Character
The Benghazi Hearing: Covering the Barrel of the Smoking Gun?
In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a popular book about Sherlock Holmes called “The Adventure of Gloria Scott.” In this late 19th century thriller, Holmes used the evidence of a “smoking gun” to catch his villain.
The Collins English Dictionary defines a smoking gun as “a piece of irrefutable incriminating evidence.” In other words, if the gun still has wasps of smoke around it near a victim, then it’s probably the one that committed the crime. Read More
If You Tell a Lie Long Enough…
A number of items in the news have prompted my thinking on telling the truth. It seems like that reality is in short supply these days–especially when it comes to government affairs. It’s also a problem in many people’s individual lives.
You see, when you tell a lie long enough you might just start believing it yourself.
A number of issues are forefront on the world stage this week. They include the Greek debt crisis, the nuclear deal with Iran, and an illegal alien killing 32-year old Kate Steinle in San Francisco.
Let’s talk about the power of words, especially when used to tell ongoing lies.
Words are powerful and truth is important. It was by the spoken word that God created the entire universe (Genesis 1:1-29 and John 1:1-4). On a human level, we’ve all experienced that words can give life (“You can do it!”) or they can bring death (“You’ll never amount to anything.”)
And I think we all know that if you tell a lie long enough, it takes on a meaning of its own. After awhile, you’re no longer sure what the original truth was.
Adolph Hitler nearly took over the world on the power of his words and the promulgation of lies. The killing of millions of innocent people was wrapped in the language of “The Final Solution” which sounds like solving a business problem–not annihilating a race.
The power to distort truth with words is a problem we face everyday. Who do we believe about the big issues of life? Who do we trust in making daily decisions?
Words are powerful and lies are destructive. A good portion of our day should be spent in serious thought, sorting out truth from lies.
Let me help you with a few contemporary issues.
The Greek Debt Crisis
I’m sure many have been praying for the Greek people as they voted in a referendum last week and their leaders shuffled between Vienna and Athens. I have a number of friends in Greece and have visited that nation on a number of occasions. It is a beautiful country with a wonderful people that have made a great impact on the world.
But Greece is in trouble with debt–like many other nations (including the United States). We are being told that their answer is austerity. Sounds awful and undeserved.
One dictionary defines austerity as:
“The fact or condition of being rigorous and unsparing: hardness, harshness, rigidity, rigor, rigorousness, severity, sternness, strictness, stringency, and toughness.”
Doesn’t sound like fun–more like someone’s out to get you. We are told in headline after headline that the Greek people are facing “austerity” and their mean neighbors to the north are inflicting it upon them.
No wonder the Greek people said NO in the referendum. Would you want to be faced with austerity?
But it’s the wrong word. It’s not a matter of what you want or like, but what you deserve and need to get back on the right path.
Many Greek people and certainly Greece’s leaders have lived an economic lie for many decades. That lie is called socialism. Socialism’s basic tenet is that government can take care of us from cradle to grave so we don’t really need to work hard, save money, and be frugal in life. We can pile up debt and hope that someone in the future will pay for it.
But as Margaret Thatcher pointed out a generation ago, eventually socialists “run out of other people’s money.” That’s where Greece is today, a nation of 11 million people, many living on the dole, with billions of dollars in unsustainable and unpayable debt to other people and nations.
The Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore puts it this way:
“Greece is now sitting on $350 billion of debt. It’s unpayable and the international monetary experts are deluding themselves if they believe that by some magic stroke this nation of 11 million citizens will sometime in the future come up with the funds to repay it.”
“Greece is already overtaxed, and adding more taxes on the few businesses that are still functioning is only going to ensure their eventual demise too. Meanwhile the Greek citizens have come to the conclusion that fat pensions and cradle to grave welfare benefits are a human right that can never be taken away. That is what they declared in the referendum. But those benefits are going to be lost. Socialism has radically reduced the standard of living of the citizens.”
“The big lie is that Greece has already lived through austerity. This is a nation that in 2013 was spending up to 59 percent of its GDP on government benefits and programs. Even today the government accounts for half of all spending. How is that austerity? The problem is as the private economy shrinks, the government’s role keeps expanding. Greece’s debt was 120 percent of GDP a decade ago, and now its 175 percent. This is the opposite of austerity. It is a spendfest.”
“In sum, Greece needs much less socialism, and much more privatization. Sell off government assets. Cut tax rates. Sell one of the islands to Disney. Oust the communists who ruined this nation. Get government spending down to 25 percent of GDP.”
Get the picture? Austerity, as a term for this situation, is victim drivel. Greece needs national repentance from living it up with other peoples’ money.
It’s not Europe’s or anybody else’s fault. I can just hear Dave Ramsay giving the same advice to a wildly spending married couple: “Sell your big house, get rid of that car you can’t afford, work two jobs if you have to, and get out of debt so that you can rescue your dignity and future!”
That’s what Greece needs to do.
Don’t feel sorry for them about “austerity.” Pray for their honesty and repentance. (And look in the mirror because we’ve not far behind.)
The Iran Nuclear Deal
The truth is pretty simple on this one. The government of Iran is the world’s leading cause of terrorism. Making a deal with them that allows them a pathway to a nuclear bomb is insanely suicidal. Even a few years ago, that idea was unthinkable.
But then President Obama almost unilaterally decided and promoted the falsehood that a deal with Iran was in the best interest of the Middle East and world. His powerful advisor, Valerie Jarratt, was born in Persia. Apparently, she convinced him that a “deal with Iran” would be great for his legacy.
But disaster for the globe.
He told the lie long enough to himself and those around them that even with Congress and the nation kicking and screaming about stopping Iran from getting nukes, John Kerry forged ahead with a monstrous and dastardly deal.
Columnist Clifford May brings us back to reality:
“Imagine if, on Sept. 12, 2001, I had written a column predicting that within less than 15 years, the president of the United States would be offering the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism a path to nuclear weapons and tens of billions of dollars. You’d have thought me a lunatic. But that’s what President Obama means to do.”
“Just to be clear: There can be no doubt that the Islamic Republic of Iran is the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism. No less an authority than the U.S. government has affirmed that many times over. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans have been killed and maimed by Iranian-backed militias and proxies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan.”
“The founding principle of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution was “Death to America!” Even as Iranians negotiators have smiled across the table at their American counterparts, that chant has been repeated—not least by Ayatollah Khamenei himself.”
Yet the US administration drinks in the lie like koolaid which could lead to a nuclear holocaust.
Immigration Madness
Thirty-two year old Kate Steinle was taking an evening walk with her dad on a San Francisoc pier on July 1, 2015, when she was allegedly shot and killed by Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant who had seven felonies on his record and had been deported (and returned) to the US five times.
Bill O’Reilly is trying to use Kate’s senseless death to spur Congress to pass “Kate’s Law” which would mandate a five year mandatory sentence for any deported felon who returned to the USA. If caught twice, it would be ten years. If three, twenty years.
Why are illegal alien felons walking the streets of America?
Because we’ve been telling ourselves a series of lies about immigration for many decades. They include:
- They aren’t really alien and they aren’t really illegal. They’re just desperate people who should be called “undocumented workers.” (Notice the deception of the words here. “Undocumented” implies no illegal entry and “workers” focuses on what they give to America, not what they take away by disobeying the law.)
- The border can’t really be sealed. Try saying that about your own house: “We can’t really put a fence up on have locks on the doors. Everybody should be welcome to come in.”
- Businesses need cheap labor (promoted by Republicans) and Democrats want new voters (who are bribed by giving licenses, voting rights, and welfare entitlements.)
- We need “Sanctuary Cities” where illegal aliens are shielded from the crime of illegal entry by sympathetic city councils. Illegals break the law then city governments do too. Is it any wonder that many other Americans think they can now loot and destroy and break the laws of our country because others are doing it?
Kate Steinle, and many others like her, would be alive today if we had not changed the words to propagate a lie that illegal immigration is benign. That lie has now been told so long and in so many different ways that the United States is under attack on its southern border by illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists.
Words are powerful. Use them carefully. Don’t tell yourself lies–especially over time.
And don’t vote for leaders who do the same.
The Ten Biggest Lies Propagated by our Government
I’m in Washington. D.C. this week for the National Day of Prayer and other meetings. My accommodations are directly across the street from the Supreme Court where arguments were made last week regarding the marriage debate that could have monumental ramifications in the future.
When I walk by the offices of the justices this week, and also the Capitol Building (now shrouded in scaffolding for repairs), I will pray for our leaders that “God’s truth is marching on” in this crucial American city.
Because the opposite is also a reality: We live in a time period of the proliferation of lies–major and open deception–that is affecting the lives of not only 320 million US citizens, but also billions of people around the world.
In this article I’d like to explore the ten biggest lies being propagated by our government.
It is convenient in our modern, increasingly secular world to say that all people lie. You and I lie, all politicians lie, so why should we even talk about the subject? This type of moral equivalence not only stops the conversation about lying, but it also gives the false impression that all people lie equally and that every lie is the same.
That is not true.
It’s a lie.
First, it should be mentioned that of the three worldviews now competing for supremacy around the globe–biblical faith, secularism, and Islam–only one is committed to factual integrity at all times: biblical faith. The other two brazenly believe that the end justifies the means and that lying is okay as long as the cause advances.
Thus we have Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc. as the most well-known secular political liars of the past century, and a whole rash of ayatollahs, including the current Supreme Leader of Iran, who rarely speak the truth. They believe in power–and anything that gets them there including telling falsehoods.
The biblical worldview is different. Lying makes the list of basic sins in the Ten Commandments (Commandment Nine), and is mentioned twice in the list of six things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19). The New Testament is replete with references of the need to speak the truth, walk in the light, and live with integrity.
Jesus himself said that he was the “truth” (John 14:6). He expects his followers to follow his example.This means that, in general, followers are Jesus are more honest than secularists and Muslims. Why? Their faith is the only one that calls them to tell the truth in all circumstances.
It’s also true that professing Christians sometimes fail. But when they do, they go against the Scriptures–they are not following their faith. Their failure requires repentance and change.
But when Muslims or progressives tells a lie to advance their cause, it’s in accord with their worldview. Lying is a means to a greater end. They do not need to repent. Their followers don’t care.
This practical qualification about lying–that Muslims and secularists are not bound by their religions as Christians are–should help you understand why some politicians lie more than others.
For example, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are examples:
- The former Senate Majority leader, joked the other day about lying on the Senate floor about Mitt Romney’s taxes so that he would lose the 2012 election.
- Ms. Pelosi told us we needed to pass Obamacare to find out what was in it (how’s that for transparency in government?).
- “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Need I say more.
- Hillary Clinton erased 30,000 e-mails. Ditto.
All four of these politicians are committed to secular values. That means playing loose with the truth. If you want to read a good article on the non-moral equivalence of all politicians being liars, try David Limbaugh’s “All Politicians Don’t Lie Equally and Lying Does Matter.”
It’s important to vote for leaders who practice their faith in God.
Now on to the lies that we currently find in government. I should note that these lies didn’t necessarily originate with politicians, but they came up through our culture and institutions (such as higher education) and are being aided by a complicit (and very anti-faith) mainstream media.
These lies are not in any particular order except for the first two. Lie One has had the most devastating consequences in our nation, and Lie Two could do the same in the next generation
Lie One – Abortion
You will never hear a more stupid or evil statement by a politician than “I am pro-choice.” What choice are they talking about? It’s the choice to murder an innocent unborn baby simply because the mother doesn’t want it. Abortion is built on a hideous self-indulgent lie that has led to the death of over 58 million Americans. This is a genocide, an atrocity, all based on a lie.
Here’s the simple truth: Life begins at conception. Babies are babies–either in or out of the womb.
Lie Two – Same Sex Marriage
This lie could be foisted upon the nation soon by five Supreme Court justices. For five millenia human beings have understood the basic truth of human marriage between a man and a woman. Nothing else is marriage. Only men and women can “join together.” The plumbing only works that way. Any other arrangement is a colossal lie and unbelievable stupidity.
Here’s the truth of history: Marriage is God-created (Genesis 2:24)–a man and woman joining together for love, procreation and the nurture and care of children.
Lie Three – Deficit Spending
In the past two generations, the American government and people have spent themselves into a debt hell-hole. Our careless spending has destroyed many families and could soon ruin a once frugal and prudent country. Think about it: 18 trillion dollars in public debt. Ten trillion in private debt. And 128 trillion in unfunded liabilities(Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare).
A day of sober reckoning is coming if wise leaders don’t emerge and we, the people, don’t change our ways.
The plain truth: You can’t spend more than you take in. The borrower becomes the lender’s slave (Proverbs 22:7).
Lie Four – Islamic Jihad
The Islamic faith has always been violent. It grew through the centuries primarily through war and terrorism; Mohammed himself set the standard by killing thousands; The Koran contains over 100 war verses that justify Muslims killing other people simply for their refusal to convert.
We are fighting a global enemy who wants to establish a world-wide caliphate. Not all Muslims are violent, but the teachings of Islam condone terrorism and violence. So millions are–and believe they are right in doing so.
The sobering truth: Islam is a warring religion. We must defeat, not appease, Muslim terrorism.
Lie Five – The Unemployment Rate
Just one generation ago we were honest about unemployment statistics. When people lost a job and wanted to work, they were considered unemployed. But the recent recession was so severe, and the governmental policies to right it so wrong-headed, that our government no longer states the truth about jobs in America. They don’t count those who have given up looking.
Our government tells us this month that the national unemployment rate is 5.5%. That’s mis-leading.
Here’s the truth: The real unemployment rate in the USA is closer to 12%. Free people create jobs, not government spending.
Lie Six – Global Warming
Global warming, or climate change, is really a secular conspiracy to tax the Western world for income re-distribution purposes. power and control. It’s a scientific lie based on faulty temperature models, falsifying of data, and probably a desire to hasten a one world government under the banner of Saving the Planet.
The obvious truth: Temperatures have been steady, even cooling slightly, for seventeen years. There is no evidence that burning fossil fuels is impacting world temp and weather in any way.
Lie Seven – Gun Control
Every year progressives try to pass stringent gun control legislation saying that guns are the reason so many people are killed in our nation. They scream, “Guns are the problem! We need to make it harder for people to get guns! ” But consider this: the death capital of America right now is Chicago. And Chicago has some of the strongest gun control laws in the nation. So what’s the real agenda behind gun control?
I saw this truth on a bumper sticker thirty years ago in Oklahoma: When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. (Think about that.)
Lie Eight – Racism is Alive
We are constantly told that racism is still rampant in our nation–that race relations are getting worse. Agitators tell us that police officers target young blacks, that riots are taken place because of white suppression, and that no progress has been made in 150 years.
Nonsense. America is a changed nation racially. We voted twice for an African-American president. I don’t know one racist among my thousands of friends. There has been major transformation of race relations since the Civil War and Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This is the wonderful truth: America is essentially a color-blind nation. All lives matter.”
Lie Nine – The War on Women
Women have more rights, responsibilities, privileges, and access to services today than at any time in history. Period. This is a “Golden Age” of women’s rights in the Western World. Don’t believe the “War on Women” nonsense. Enjoy the blessings of your freedom and dignity.
The truth: The only war on women is in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Let’s liberate them.
Lie Ten – Taxing the Rich will Elevate the Poor
We are so narcissistic and economically illiterate that we are starting to believe the lies of socialism and communism–that class warfare against the rich is the ticket to abundance. How’d that idea work in the Soviet Union? Cuba? Or North Korea? The 21st century Democratic Party is now a political version of Robin Hood who want take from the rich and give to the poor. There’s only one problem:
The truth is, as Margaret Thatcher once opined, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” We need liberty, not the tyranny of taxation.
I could have mentioned more, but I hope you get the point.
Seek the truth. Speak the truth. Live the truth.
And hold your government accountable for the lies that hurt us all.