Calling liars to account - `Thou shalt not bear false witness. . .'' -- Exodus 20:16

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1246797.html?storylink=pluck_commented

edited because link below reported not working...
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other-views/story/1246797.htm

And yet, the lies that have characterized the debate over healthcare are in a class all their own -- not simply because they are outrageous, but because they are designed specifically to inflame and terrorize. As such, those lies are deserving of special rebuke. Last week, they got it.

Sojourners, which calls itself the nation's largest network of progressive Christians, says its members sent out thousands of e-mails to five of the biggest offenders: Beck, his fellow Fox personalities Sean Hannity, Steve Doocy and Bill O'Reilly, and radio host Rush Limbaugh. Each e-mail said the same thing in essence: stop lying.

Wallis, a celebrated theologian and author of The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America, says Sojourners is trying to redeem things people ``really should've learned in Sunday school.

``For example, Sean Hannity said we're going to have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, `You're dead. It's a death sentence.' That's just not true. So instead, {in our e-mail} we told the story of a real person, a real woman who was denied her breast cancer surgery because of her health provider's discovery of a pre-existing condition called acne.''

He adds, ``A lot of the things the talk show hosts say will happen are already happening because of the behavior of the healthcare providers. They're not true because of healthcare reform, they're true because of the present system.''

It is not, says Wallis, his intention to accuse everyone who opposes healthcare reform of lying. Nor, he says, is it his intention to promote a given proposal. All he's trying to do is reframe healthcare as the moral issue it is, and restore verities we all learned in Sunday School. Or Hebrew School. Or Islamic School. Or, heck, kindergarten.

That it's wrong to lie, wrong to pick on the vulnerable. And that we have a duty to care for those who cannot care for themselves, the ones Jesus called ``the least of these.''

[FreakinDJ]

1. And a Storm magically appeared over Capitol Hill.....

[Triana]

2. there's an especially HOT place in Hell for these a$$holes. Money won't help them. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Liable, defamation ,and slander all prosecutable and punishable ,and..

only when your hand is on a bible is it against the law to Lie ,thats fucked up.

[mwb970]

4. The link to this story does not work.

Try this one.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/75908.html

[Historic NY]

5. I wonder if that bibical verse could shut down wilson's site. I'm just wondering.

[Doctor_J]

6. The problem is, the liars KNOW they're lying,

are doing it deliberately and maliciously, and don't care. The lying will stop when the liars are punished in such as way as do deter the others.