Thou shalt not bear false witness

Perjury, according to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas), is just a technicality. These were her words on Meet the Press:

     I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says
     something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime
     and not some perjury technicality.

Seems to me that the Christian Right has a blind spot when it comes to the Ten Commandments. Christian Conservatives are very invested in putting the Ten Commandments in public places. Roy Moore’s stubborn insistence on displaying the Decalogue in his Alabama courtroom led to his being elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was later deposed from the same position because of his stubborn refusal to remove them when so ordered by Federal courts. This is the political movement that won recent Supreme Court approval to keep a granite monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas Capitol.

Conservative politicians use the Ten Commandments to win political support from the Christian Right. Only trouble is… has anyone bothered to read the document lately? Last time I looked, the Ten Commandments included the following: “Thou shalt not bear false witness” (Exodus 20:16, Deuteronomy 5:20). This commandment specifically addresses the importance of telling the truth in a judicial setting. Telling the truth when giving witness in a court of law is essential to a just and moral society. How can a court render a just verdict unless it hears “the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth”?

     • When witnesses tell lies under oath, the innocent are convicted
        and the guilty are exonerated.

     • When witnesses withhold the truth they know in order to protect
        friends, they deprive injured parties of the justice they deserve.

     • When witnesses are less than candid with the truth they know,
        they distort the justice system.

A just, moral, and stable society depends upon witnesses telling the truth in courts of law. This is not some mere technicality. This is an essential biblical insight.

Is it acceptable, in Sen. Hutchinson’s considered opinion, that Scooter Libby made “materially false and intentionally misleading statements and representations, in substance, under oath,” as he is charged with having done?

Is it acceptable to bear false witness in order to protect those individuals who decided to punish Joseph Wilson by outing Valerie Plame? Aren’t Wilson and Plame entitled to justice? Aren’t we entitled to a Government that honors and protects the civil rights of its citizens?

Point of fact: had members of Bush Administration told “the truth, the full truth, and nothing but the truth” to the FBI and the Grand Jury, the investigation would have been completed very quickly. We would know the individuals responsible for the crime that was committed. Justice would already have been done. But because of “technicalities” like perjury, making false statements, and obstructing justice, we have to hire a team of investigators and prosecutors to fight to learn the truth.

This Administration, it seems, has a culture of silence, not a culture of truth telling. They give lip service to the law of God, but they obey the law of omerta.