, we lash out at each other and close the doors of our hearts so that we cannot be harmed any more, not realizing that in closing the doors we shut the pain inside of ourselves where it festers and grows like a cancer eating our very innards away. The day Adam and Eve shut the door on their hearts from God and from each other, that was the day they started to die.
Truth telling is not just about not lying. It is about living in integrity before God and one another – and with ourselves. It means waking up and realizing that we must and can face ourselves as we really are, believing that if God can accept us just as we are, so can we. The key is in being honest. That is what it means when the Old Testament prophet, Micah, wrote that we are to “walk humbly with our God.” Humbleness is honesty at its best.
When we accept the truth about ourselves, we can accept the truth about others. One of my favorite stories from World War II is of the Jewish witness on the stand in the Nazi war crimes trials. The witness in facing his tormenter broke down. The judge stopped the proceedings and apologized to the witness that this was so painful, whereupon the witness replied that he wasn’t crying because of the pain this man had inflicted on him. He was crying because he had suddenly realized that the accused was merely a human like himself, and if so then he, the witness, was as capable of these heinous crimes as the Nazi was.
Such a revelation didn’t make the Nazi innocent, but it changed the dynamics of the trial for that witness. He was back in the garden able to stand emotionally naked before his tormenter, the courtroom and his Maker.
2009-04-01
Authenticity and the 9th – Part V
Today happens to be April Fool’s Day, a day for playing hopefully harmless tricks on other people, particularly verbal tricks. My mother, who was concerned that I not break the 9th Commandment even for a holiday, tried to teach me to say an April Fool’s joke as a question instead of a statement. Not only did that make me look like a fool at school, it was a bit of a muddy stream ethically, because planting a question of untruth in someone’s mind can be the same as making an untrue statement.
Regardless of what we do with April Fool’s Day, lying is certainly in the sin category in Scriptures. One of the Bible verses kids learn early on is the one about all liars landing in hell. Of course, true to form, it is usually remembered better when someone else is doing the lying.
As we’ve been discussing, the 9th Commandment is about a particular form of lying: bearing false witness against a neighbor. This commandment does have broad ranging application and it does speak to the whole concept of truth-telling.
Truth is a holistic seam in an individual. We struggle with someone who is honest to us but lies to someone else. Just as with gossip. How do we know that person won’t treat me like she does other people? If a man cheats on his wife, we say about politicians, how do we know he won’t cheat on his constituency or his country?
Giving offense to other people is a natural hazard of living, unless we all live as hermits. While we want to practice the habit of confession with those among whom we live so that even unintended harms do not fester, we have to accept that we are not perfect and that we are going to make mistakes. Yet such an acknowledgement is a far cry from, as the Apostle Paul warns, sinning on purpose.
Truth be told, everyone lives with mixed motives. To admit this does not deny altruistic feelings. All we humans can and should aspire to greatness, perfection even. But to deny that our motives are impure is to lie for sure. Similar to what happens when we claim we are humble.
The Scriptural remedy for dealing with our mixed innards is the practice of mutual accountability. One-way accountability doesn’t even work between parents and children. It turns into a “do as I say, not as I do” model that invariably reaps a “did as I did” memoir.
At the societal level, we call mutual accountability “checks and balances.” We have these checks and balances built into our social framework at every level precisely because we know we as humans are not perfect.
Even Jesus as God in the flesh cried out for accountability. Much of the time Jesus did or said something that is recorded, someone witnessed the action – usually one of his close disciples. And that action got passed on to others and eventually written down in what we call the four Gospels. But what about the stories of Jesus when he was alone, when no other human was around?
The classic solo story is his temptation by the devil in the desert. How did his followers know about this story in order to write it down? In fact, it was recorded in more than one Gospel. I believe that Jesus told his disciples that he was tempted and even the nature of his temptations – at least as much as we have recorded.
Then there is that time when, without realizing what he was doing, Peter tempted Jesus to avoid the cross. Jesus reacted as strongly as he did at any one time, telling Satan to back off. Satan was tempting Jesus through Peter at that point and Jesus wouldn’t accept it. What strikes me is that Jesus reacted stronger then than if that had come from someone other than in his inner circle. The temptation was stronger when voiced through a friend.
Even Jesus – especially Jesus – understood the power of mutual accountability. He practiced what he preached. He wanted and needed his disciples to understand and affirm his mission. He wanted them in the garden that night, sticking close by him as he wrestled one last time with the temptation to avoid the cross.
If Jesus cried out for accountability, so should we. Not one-way accountability that stands over us like some prison guard, but mutual accountability that affirms our commonness before the Cross.
Regardless of what we do with April Fool’s Day, lying is certainly in the sin category in Scriptures. One of the Bible verses kids learn early on is the one about all liars landing in hell. Of course, true to form, it is usually remembered better when someone else is doing the lying.
As we’ve been discussing, the 9th Commandment is about a particular form of lying: bearing false witness against a neighbor. This commandment does have broad ranging application and it does speak to the whole concept of truth-telling.
Truth is a holistic seam in an individual. We struggle with someone who is honest to us but lies to someone else. Just as with gossip. How do we know that person won’t treat me like she does other people? If a man cheats on his wife, we say about politicians, how do we know he won’t cheat on his constituency or his country?
Giving offense to other people is a natural hazard of living, unless we all live as hermits. While we want to practice the habit of confession with those among whom we live so that even unintended harms do not fester, we have to accept that we are not perfect and that we are going to make mistakes. Yet such an acknowledgement is a far cry from, as the Apostle Paul warns, sinning on purpose.
Truth be told, everyone lives with mixed motives. To admit this does not deny altruistic feelings. All we humans can and should aspire to greatness, perfection even. But to deny that our motives are impure is to lie for sure. Similar to what happens when we claim we are humble.
The Scriptural remedy for dealing with our mixed innards is the practice of mutual accountability. One-way accountability doesn’t even work between parents and children. It turns into a “do as I say, not as I do” model that invariably reaps a “did as I did” memoir.
At the societal level, we call mutual accountability “checks and balances.” We have these checks and balances built into our social framework at every level precisely because we know we as humans are not perfect.
Even Jesus as God in the flesh cried out for accountability. Much of the time Jesus did or said something that is recorded, someone witnessed the action – usually one of his close disciples. And that action got passed on to others and eventually written down in what we call the four Gospels. But what about the stories of Jesus when he was alone, when no other human was around?
The classic solo story is his temptation by the devil in the desert. How did his followers know about this story in order to write it down? In fact, it was recorded in more than one Gospel. I believe that Jesus told his disciples that he was tempted and even the nature of his temptations – at least as much as we have recorded.
Then there is that time when, without realizing what he was doing, Peter tempted Jesus to avoid the cross. Jesus reacted as strongly as he did at any one time, telling Satan to back off. Satan was tempting Jesus through Peter at that point and Jesus wouldn’t accept it. What strikes me is that Jesus reacted stronger then than if that had come from someone other than in his inner circle. The temptation was stronger when voiced through a friend.
Even Jesus – especially Jesus – understood the power of mutual accountability. He practiced what he preached. He wanted and needed his disciples to understand and affirm his mission. He wanted them in the garden that night, sticking close by him as he wrestled one last time with the temptation to avoid the cross.
If Jesus cried out for accountability, so should we. Not one-way accountability that stands over us like some prison guard, but mutual accountability that affirms our commonness before the Cross.
2009-03-25
Authenticity and the 9th – Part IV
Objectifying other people is a dangerous habit we human beings regularly get into. We treat someone as an object when we talk about him or her as a “them.” There are two kinds of people in this world – those who categorize people and those who don’t.
When I triangulate or gossip or objectify one person, I am breaking the 9th Commandment by passing on false information about him or her. I may not even intend harm by speaking about someone, but in separating that person from his or her information, I have started a process that could well unravel that person’s reputation.
The same thing happens on a larger scale. We can triangulate or bear false witness against a whole group of people, corporately ruining their reputations.
When I was a kid, my brother and I had a couple of friends who were brothers and lived in our neighborhood. We were poor and they were poorer. Even worse, they were often getting into trouble, which back in second and third grade in the early 1960s in our town was low-grade trouble. It also sounded like fun to my brother and me. Nevertheless people used to talk about them as “those Brown boys.”
The trouble with brothers is that when they get into trouble they tend to compound their troublesomeness. Meaning that whenever “Fred” did something wrong, it was a mark against both of them. And when “Sam” did something wrong the same thing happened, until each of the boys was in compounded trouble.
On a societal scale, we call this racism. Racism is both ugly and surefire sin. Moreover, it is a direct violation of the 9th Commandment. What is racism? Like gossip on a personal level, it is bearing false witness against a whole class of people. It is triangulating about a group of people without taking time to verify the truth of our statements. It is class action gossip.
For some reason we Evangelicals don’t treat racism as a sin, at least not on the level of the Ten Commandments. We insist on hanging the Ten Commandments in Courtrooms while we violate those very commandments by bearing false witness against a whole class of people who enter those courtroom doors. Jesus had some hard things to say about people who give only lip service to the commands of God.
We see prejudice as a social or political matter, which seems to mean that it lies outside of spiritual concerns, something not to be preached against in church. But, as we do with gossip, we treat racism as harmless something which condemns people to hell. Jesus said it was better for a man to be drowned than for him to cause someone else to sin.
My doctoral research was in part on how a segment of us Evangelicals had practiced the sin of racism in the mid-twentieth century. As happened with a lot of churches, this particular group decided that they had to make a choice between reaching African Americans and White Americans, so like triage in an emergency room, they decided to reach the Whites and forget the Blacks. They, who had been called to preach the gospel to all peoples, had done exactly what Jesus warned about in Luke 17.
We may not intend for our actions to reap such consequences. Yet whenever we treat others as “them”, whenever we pass on individual behaviors in other people as class acts, we objectify a whole segment of this world’s population and bear false witness against our neighbors. We see a person act in a certain way and then classify all those like her as that same way. We see another person else in that group, and in circular fashion we say that is how we are to think this second person. She’s one of them, so she must be like them. Compounded trouble.
We don’t think of racism and prejudice as lying. But in reality that is what they are – bold-faced lies. When was the last time you heard the 9th Commandment preached on in church? When was the last time you heard racism preached on in church? Perhaps it is time to hang the Ten Commandments in the sanctuaries of our nation.
When I triangulate or gossip or objectify one person, I am breaking the 9th Commandment by passing on false information about him or her. I may not even intend harm by speaking about someone, but in separating that person from his or her information, I have started a process that could well unravel that person’s reputation.
The same thing happens on a larger scale. We can triangulate or bear false witness against a whole group of people, corporately ruining their reputations.
When I was a kid, my brother and I had a couple of friends who were brothers and lived in our neighborhood. We were poor and they were poorer. Even worse, they were often getting into trouble, which back in second and third grade in the early 1960s in our town was low-grade trouble. It also sounded like fun to my brother and me. Nevertheless people used to talk about them as “those Brown boys.”
The trouble with brothers is that when they get into trouble they tend to compound their troublesomeness. Meaning that whenever “Fred” did something wrong, it was a mark against both of them. And when “Sam” did something wrong the same thing happened, until each of the boys was in compounded trouble.
On a societal scale, we call this racism. Racism is both ugly and surefire sin. Moreover, it is a direct violation of the 9th Commandment. What is racism? Like gossip on a personal level, it is bearing false witness against a whole class of people. It is triangulating about a group of people without taking time to verify the truth of our statements. It is class action gossip.
For some reason we Evangelicals don’t treat racism as a sin, at least not on the level of the Ten Commandments. We insist on hanging the Ten Commandments in Courtrooms while we violate those very commandments by bearing false witness against a whole class of people who enter those courtroom doors. Jesus had some hard things to say about people who give only lip service to the commands of God.
We see prejudice as a social or political matter, which seems to mean that it lies outside of spiritual concerns, something not to be preached against in church. But, as we do with gossip, we treat racism as harmless something which condemns people to hell. Jesus said it was better for a man to be drowned than for him to cause someone else to sin.
My doctoral research was in part on how a segment of us Evangelicals had practiced the sin of racism in the mid-twentieth century. As happened with a lot of churches, this particular group decided that they had to make a choice between reaching African Americans and White Americans, so like triage in an emergency room, they decided to reach the Whites and forget the Blacks. They, who had been called to preach the gospel to all peoples, had done exactly what Jesus warned about in Luke 17.
We may not intend for our actions to reap such consequences. Yet whenever we treat others as “them”, whenever we pass on individual behaviors in other people as class acts, we objectify a whole segment of this world’s population and bear false witness against our neighbors. We see a person act in a certain way and then classify all those like her as that same way. We see another person else in that group, and in circular fashion we say that is how we are to think this second person. She’s one of them, so she must be like them. Compounded trouble.
We don’t think of racism and prejudice as lying. But in reality that is what they are – bold-faced lies. When was the last time you heard the 9th Commandment preached on in church? When was the last time you heard racism preached on in church? Perhaps it is time to hang the Ten Commandments in the sanctuaries of our nation.
2009-03-18
Authenticity and the 9th – Part III
We’ve been talking about the 9th. Commandment that is. The 9th is all about not sharing harmful information concerning our neighbor with others.
Often we break the 9th when we aren’t intending to harm anyone. We may even be attempting to keep people from being hurt. I’d take a guess that we’re more likely to “bear false witness” when we really think we are not.
It can happen in a couple of ways. First, we do it through the art of planting questions in peoples’ minds about a third party. We aren’t saying anything wrong. We aren’t even hinting at something out of order. But we just raise a question or wonder if such and such could really be so. We even plant questions when we don’t speak up for someone, not treating someone’s honor as something we will defend to the last.
The second way is through the art of playful humor. Humor is a gift from God, but like all gifts it can be misused. We joke about something in regard to someone and soon the gentle joke turns cruel or malicious. Maybe it doesn’t even get repeated, but the humor like the hint of a question stirs in people’s minds and impressions are formed.
A key purpose of the Ten Commandments is to ensure a just and functional society where people find methods to work and live together in harmony. What happens when the 9th is abused in the most casual of ways, through a question or a quip that does not automatically assume the best in someone else? The fabric of society starts to tear apart. We have just separated that object of our question or humor from the rest of us – we have turned that person into an object outside of our circle.
A friend of mine tells a story on himself. He laughs about it now, but I wonder how he really felt when it happened. While in college, he took a liking to this particular girl, a fellow student. One day after class he asked her out on a date. Right there she turned him down. I don’t know that she did it poorly. I rather think she just found the best way she could think of to say she wasn’t interested.
A short while later my friend showed up in the school’s administrative offices and a secretary said she’d heard that so-and-so had turned him down for a date. How quickly that news had traveled around the campus! How many other people knew about this story? What was this news causing people to think about my friend. A date nobody wanted? A joke, a loser?
Like a faint breeze that portends a violent thunderstorm, our hints through question and humor can unleash terrible pain in people. The smallest, most off-handed remarks can grow into monsters of destruction.
I’ll admit I’m as guilty as anyone. But just because I am in good company doesn’t excuse my behavior. I do well to heed each of the Ten Commandments, particularly this 9th that can sow pain and misery in my wake if it is ignored.
Often we break the 9th when we aren’t intending to harm anyone. We may even be attempting to keep people from being hurt. I’d take a guess that we’re more likely to “bear false witness” when we really think we are not.
It can happen in a couple of ways. First, we do it through the art of planting questions in peoples’ minds about a third party. We aren’t saying anything wrong. We aren’t even hinting at something out of order. But we just raise a question or wonder if such and such could really be so. We even plant questions when we don’t speak up for someone, not treating someone’s honor as something we will defend to the last.
The second way is through the art of playful humor. Humor is a gift from God, but like all gifts it can be misused. We joke about something in regard to someone and soon the gentle joke turns cruel or malicious. Maybe it doesn’t even get repeated, but the humor like the hint of a question stirs in people’s minds and impressions are formed.
A key purpose of the Ten Commandments is to ensure a just and functional society where people find methods to work and live together in harmony. What happens when the 9th is abused in the most casual of ways, through a question or a quip that does not automatically assume the best in someone else? The fabric of society starts to tear apart. We have just separated that object of our question or humor from the rest of us – we have turned that person into an object outside of our circle.
A friend of mine tells a story on himself. He laughs about it now, but I wonder how he really felt when it happened. While in college, he took a liking to this particular girl, a fellow student. One day after class he asked her out on a date. Right there she turned him down. I don’t know that she did it poorly. I rather think she just found the best way she could think of to say she wasn’t interested.
A short while later my friend showed up in the school’s administrative offices and a secretary said she’d heard that so-and-so had turned him down for a date. How quickly that news had traveled around the campus! How many other people knew about this story? What was this news causing people to think about my friend. A date nobody wanted? A joke, a loser?
Like a faint breeze that portends a violent thunderstorm, our hints through question and humor can unleash terrible pain in people. The smallest, most off-handed remarks can grow into monsters of destruction.
I’ll admit I’m as guilty as anyone. But just because I am in good company doesn’t excuse my behavior. I do well to heed each of the Ten Commandments, particularly this 9th that can sow pain and misery in my wake if it is ignored.
2009-03-11
Authenticity and the 9th – Part II
I love well-written and artfully illustrated children’s picture story books. One of my favorites is a 1987 edition we have of Hans Christian Anderson’s It’s Absolutely True! Anderson, famous for his children’s fairy tails, was a Nineteenth Century Danish author.
Though I highly recommend you read the story for yourself, I don’t think I’ll spoil it for you by telling you the gist of it. It is worth reading over and over again.
In a farmyard, a very dependable and respectable hen fluffed her feathers as she came to roost and a little feather fell out. She made a joke about plucking out more and then went to sleep. A nearby hen could not sleep until she had passed on the news that one of the cluckers in the henhouse intended to pluck out her feathers to make herself look better. This got passed on as invariably happens – from hens to barnyard owls to other winged creatures until it made the news all around the community and finally came back to the original farmyard.
By the time the news had gotten all the way back around, it had mushroomed into a tall tail indeed. Five hens, it was reported, had plucked out all their feathers trying to compete for the rooster and then had pecked each other to death. Even the original hen did not recognize the story – fortunately. Anderson writes that this is the way “one feather can easily become five hens.”
Now is Anderson writing this only to warn about how rumors get started? A story like this could be considered harmless as long as no one passes a law forbidding hens from pruning. But a deeper warning lurks underneath. The hen who could not sleep for the disturbing thing she had overheard was doing a grave injustice to the original hen, even if she did not attach that original hen’s ID to the story. Add the identification and you have a gross violation of the 9th Commandment.
It is called gossip. But gossip with or without the intent to do harm, invariably does, for it paints a picture of a person, correctly or not, that is independent of that person’s ability to verify. The last six of the Ten Commandments are all about not causing harm to others, and gossip is one of the worst ways to harm. We moderns believe in this principle so strongly we’ve even enshrined it in our laws as “innocent until proven guilty.” Unfortunately there is no way to enforce a law against gossip, something which the Scriptures paint as one of the vilest of sins.
We have a new term for it these days, particularly as fits the barnyard scene above. Triangulation. A triangle by definition has three points or angles. I hear something from you and I go to a third party about it. You have just been triangulated. Most times, though malicious intent is not involved, grievous harm results. It may not look like it at first, but like so much dust in Northwest China, layer upon layer of tidbits accumulate and soon you have packed clay hundreds of feet thick.
Sometimes the triangulation is as innocent as sharing prayer requests out of concern for others. As with Anderson’s story, the prayer requests get passed on and in the transmission are augmented or altered here and there until they are hardly recognizable to the original person. Even harmless facts can accumulate in a very harmful way.
Jesus presents what we often call the “Matthew 18 process” as a surefire way to stop triangulation. Paul echoes this idea in explaining about observing communion. When you have a problem with a brother or sister, go back directly to that person and sort it out. Even physical sickness can result if you don’t.
Funny thing, we Christians have been known to preach against smoking and dancing and drinking and cussing and gambling. I wonder if all the people harmed by those practices add up to those harmed by gossip. Sit on that for a while and see what hatches.
Though I highly recommend you read the story for yourself, I don’t think I’ll spoil it for you by telling you the gist of it. It is worth reading over and over again.
In a farmyard, a very dependable and respectable hen fluffed her feathers as she came to roost and a little feather fell out. She made a joke about plucking out more and then went to sleep. A nearby hen could not sleep until she had passed on the news that one of the cluckers in the henhouse intended to pluck out her feathers to make herself look better. This got passed on as invariably happens – from hens to barnyard owls to other winged creatures until it made the news all around the community and finally came back to the original farmyard.
By the time the news had gotten all the way back around, it had mushroomed into a tall tail indeed. Five hens, it was reported, had plucked out all their feathers trying to compete for the rooster and then had pecked each other to death. Even the original hen did not recognize the story – fortunately. Anderson writes that this is the way “one feather can easily become five hens.”
Now is Anderson writing this only to warn about how rumors get started? A story like this could be considered harmless as long as no one passes a law forbidding hens from pruning. But a deeper warning lurks underneath. The hen who could not sleep for the disturbing thing she had overheard was doing a grave injustice to the original hen, even if she did not attach that original hen’s ID to the story. Add the identification and you have a gross violation of the 9th Commandment.
It is called gossip. But gossip with or without the intent to do harm, invariably does, for it paints a picture of a person, correctly or not, that is independent of that person’s ability to verify. The last six of the Ten Commandments are all about not causing harm to others, and gossip is one of the worst ways to harm. We moderns believe in this principle so strongly we’ve even enshrined it in our laws as “innocent until proven guilty.” Unfortunately there is no way to enforce a law against gossip, something which the Scriptures paint as one of the vilest of sins.
We have a new term for it these days, particularly as fits the barnyard scene above. Triangulation. A triangle by definition has three points or angles. I hear something from you and I go to a third party about it. You have just been triangulated. Most times, though malicious intent is not involved, grievous harm results. It may not look like it at first, but like so much dust in Northwest China, layer upon layer of tidbits accumulate and soon you have packed clay hundreds of feet thick.
Sometimes the triangulation is as innocent as sharing prayer requests out of concern for others. As with Anderson’s story, the prayer requests get passed on and in the transmission are augmented or altered here and there until they are hardly recognizable to the original person. Even harmless facts can accumulate in a very harmful way.
Jesus presents what we often call the “Matthew 18 process” as a surefire way to stop triangulation. Paul echoes this idea in explaining about observing communion. When you have a problem with a brother or sister, go back directly to that person and sort it out. Even physical sickness can result if you don’t.
Funny thing, we Christians have been known to preach against smoking and dancing and drinking and cussing and gambling. I wonder if all the people harmed by those practices add up to those harmed by gossip. Sit on that for a while and see what hatches.
2009-03-02
Authenticity and the 9th – Part I
Have you ever been triangulated? Have ever watched a court witness being cross-examined to determine his or her integrity? Have you ever been a victim of racism? Or expressed a biased thought against someone else?
All these questions are related to the 9th Commandment in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, which reads “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” We think that the 9th Commandment has to do only with lying, and there is a relationship. But nowhere do any of the Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt not lie.” As with each of the commandments, a much broader principle is being laid out in the 9th.
Honesty is a difficult thing to master. Kids are taught almost from Day One not to lie; it doesn’t come naturally. Our cultural icons are shrouded with stories of their veracity, making them civic lessons in truthfulness. Every American knows the tale of young George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, then telling his dad, “I cannot tell a lie.” Yet even the most conscientious of adults struggle with, When is it appropriate to withhold or pass on information?
The Scriptures have much to say about honesty and lying and the priceless value of earning a reputation for integrity. The 9th Commandment is concerned with a particular form of honesty – how we present our neighbor to others. Don’t give a false impression about your neighbor, it is saying. The vocabulary here sounds a legal note. “Don’t give a false witness.” Obviously this covers no lying on the witness stand.
Back in Moses’ day when the Ten Commandments were established as the cornerstone of Hebrew society, legal proceedings were achieved less in a formal court like we have today than with a couple of neighbors bringing grievances against each other to a tribal leader. There were no scientific procedures for verifying a testimony such as with a polygraph or DNA test. The weight of the evidence rested on the word of an individual. A leader had to sort out the inevitable “he said, she said” tangle.
Thus the Biblical injunction that verification should be done in the presence of two or three witnesses, not just one. Like observing with two eyes instead of one, two or three witnesses provide perspective. No two people see, remember or interpret everything exactly alike. Hearing the story or the impression from more than one person increases the likelihood that a true picture will immerge.
A judge or leader has the responsibility to sort out the evidence presented by the witnesses – and the truthfulness of the witness given. On such integrity rests the whole fabric of social order.
So the weight of testimony falls heavily on the known character of the witness. Has this person ever told a lie or done something like this before? Has he or she ever done anything which puts his or her integrity in question? How trustworthy is this person?
Some of the most famous trials in history – actual or fictional – revolve around these questions of truthful witness. Think of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the Salem Witch Hunt, Senator Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade, President Nixon’s famous tapes, President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, or the cross-accusations of the Televangelists in the 1980s. They all boil down to who is telling the truth or not – and about whom.
To the question “Who is my neighbor” in the Gospels, Jesus turns the challenge on its head. Don’t ask, Who is my neighbor? Ask, Who am I neighbor to?
As we will see in this series of postings, the implications of the 9th are far greater than “I cannot tell a lie.” They include the much broader concern, Can I be trusted with my neighbor’s reputation?
All these questions are related to the 9th Commandment in the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, which reads “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” We think that the 9th Commandment has to do only with lying, and there is a relationship. But nowhere do any of the Ten Commandments say, “Thou shalt not lie.” As with each of the commandments, a much broader principle is being laid out in the 9th.
Honesty is a difficult thing to master. Kids are taught almost from Day One not to lie; it doesn’t come naturally. Our cultural icons are shrouded with stories of their veracity, making them civic lessons in truthfulness. Every American knows the tale of young George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, then telling his dad, “I cannot tell a lie.” Yet even the most conscientious of adults struggle with, When is it appropriate to withhold or pass on information?
The Scriptures have much to say about honesty and lying and the priceless value of earning a reputation for integrity. The 9th Commandment is concerned with a particular form of honesty – how we present our neighbor to others. Don’t give a false impression about your neighbor, it is saying. The vocabulary here sounds a legal note. “Don’t give a false witness.” Obviously this covers no lying on the witness stand.
Back in Moses’ day when the Ten Commandments were established as the cornerstone of Hebrew society, legal proceedings were achieved less in a formal court like we have today than with a couple of neighbors bringing grievances against each other to a tribal leader. There were no scientific procedures for verifying a testimony such as with a polygraph or DNA test. The weight of the evidence rested on the word of an individual. A leader had to sort out the inevitable “he said, she said” tangle.
Thus the Biblical injunction that verification should be done in the presence of two or three witnesses, not just one. Like observing with two eyes instead of one, two or three witnesses provide perspective. No two people see, remember or interpret everything exactly alike. Hearing the story or the impression from more than one person increases the likelihood that a true picture will immerge.
A judge or leader has the responsibility to sort out the evidence presented by the witnesses – and the truthfulness of the witness given. On such integrity rests the whole fabric of social order.
So the weight of testimony falls heavily on the known character of the witness. Has this person ever told a lie or done something like this before? Has he or she ever done anything which puts his or her integrity in question? How trustworthy is this person?
Some of the most famous trials in history – actual or fictional – revolve around these questions of truthful witness. Think of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the Salem Witch Hunt, Senator Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade, President Nixon’s famous tapes, President Clinton’s impeachment proceedings, or the cross-accusations of the Televangelists in the 1980s. They all boil down to who is telling the truth or not – and about whom.
To the question “Who is my neighbor” in the Gospels, Jesus turns the challenge on its head. Don’t ask, Who is my neighbor? Ask, Who am I neighbor to?
As we will see in this series of postings, the implications of the 9th are far greater than “I cannot tell a lie.” They include the much broader concern, Can I be trusted with my neighbor’s reputation?
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