By STEVE BRAWNER
How should we respond to the attempted assassination of former President Trump? Follow Kevin Thompson’s advice.
Thompson was lead pastor of Community Bible Church in the Fort Smith area for 13 years and now serves as the married life pastor of Bayside Church near Sacramento.
Ten years ago, he wrote a blog post, “Stop breaking the ninth commandment on Facebook.” You can read it here: https://www.kevinathompson.com/stop-breaking-ninth-commandment-facebook/.
He pointed out that the ninth commandment is not, “Thou shalt not lie.” It’s “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
What’s the difference? Lying is a deliberate, deceptive act. Bearing false witness is an act of irresponsibility.
The commandment sets a higher standard than “not lying,” in other words. If we don’t know something is true, we shouldn’t say it.
“Many people feel justified in the midst of their bearing false witness, because they believe they are not lying,” Thompson wrote. “They are not willfully and knowingly telling a falsehood with the intent to deceive. However, they are bearing false witness. They are proclaiming ideas as truth when they do not fully know them to be truthful. Not only is it possible that their words are false, it is probable that they are false.”
How do we apply that principle to the assassination attempt? It’s established that Trump was speaking at a rally when shots were fired and he grabbed his bleeding ear. He, the Secret Service and the crowd reacted. The would-be assassin was shot by an agent almost immediately.
It is also established that the Secret Service and its assisting law enforcement officers failed to secure the perimeter before the speech and failed to stop the would-be assassin as he was crawling atop that nearby building. We also know a little about the man, but not much, and not why he did what he did.
The security lapses are hard to explain, to be sure. Still, we should be skeptical of some explanations. If there were a deep state conspiracy to kill Trump, then the deep state is completely incompetent. If Trump staged the shooting for political gain, he’s extremely brave with all those bullets flying around. He’s also an Academy Award-worthy actor.
The internet has fueled a rise in conspiracy theories. The climate was already simmering after the September 11 attacks (thank goodness Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist then) and has now reached a boil.
This is happening in part because there are more short-term social rewards for bearing false witness than there are punishments. Post the most outlandish thing, and people will “like” it. Social consequences, on the other hand, are rarer. Most people know better than to argue with a troll, and if they do, for the troll, that’s another click. In real life, we tend to congregate with people like us and take turns preaching to the choir.
It is true that conspiracies do exist. Groups of people do secretly try to influence events and history.
But in any specific case, the burden of proof should be on conspiracy asserters. They should provide evidence, including documents, statements from credible sources, and indisputable, undoctored video. Be skeptical when someone connects three dots and says it’s the Mona Lisa. Ask the asserter how the conspirators have managed to avoid detection in this day and age. It would be easier to get to the moon than it would be to keep a supposedly staged lunar landing secret for 55 years.
There are good reasons why the biblical standard is “not bearing false witness” – the focus being on truth and not merely “not lying.” A failure to value truth creates confusion, dissension, division, fear, and, ultimately, hatred.
In the short term, it can manifest itself in an attempted political assassination, although we don’t know how much the culture influenced this one. Maybe the guy was just crazy.
In the long term, it can erode and destroy the trust that’s necessary for our electoral institutions to survive.
So let’s seek truth, not merely “not lying.” The truth may hurt, but it also sets us free. Light can hurt our eyes for a moment, but they adjust. Darkness is comfortable, but it blinds. And a people without vision will perish.
As Kevin Thompson wrote a decade ago, we really should obey the ninth commandment. It still applies today – on social media and in real life.
Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 17 news outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.
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