I’m grappling with what to make of all these men who have violated our current moral code by sexually abusing vulnerable woman. We’ve all heard the saying that good people sometimes do bad things. Any human being who lives long enough will eventually do something “bad”. By bad, I mean an action that violates the social construct of morality gleaned from the family or community in which the person grew up. Clearly Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Roy Moore, Al Frankin and Donald Trump have done really bad things to women and in Roy Moore’s case, to girls. But when do they cross the line into being bad people?
Right and wrong, good and bad are socio-cultural constructs. Religious people believe a superior being provided a set of rules to live by. For example, Judeo-Christians believe that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Christians believe Jesus gave the Golden Rule. Muslims believe God gave the teachings in the Koran through His prophet. The list goes on.
Non-religious people also live by a moral code. Some have adopted a “do no harm” morality wherein it is wrong to hurt people, animals, and the environment.
Whatever the source of morality, we have established laws based on a collective social agreement that physically harming innocent people, especially the most vulnerable is wrong. But then, who is a “person”? We don’t all agree when a fetus becomes a person. We agree that stealing is wrong. But we might be lenient if someone steals to stay alive. We agree that having sex with children is wrong, but at what age is a person no longer a child? And what about lying?
I was raised to believe that lying was a sin and that all liars were destined for hell fire. Proverbs 13:5 says, “A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.” As I reflect on the daily barrage of tweets and news stories that follow, I’ve come to realize that lying is the greatest public threat to our society. The truth is becoming increasing difficult to find.
Apparently, out and out lying is still socially unacceptable to most. But what about hyperbole? What about spin? What about alternative facts? What about misdirection? What about omissions? What about divergence? At what point do we need to collectively demand truth and full disclosure in the public sphere? When will we hold those in power accountable for “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
The person or people who knowingly and continually lie to the American public about tax cuts that will benefit the wealthy and ultimately harm the poor and most vulnerable have passed from being good people who do bad things to bad people, deserving of our most severe punishment–ouster from public office. We learned this week that it is a felony to lie to the FBI. It should be a felony to lie to the American people.
If an elected official needs to be lobbied, bought & paid to vote for a bill – what is wrong with that bill? Should there be *exceptions? No guns are allowed in Capitol Buildings, but *it’s okay in a house of worship, a school or a K-Mart? In Politics, when it comes to “false witness” or sudden “religious boundaries”, we need to follow the power & money. You raise a great series of variables with your questions ~ the 9th Commandment is sadly a major source of power & control over otherwise good people. Shame.