--Thou shalt not bear false witness against your brother.
--Clearly, to speak ill of a person when it isn’t true is to commit a kind of murder of their character.
--Treating our enemies with the same respect and honesty due a person on trial.
--Imagine telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when we speak of our opponents, especially when they’re not around.
--The whole idea of perjury is that you either have a personal axe to grind with this person or else you have some material interest in the case.
--So a more ordinary form of perjury would be lying gossip that damages a person for your advantage or out of malice.
--And the underlying structure of what makes this so bad is that you’re perverting communication (a tool for blessing and community) into a device to harm someone, just like perjury turns the justice system (an institution for benefitting the community and making it even possible) into a weapon against someone.
--Clearly, to speak ill of a person when it isn’t true is to commit a kind of murder of their character.
--Treating our enemies with the same respect and honesty due a person on trial.
--Imagine telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when we speak of our opponents, especially when they’re not around.
--The whole idea of perjury is that you either have a personal axe to grind with this person or else you have some material interest in the case.
--So a more ordinary form of perjury would be lying gossip that damages a person for your advantage or out of malice.
--And the underlying structure of what makes this so bad is that you’re perverting communication (a tool for blessing and community) into a device to harm someone, just like perjury turns the justice system (an institution for benefitting the community and making it even possible) into a weapon against someone.
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