Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness: The grievous sin of false Facebook posting

Exodus 20:16. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." 

This is the Ninth of the Biblical Ten Commandments: Right up there with murder, theft, adultery and idolatry.

Yet every day on Facebook, I see posts, from people who claim to reverence the Ten Commandments, that copy false accusations and slanders.  I won't cite specific examples. There are too many, some obvious, some subtle. There are more every day, mindlessly copied and shared without checking by many people, simply because they attack people they dislike.  This is false witness.  It is spreading malicious lies to slander someone.

In John 8:44, Jesus says that the devil is the father of lies.  The word "devil" is an English form of the Greek word "diabolos" which actually means: Slanderer, False accuser.  So, when you post a false accusation, you are quite literally the devil.

By contrast, Jesus said:  "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life," so if you want to follow Jesus, you must follow truth.  If you follow lies, you are not following Jesus.

But, you say, you didn't realize it was false!  Is ignorance a defence? No, it is not.  If you spread accusations that you don't really know to be true, it is still bearing false witness.  But anyway do you really want to claim ignorance?  If you don't know what you are talking about, why are you posting?  Why post in ignorance?  All you do is prove your ignorance.

Spreading malice in ignorance is gossip. The Bible condemns gossip in the strongest terms.  Romans 1:29 says this about the Godless: 

 "so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil."

See who gossips are grouped with?

There is simply no way to reconcile careless posting of accusations with Christian ideals.  It is anti-Christian.  If you are going to make accusatory posts, you have a Christian obligation to at least make sure they are true.  If you can't take time to check before you post, don't post.  If you check, make sure you check reliable sources, not just the same scurrilous partisan echo chamber sites that pump out the lies. And, if you believe those slanders against Snopes, you have already been deceived by the devil.  If you don't know how to check it, or just don't want to bother checking, just don't post it. It's sinful.

But, what about "harmless" non-accusatory memes? They may make a claim, or just be a "cute" photoshopped picture, with, or without, a fake story.  What's the harm in sharing?

The biggest harm may be to your own reputation.  Do you really want to be thought of as that credulous, gullible person, with a loose grip on reality, who can't tell real from fake, fact from fiction, Truth from lies, news from propaganda?  Because that's the inevitable result.

The other BIG problem, is that we get so swamped by fakes that fake vs. real has ceased to be important.  Facebook is so overrun with fake memes, it has turned into Fakebook. The falsehoods are so dominant, that it is tough to wade through all the nonsense.   Russian troll factories flood us with it.  Politics, which always was a dishonest business, has now become virtually Fact-Free.  And social media has to bear much of the blame. Set a better example. Have a higher standard.  We should value Truth, above all.  Without it, we live in a fantasy world, and not a pleasant one.

You can't teach truths unless you value truth.  Facts matter.  The very first question to ask is:

Is It True?