Link to External Source Article Saturday, July 05, 2003 Is there a U.S. epidemic of lying?
San Francisco Chronicle culture critic Steven Winn offered a pessimistic view of the state of the union on truthfulness. The Jayson Blair (New York Times reporter) affair exposed “an open secret: America’s epidemic of lying,” Winn asserted. If so, there’s a second national epidemic of schizophrenia, since Americans continually demand public shrines to exalt the Ten Commandments and one of those laws commands: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Conservative Judaism’s official Bible commentary says in the original context, “false witness” referred to judicial proceedings. If so, that one commandment seems apt for a courthouse, if not necessarily those about worshipping only the one God or keeping the Sabbath. Almost everyone agrees that “false witness” extends well beyond courtroom perjury, however, and covers all forms of deceit. A standard Orthodox Jewish commentary, by Britain’s one-time Chief Rabbi J.H. Hertz, says that God’s law forbids “all for
