When I said a long while back that I had a dream that one day preachers across the country would all preach on the Ninth Commandment, this was the sort of thing—one of many such—that I had in mind: organizations that take advantage of people's best intentions by alleging with false accusations and psychological projection the very hatred they purport to stand against. Lex talionis means false accusers are meted the same sentence they attempt to call down on others.
Christians, before they rush to strike a moral pose, need to practice self-awareness and ask themselves whether their attitudes toward other people—family, (former) friends, neighbors, people of the opposing party—arise from what might boil down, in the eyes of God, to a false witness. I have seen some of the most lionized theologians on social media pronouncing certain public figures non-Christian because of how they pray or what they pray for in public, never mind the courage it takes to pray in public, never mind bothering to ask what biblical texts the prayer might have in view. Paul teaches a better way when he tells us to consider others as better than ourselves. That is the positive corollary to the negative prohibition in the Ninth Commandment.
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