Pat Robertson has, yet again, made news recently … not once, but twice. First, when he suggested it would be preferable to assassinate the leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, than to initiate a war to remove him from power. Then, he again made news when he attempted to deny having said it at all. In my opinion, the latter was the sadder of the two mistakes.
Both events were well covered by the media, as well they should have been. After all, it’s not often that a Christian leader can be seen on videotape publicly advocating, if not calling for, the murder of another country’s head of state. But for him to then attempt to lie his way out of it by denying that he made a statement at all after it had been broadcast repeatedly was, for the media, priceless. If those who are inclined to bash Christianity ever needed a poster-boy for Christian hypocrisy, they now would appear to have been given one on a silver platter. How sad.
If Robertson upon later reflection concluded that his support of assassination was an error, he should have just admitted it, corrected it and moved on. Prudence should have dictated he at least show that he learned something from the mistake made by Clinton when he too issued a disingenuous denial: “I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.” This is especially so when the evidence against Robertson was so very much more readily available (i.e. memorialized on videotape) than was the stain on a blue dress Clinton did not even know still existed at the time he lied to the American public.
What further distinguishes the Robertson imbroglio from the Clinton affair, however, is that in the public’s eye Robertson has placed himself on an even higher pedestal than the President’s. Thus, in the minds of most he is held to an even higher standard. That is why of the two faux pas he committed recently, the lie he issued is the most damning, for it is the lie that destroys the public’s trust, not only in him personally, but in the many Christians he claims to represent.
Trust, like love, is a funny thing. Would you not agree that it is a state of mind culminating from a host of experiences, observations and assumptions, much like a bubble that reflects a beautiful image of the person trusted? And as such, whenever a person does or says something that causes that bubble to burst, it is the rare exception that the bubble that was trust can ever be recreated. More likely, you will never view that person the same. Even if forgiven, the untrustworthy behavior is almost never forgotten. The person’s image is destroyed beyond retrieval, and so, is lost forever. The result: that person’s relationships with those others who are affected by the disruption of trust become skewed, if not distorted. More accurately, the process might better be described as a tragedy in progress, for the disfigurement of such relationships seems with few exceptions to evolve for the worse with the passage of time. Perhaps that would explain why throughout the Bible it may be noted so frequently that God hates both lies and liars, the paradigm of his contempt for such behavior being encapsulated best in the 21st chapter of Revelation wherein the prose informs us that all liars, among others, are to be cast into “the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” I am well aware that for some of you that may overstate the matter, but you get the point.
The problem for us is not the simple telling of one lie. We all have done that. It is that it represents but one more example of the unfortunate fact that collectively we have been conditioned by Clinton and others in public life to believe in the recently popular adage -- “So, I lied.” -- the not too subtle implication being that when caught in a lie, your response should be -- “So what?” Well, I urge you to consider in the context of lies and trust what is so. All relationships necessarily flourish or wither in direct proportion to their trustworthiness, and when a society determines that lies and lying are not only to be presupposed, but acceptable, that culture will eventually fall into decline. One’s ability to rely on others falters, marriages fail, families are destroyed and business relations are made more difficult, if not sometimes impossible. Every breach of trust is a tear at the seamless social fabric of our culture that should otherwise enable individuals to network with, and relate to, each other meaningfully, effectively and productively. By contrast, any civilization that adopts and accepts lying as a social norm will inevitably approach a social gridlock that will only inhibit, if not halt entirely, that society’s progress.
Not a pretty picture, to say the least, and that is why Robertson’s embarrassing attempt to lie matters so much. In the eyes of some he has impugned his faith beyond redemption, others will use his behavior to label all those who he claims to represent as hypocrites, and yet others will use his example to justify their own illegitimate behavior. The point being, however, that none of these uses will produce a good end, and consequently we will all be caused to pay a price in some form or another. The tragedy is, it didn’t need to happen, and that makes it even sadder. As is the case with all of us when confronted with similar dilemmas in our lives, he could have made a different choice. And, as we have all experienced consequent to bad choices we have in our pasts, I would like to think that today he wishes he had chosen differently … especially since because of his position and stature whatever choice he made he had to know it was unavoidable that it would be set before us all as an example of what he thinks is acceptable behavior, and even so, he, like Clinton, chose badly. How sad.
© 2005 Clifford C. Nichols, Esq.
Cliff Nichols is an attorney practicing criminal defense/entertainment law in Santa Monica, California. He may be contacted regarding this editorial at either (310) 917-1083 or www.cliffnicholslaw.com or you may join his blog at www.thedailystand.com
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