Bearing False Witness
The first elementary thing about being Christian is of course to refuse to bear false witness. And for me that means recognizing that I am accountable for what I do not know, and that I put myself in a morally perilous position when I do not know about the core convictions of my neighbors. The less I know, the more inevitable it is that I will speak in ways that are marked at least by ignorance if not more than ignorance…So I have a religious responsibility, that of course can never be fullfilled because I can’t actually know everything about all the traditions there are [in the world]. But there is a sense in which the imperative towards truth telling is constitutive of neighbor love at it’s elementary form. ‘I shall not say misguided things about others,’ means that my spiritual life requires me to know and be responsible for what I don’t know.
–John Thatamanil
This quote comes from a conversation between Tripp Fuller and Dr. John Thatamanil, and I must say that I find these words to be exceedingly brilliant. I have felt this way for a long time and Dr. Thatmanil is in some way able to articulate ideas in ways that I could never imagine.
Dr. Thatmanil and Tripp are discussing religious pluralism here, specifically how we treat and think about our brothers and sisters of different faiths. But I feel this command to not bear false witness applies to just about every aspect of life. To be so arrogant as to think that we can apply a generalized critique to someone, something, or some concept before we honestly understand it, only shows our complete and pitiful ignorance.
It’s sad but We see this kind of crazy irresponsible behavior exhibited all of the time. Weather it’s an non-theist critiquing a religion that is thousands of years old which spans across countless cultures each packed with their own rich and diverse practices, philosophies and ways of doing things, a religious person critiquing a scientific theory (or another religion) which they have absolutely no idea about, or just one person criticizing their neighbor for choices they make which are rooted in a deeply personal, intimate story. This irresponsible false witness bearing has to stop. As Dr. Thatamanil says, we must take responsibility for what we do not know, or for that matter, what we think we know!
Painting by Colin Wright
[...] sentiment is similar to that expressed by folks like John Thatamanil and others involved in inter-faith dialogue, who caution against our tendency to habitually bear [...]