A Lying Tongue
There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him…
This week, a great deal of drama was stirred up by a clique of Democrat members of Texas’ House of Representatives. Several members up and ran away, taking a private plane to Washington D.C., in an attempt to ensure the House cannot have a quorum to pass two bills. These bills, according to them and to the President and his entire staff, are horrible threats to our democracy and are aimed to suppress the votes of Black and Hispanic voters. President Biden has gone so far as to call them the “new Jim Crow”, in reference to the practices of Democrat states after the Civil War. Just one little note of history: in Texas, the Republican party was started by former slaves, in defiance of what many other state legislators (most of them Democrat) were doing to the freed African-American slaves. Is any of what our leaders and legislators are saying about these bills true?
In short, every ounce of it is a bold-faced, shocking, frustrating lie.
I took the time to read through the entirety of both of these bills. There is not a single reference to any person’s race or ethnicity. There are no enforcers called to suppress the votes of free Americans based on their gender or race. In fact, these are some of the very first words from one of these bills, H.B. 6:
“The reforms to the election laws of this state made by this Act are not intended to impair the right of free suffrage guaranteed to the people of Texas by the United States and Texas Constitution, but are enacted solely to prevent fraud in the electoral process.”
The bill has many long details about what kind of help election officials are allowed to provide voters and the importance of recording every detail of important interactions between voters, officials, judges, counters and watchers. It ensures that people who vote on site, electronically, or by mail are able to vote efficiently and that all data is recorded accurately. H.B. 6 makes no mention of anything besides the prevention of voter fraud, and criminal charges for officials who pay off, bully, or otherwise manipulate voters to change their vote or vote a certain way. It ensures corruption on every level is resisted by accurate recording of data and quick movement of ballots, both physical and electronic.
The second bill, H.B. 7, has one section detailed to carefully explaining what kind of voting irregularities state officials are to investigate and prevent: when the voter is unregistered, voting more than once, imitating another voter, or altering any record of any kind without prior request or special notice to various clerks and public officials involved in voting. The only thing being “suppressed” are legitimate crimes. The majority of the text of these bills develops processes that, despite being long and involved, are certain to protect the integrity of voting in Texas.
Those who are most effected by this law are the officials themselves — they are forced to be full of the utmost integrity, honesty, and skill. They are certainly allowed to help voters, but must make sure every important detail is recorded, for the safety of the voter and the entire system. A cursory reading of these bills reveals that they are not anywhere close to “An assault on democracy, an assault on liberty. An assault on who we are.” Those are our President’s words, and they are lies.
One more note, this one a bit farther back than this drama. The Georgia bill that the Biden administration and others had a panic attack about? The one that the Biden Admin is in the midst of a court fight over? It was just about how to count ballots. All three of these bills are simple, well-thought out measures to make sure our most sacred ability as Americans is protected. This laws will protect ALL Americans of ALL shades and ALL walks of life, period.
I’m not going to talk much more about these bills, they are very easy to find online and only a few pages to scroll through. I am going to talk about lies. That passage from Proverbs (at the top) lists several sinful actions that reflect the whole of sinful human nature. These are specific things that the Lord abhors, but not the only evil He rejects and derides. But one of the biggest, baddest things humans do is found on this Most Wanted List:
“A lying tongue…a false witness who pours out lies.” (Proverbs 16:16, 18)
God hates lies, and hates the bearer of false witness. That’s a shock! We don’t like to imagine God “hating” anyone or anything! But lies are something that are so backwards, so incompatible with the nature of God that He has nothing but contempt for lies and those who lie. He sent His only Son to die in agony to give humans a way to free themselves of the lies He hates. That’s how seriously He takes the perversion of the truth.
Lies and liars are just as unwelcome in the Kingdom of Heaven as murderers, the sexually immoral, and sorcerers. The Book of Revelation says liars are those who are “outside”, in outer darkness and gnashing of teeth. When humans lie, especially when they are in positions of power and influence, they partner with the Liar. Jesus calls the devil the “father of lies”, the progenitor and patriarch of all things that are not truth. When you lie, you partner with the devil.
Why does God hate falsehood so much? One lie, seeded with a perversion of the truth and the illusion of honesty, obliterated humanity’s relationship with God. One lie robs relationships of trust, one lie leads to the imprisonment of innocent men and women. One lie lead to the Night of Broken Glass and the Holocaust. Lies are designed to hurt, to engineer hatred and mistrust, and to humiliate and frighten the innocent. When the President puts on a faux mask of righteous anger and lies bluntly about words written in a bill, of all things, he partners with Satan himself. It doesn’t matter what the lie is, when it happens the devil is immediately involved.
There is absolutely no hope for liars — at least, not in their own power.
Jesus identifies Himself as the polar opposite of a lie:
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) When we walk in what is true, when we say what is true, we are like Jesus. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit IS the Spirit of Truth, and that He “will guide you into all the truth.” The truth wins out, in the end. The truth sets people free, the truth beats back corruption, the truth makes the way for justice and joy. The truth isn’t mean, but it doesn’t hide. The truth must be given in love, but it MUST be given.
I don’t want to exaggerate or be divisive. But it is hard for me, as a Christian, as someone who loves Jesus, to see the leader of my nation lie. There seems to be a breathless spirit of lies, a rush to tell the biggest and most volatile untruth in broad daylight. It isn’t right. It’s poisonous. I know the stereotype is that politicians lie, and we all make jokes and roll our eyes and move on. But what if we stood up for the truth? What if we stood up, looked our leaders in the eye, and said “You’re lying, and you have to stop. We will not stand for this any longer — you will be honest, or you will no longer lead us.”
What if, every time they fibbed, mislead, or outright lied, we trumpeted the truth even louder? What if we pleaded the blood that covers and drowns out all lies over them, even when they make us very angry? The only hope for a lie to lose is for the Spirit of Truth to have dominion over America, over the world. The Lord hates lies — He cannot help but detest and destroy them. But He delights in the truth, and He celebrates those who resist the tide of dishonesty and falsehood.
Imagine what an entire generation of redeemed, saved, truth-shouting Senators, Representatives, judges, and city council-members might do? What if every office of every district, every kind of position of leadership in every state, had people who loved the truth? I hope and pray that leaders who try their hardest to be honest and true continue to rise up and lead well. I pray that those who do not lead well repent, and turn from lies, death, and the devil.
Lies are not sneaky or harmless. They are dangerous— and not worth it. The Truth redeems and empowers, and is more worthwhile than we can measure. I will always celebrate the truth, even if no American representative ever reads these words. Truth heals and stems the tide of evil. Lies grow into an unrestrained tempest. I want to be a son of my Father, the Truth-teller. What kind of son (or daughter) will you be? What kind of sons and daughters ought our leaders become? We can choose the hurricane of pain and sorrow that lies are, or the healing balm and fortifying wall of the truth spoken in love.
You see, Pinocchio, a lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face.
