[Buddha-l] Deceit to Perjury

[Bshmr at aol.com]

Most Senior Richard, and his Guests, 
 
[ I surfed to BeliefNet today to scan a discussion of 'motivation in  
practice', then was distracted by one of their Features (see link and excerpts  
below). 
 
Puzzling out what comes next, or what came before (Clinton), I concluded  
that 'five precepts' is more 'me' than 'ten commands'. Also, apparently, for  
some Abrahamics, deceit is condoned when effectively manipulating others.  ... ]
 

Richard Basham
 
**
 
_http://www.beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17804_1.html_ 
(http://www.beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17804_1.html) 
 
Perjury: A Crime Against God?
What's so wrong with swearing falsely  under oath? According to religious 
sources, quite a lot.
By David  Klinghoffer
 
>From a moral perspective, what exactly is so very wrong with swearing  
falsely under oath? That is one of the questions raised by the indictment of I.  
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, on two counts of  
perjury–a crime that, if he’s convicted of it or pleads guilty, could 
contribute  to his spending 30 years in prison.
 
...
 
Another reason perjury can’t be forgiven, or at least not easily, is that  it 
constitutes a denial of God and His power to take vengeance on the perjurer.  
The false-oath taker has, in effect, publicly affirmed that he can lie in God’
s  name, implicitly calling divine wrath on himself, and get away with it. 
Now  that’s a dis!
 
Lying has none of these terrible associations. On the contrary, the Bible  
itself gives evidence that God employs the occasional distortion of the truth  
for a good cause.
 
...
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20051102/deaca3cf/attachment.html