The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches this about the eighth commandment, “The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.”
In simple language, the eighth commandment compels us to tell the truth because God is the source of all truth. Telling a lie to someone else is an affront to God. Those who are caught up in chronic deceitful behavior often deeply hurt those they lie to and through these falsehoods, destroy trust and loving, healthy relationships. Those who have been lied to often feel a full range of emotions including anger, betrayal, pain, sadness and humiliation. Lying breaks the bonds of trust between people, pits people against each other, and leads to chaos – that why it is so immoral.
This lesson has seemingly been lost on many of our public figures. In the past few months, we have seen brazen lies and falsehoods propagated on the American people with devasting and deadly results. Let’s start with the pandemic czar, Anthony Fauci. Fauci repeatedly told members of Congress that the NIH (National Institute of Health) the organization for which he works, did not fund gain of function research experiments at the Chinese Wuhan Virology lab. Gain of function experiments take naturally occurring animal viruses and manipulate them to become more lethal and transmissible to humans. Think bioweapons. Fauci’s charade came tumbling down when the NIH published a letter admitting that these experiments were indeed funded by the NIH. Fauci was also one of those who propagated the fabricated story that Covid-19 originated from a bat in wet market in Wuhan. Behind the scenes he was clandestinely communicating with a few colleagues around the world who were convinced that the virus was indeed man made, based on the genetic sequences. Fauci also denounced the use of viral prophylactics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin which have been proven to save lives if administered early to patients diagnosed with Covid-19. If he had come clean on his involvement and the virus’ origins from the outset, it might have changed the trajectory of the pandemic and saved many lives.
Liar number two is the public-school superintendent of Loudon County, Virginia – Scott Ziegler. Ziegler sent an email to the school board on May 28, 2021 that a male transgender student wearing a skirt had allegedly gone into a girls’ restroom and assaulted her. In a public meeting on June 22, 2021, he was reported as saying that he was not aware of any assaults arising from transgender students using their “preferred” restroom in his district. This flagrant lie was to promote transgender rights policies and keep parents in the district from objecting, with good reason, to allowing boys into girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. This superintendent put his own faulty, warped ideology that a person can change their God given biological sex over the needs of a young girl.
Liar number three is Joe Biden. His lies are so numerous and unbelievable they might be almost laughable if the situation we find ourselves in was not so dire. He claims the 3.5 trillion dollar proposed communist legislation will cost taxpayers “zero” dollars; he said no Americans would be left behind in Afghanistan; he claims that the southern border has been secured when there are thousands of unvetted, untested, unvaccinated illegal immigrants shipped in the middle of the night to various cities around the country; he claims that the Covid vaccines are safe despite the number of people that have been permanently injured or died after receiving the jab; his press secretary claimed that the scarcity of food and goods due to supply chain problems was the result of a surging economy where people were buying more.
All of these public officials and many more like them have lost any modicum of integrity as they bend and break the truth to suit their ideological and selfish needs. Do they justify their lies or have they lied so much that they no longer know what the truth is? When a society or country turns away from God as we have seen, the truth is often a casualty and chaos will ensue. We should not be surprised as the father of all lies is none other than Satan himself. Truth brings us closer to God, lies take us further and further away. Tell the truth, live in the truth and you will be set free.
Jesus then said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32