Friday, September 11, 2009

Regarding "You Lie"

The best justification I can figure out for prohibiting Congressmen from shouting "you lie" to an obviously lying President giving a speech is that if they did that consistently, it could shut down Washington, DC.

Sounds like a good idea to me. :^)

Let's be serious here; one of the biggest problems in politics today is that the perceived requirements of civility prevent people from pointing out that fertilizer is indeed fertilizer. I think it's time to remember that there is a point where someone's dishonesty can cross a line where one is not only not prohibited from immediately pointing out the lie, but is morally required to point it out. See Proverbs 26:4-5.

Now there is of course a fine line between Proverbs 26:4 and 26:5, and of course there is also the reality that one objecting to the speech of a lying fool can also become one himself. However, I see no purpose served in simply listening politely to speech one knows to be false. It simply creates the perception that wicked speech, like Obama's health care speech, is somehow respectable, and that is also wicked.

1 comment:

Mark said...

MATTHEW HENRY'S CONCISE COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE

Proverbs 26:4-5

We are to fit our remarks to the man, and address them to his conscience, so as may best end the debate.

I think Pr 26:5 works for the case at hand