Telling the truth

I was amused yesterday to listen to an interview between a proponent and opponent of the proposed healthcare reforms and the BBC World Service. Speaking to an interviewer who was from a country with socialized medicine suddenly cut through a lot of the usual rhetoric and a different sort of conversation had to be found.

Rhetoric which either borders on or struts boldly into untruth seems to be very much a part of our world. We saw it in the presidential campaign where one of the pivotal moments was John McCain rebutting some particularly nasty things said about his rival. It was a moment in which he gained my respect as an honest human being but probably lost the election.

This morning I saw the new AARP advert which dismisses the mistruths spread about this proposed legislation. I was glad they had produced it but at the same time scandalized that they had had to.

The question is, when are we going to argue on principals of honesty and integrity instead of pushing through into lies - so long as someone will believe them and be politically persuaded by them. I am feeling bullied by those who continue to disseminate untruth which is certainly against my religious principles but also against a more general social principle of how we should relate to each other as human beings. That is that we should respect the other, in the Christian sense as God's creation, but in the human sense as fellow beings in this world. Respect does not include using fear to manipulate and more than that it does not include twisting the truth or lying to produce fear.

Every time we lie we dimnish ourselves. Every time we allow a lie too perpetuate we diminish ourselves as we allow others to be affected by mistruth. Whatever we believe religiously or politically we have to behave as those who actually care about those around us. Words as weapons is not acceptable - rational and careful debate is - and we may not always win!