On Lies and Deception in Politics: To Clinton

Last updated on: November 10, 2015 at 10:54 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

On Lies and Deception in Politics: To Clinton 2015-11-10T10:54:11-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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Most people shade the truth at times. I know I have said things I should not have said. With social media, we all face greater scrutiny. Let’s assume grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

We will judge our leaders with the judgment by which we want to be judged!

Yet there is a style of deception that is becoming more common in politics. President Clinton was the master of this tricky way of speaking. He could say something true that would leave a false impression.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” is true in one sense of “have sex.” It’s not the meaning that anyone was using at the time, but it was standard English. As a result, when caught having had relations with Ms. Lewinsky, he had a way out: he did not have sexual intercourse. His defenders could claim that President Clinton never lied to us.

Listen to Secretary Clinton talk and you will hear the same parsing of phrases. She did not “knowingly” receive classified email . . . or email marked classified. Where qualifiers are abundant deception is not missing. She is not as smooth as her husband, but her career is a long string of falsehoods. To pick a less serious one: she was opposed to gay marriage and now pretends that “don’t ask don’t tell” a policy she supported, was merely the “best the President could do.” This denies the facts and because it is a cause on the left, Senator Sanders is on the case.

I need not list all the time HRC and her husband have played with the fact. They are masters of the “Clinton:” telling the truth in a way that deceives. The worst was her lie to a grieving father of an American hero.

I think her record as Secretary of State was poor, her time as Senator undistinguished, and that she brings little accomplishment to her race. Her involvement with “Clinton Incorporated” has been sketchy especially the foreign gifts to the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State. HRC practices “the Clinton” and that means we cannot trust most of what she says.

Dr. Ben Carson has said some things that are distressing. He is a man of great accomplishment, but may be a bit of a fabulist, claiming more than is true about himself. He uses “the move on” tactic: “we have better things to talk about.” However, even if everything he is accused of getting wrong is true (and the West Point story is not a big deal), he is nothing compared to the Clintons.

That is praising him with faint damns, but praise none the less. He would certainly be the more honest man against Secretary Clinton.

But what of us? We could feel righteous, surely we don’t tell fabulist tales about our life or Clinton. Or do we?

Do Christians tolerate ghostwriters while pretending our celebrity intellectuals can write?

Do Christians tolerate religious figures who use honorary doctorates as if they were earned?

Do Christians speak evangelistically . . . rounding up the numbers at our events to the nearest thousand?

Do we use the pulpit as a vehicle for a book tour?

Do we tolerate frauds like David Barton because they are on our side?

I fear we do whenever we use legalistic language to argue that we have told the truth in our resumes, writing, and puffery. To give an example, the sentence: “I gave a lecture at UC Berkeley” is true, but a Clinton. I did give a lecture at UC Berkeley, but not for the University. I spoke for a student group there, but I could say this to “puff” my prestige.

If confronted, I could pull a Clinton and point out that I did speak at UC Berkeley. We can do better than this. Let’s take a lesson from the embarrassment that a good man, Dr. Carson, has faced and police ourselves and our celebrities better.

We fail the call of Christ when we worship at a cult of celebrity and allow anyone on our team slack we would not allow other people.

Let’s stay out of the Christian Media Complex: the cult of celebrity as bad as the mainstream media.

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